Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker announced Friday he is claiming diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in Britain as an ambassador for the Central African Republic.
Lawyers for the 50-year-old tennis player, a former world number one, lodged a claim Thursday in the High Court asserting immunity after he was appointed a sports attache for the Central African Republic in April.
Becker who won six Grand Slams in the 1980s and 90s was declared bankrupt by a London court in June 2017 for failing to pay a long-standing debt.
But his position as attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs could be covered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
This means the consent of Britains Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his counterpart in Bangui would be needed before Becker is subjected to any legal proceedings, his lawyers said.
The bankruptcy application was made by private bankers Arbuthnot Latham