Former tennis champion Boris Becker has been released from prison after serving eight months of his sentence and now faces deportation from the UK.
Becker, 55, a six-time Grand Slam champion, was convicted of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds from his business account after bankruptcy.
The triple Wimbledon champion was sentenced to two and a half years in jail in April after a London court found he had concealed £2.5 million ($3.08 million) of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.
His mother Elvira, 87, said her son's release was "the best Christmas present I could hope for".
"I cannot wait to hold my beloved son in my arms," she said.
Newspaper reports suggested he would stay with friends in Frankfurt.
Before the sentencing Becker said he had hit rock bottom.
"I don't know what to make of it," he said. "I will face it. I'm not going to hide or run away. I will accept whatever sentence I'm going to get.
He was declared bankrupt on June 21, 2017 — owing creditors almost £50m — over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Majorca.
The German, who has lived in the UK since 2012, was expected to serve half of his sentence behind bars but was released on Thursday morning.
He is due on a flight to be deported, the PA news agency reported.
He is thought to have been transferred to a lower security jail for foreign criminals awaiting deportation in May — the category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
He was previously reportedly being held at the Category B Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.
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Boris Becker kisses the Wimbledon Men's Singles trophy, after his 1985 victory over South Africa's Kevin Curren at the London tournament. Getty Images -
Becker celebrates his 1985 Wimbledon win. Aged 17 years, 227 days, he was the youngest male Grand Slam winner at the time. Getty Images -
Becker serves during the final of the 1989 Monte Carlo Open Tennis Championship in France. He lost to Argentina's Alberto Mancini. Getty Images -
German stars Steffi Graf and Becker were both singles champions at Wimbledon in 1989. Becker defeated Sweden's Stefan Edberg. Getty Images -
Becker dives to make a return during the 1994 Wimbledon Men's Singles semi-final He lost to Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic. Getty Images -
Becker holds aloft the trophy after defeating Michael Chang to win the 1996 Men's Singles final of the Australian Open. It was his sixth and final Grand Slam title. Getty Images -
Becker poses with his wife Lilly Becker at an awards ceremony in Munich in 2013. The couple separated in 2018. Getty Images -
Novak Djokovic celebrates with coach Becker, after winning the Men's Singles title at the 2016 French Open. Getty Images -
Becker with his sons Elias and Noah at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin. Getty Images -
The former tennis world no 1 arrives for an insolvency hearing at The City of Westminster Magistrates Court, London in September 2020. Getty Images -
Becker leaves after his bankruptcy offences trial at Southwark Crown Court in London. He was found guilty of removal of property, two counts of failing to disclose estate and concealing debt. Reuters
The former tennis star qualified for automatic deportation because he is a foreign citizen who does not have British citizenship and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.
"Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity," a Home Office representative said.
Becker rose to stardom in 1985 aged only 17 when he became the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon men's singles title.
