Becker on trial for tax evasion

Boris Becker reaches the next milestone today on his troubled journey through life after tennis when he goes into the dock in a Munich courtroom, accused of tax evasion on a grand scale.

Latest indications, however, are that he can avoid a prison sentence. The news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the liability he is claimed to have dodged had been whittled down to less than €500,000 (£315,000), compared with earlier estimates ranging from €1.6m to €3.2m.

Der Spiegel said that Becker, 34, had already stumped up part of what he owed, and would have paid the rest by the time he enters the Bavarian high court today.

The trial centres on the question of where the three-times Wimbledon champion was really living between 1991 and 1993. Becker claimed to have been based in the tax haven of Monaco, but the German tax inspectors say that, between tours and tournaments, the place where the champion put his feet up was Munich.

Today's hearing is the latest calamity to befall Becker. In July last year, a young Russian woman accepted an out-of-court settlement, reported to have cost the German £2m, after he acknowledged he was the father of her child. She had claimed that they had had a sexual encounter in a storeroom at a London restaurant.

It destroyed his marriage to Barbara Feltus, and cost him a further settlement reported to be worth £15m.