Boris Becker was certainly in need of some good news from afar as he sat in his Wimbledon home and watched Novak Djokovic win the BNP Paribas Open title in Indian Wells. The absent German had just lost an expensive Spanish court case that will result in a Majorcan villa he has owned for 17 years being confiscated and set to be auctioned off for a predicted 7.1 million euros ($US 9.98m).
The villa has been a constant headache to Becker but the latest case went to court after he failed to pay 407,000 euros for carpentry, plumbing and layering a basketball court.
In addition to losing the property, Becker has been ordered by the court to pay owes a further 24,000 euros in court costs and interest, bringing the total to a figure approaching the equivalent of $US600,000.
Seven years ago Becker tried to sell the villa for 15 million euros but failed to find a buyer and now the value of the property has been estimated to have fallen by nearly 50%.
Becker’s Majorcan problems started in 2003 when a court ruled the villa had been built in part illegally and ordered the extra rooms to be demolished. In June 2012 he came close to losing the property in a dispute over an unpaid debt to a local gardener but on that occasion Becker managed to pay 341,000 euros just as the villa was about to be auctioned.
At the time Becker had recently been ordered to pay divorce and paternity settlements in excess of $US 33 million after the breakup of his first marriage to Barbara Feltus.
The Wimbledon winner, who has also had to pay divorce and paternity settlements in excess of £20million, was then slapped with the 407,000 euros bill from a builder in a separate settlement.
Becker’s lawyers argued that the estate agent who sold him the house, Matthias Kuhn, should foot the bills, but this argument was not accepted by the court.
The 46 year-old German is scheduled to be back at Djokovic’s side for the upcoming Sony Open in Miami.
Topics: 10sballs, Benjamin Becker, BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Novak Djokovic, Sony Open, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon
Boris Becker Loses a Big One In Court, Not on A Court – http://t.co/qngB3M7I2t @TheBorisBecker #Court #Tennis #News
RT @gandaines: Boris Becker Loses a Big One In Court, Not on A Court http://t.co/foOfngJElF