Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain – July 3, 2019 Boris Becker at Wimbledon REUTERS/Hannah McKay
(Reuters) – An online auction of German tennis great Boris Becker’s trophies and memorabilia has raised more than 680,000 pounds ($852,652), with his 1989 U.S. Open trophy attracting the highest bid of 150,250 pounds.
The 51-year-old was declared bankrupt by a British court in 2017 in connection to a debt to private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co, and the company dealing with his bankruptcy decided to auction 82 items from his collection.
They included a replica of the Davis Cup winners trophy, which fetched 52,100 pounds, an international tennis hall of fame ring as well as watches and playing clothes.
The auction was to be held last year but was delayed after Becker claimed diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings by taking up a role with Central African Republic as a sports envoy.
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“The highest bid in 2018 for the U.S. Open Trophy was 36,000 pounds and this year it is 150,250 pounds, which is fantastic,” Smith and Williamson’s Mark Ford, lead trustee to Becker’s bankruptcy estate, told the BBC.
Ford hoped a number of Becker’s missing Grand Slam trophies would be located and recovered. Becker issued an appeal to the public last year after discovering they had been misplaced.
Becker won six Grand Slam singles titles in his career, including three at Wimbledon, and a doubles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford