Becker Backs London 2012

Boris Becker gave his support today to London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and said the All England Club in Wimbledon would be a "spectacular" venue for Olympic tennis.

The German former Wimbledon champion was speaking as the London bid team continued its last big push for support a couple of weeks before the International Olympic Committee makes a final decision in a vote on July 6 in Singapore.

Paris is still the favourite but London's bid team said the race was "too close to call".

Becker, who won the first of his three Wimbledon titles as an 18-year-old, told a news conference at the All England Club: "I'm sure Wimbledon will host an incredible Olympic tennis tournament.

"I'm a world traveller, I love being in Paris, I love being in Moscow. It's just professional-wise and tennis-wise this particular city, particularly Wimbledon, is very close to my heart."

Tim Phillips, chairman of the All England Club, said: "I can say we're 100% behind the bid."

Mr Phillips said there would not be a problem getting the courts in good condition in time for an Olympic tournament just weeks after they took a pounding at Wimbledon.

"We've got 41 courts here," he said. "You need 10 to run the Olympics. So we can rotate the courts."

Grass could also be pre-germinated to replenish the courts, he said, adding that 20 Olympic gold medallists had been invited into the Royal Box on centre court for tomorrow's matches as the Wimbledon tennis tournament approaches the end of its first week.

Mike Lee, the London bid team's communications chief said the decision on who hosted the games would "go down to the wire" but they were in "good shape".

He said: "Jacques Rogge [the IOC chief], among others, have all said it, it's a race too close to call ... it is now coming into the last sort of stretch. We've had some very good feedback across the world on our proposals."

Meanwhile today, the government said that if Britain did win the Olympic Games, there would have to be legislation to stop tickets reaching touts.

Lord Davies of Oldham, government spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sports, told peers: "If we are successful ... we would need to bring in legislation to ensure that the games tickets are restricted and not open to touting. That's a requirement of the Olympic Committee."

Concern over profiteering was expressed by Labour's Lord Faulkner of Worcester, who told Lord Davies: "If you had searched on eBay last night for Ashes tickets, you would have found that 170 items came up, including Lords Test tickets with a face value of £52 being sold for over £1,000. A very similar situation exists with Wimbledon tickets."

Lord Davies told him that the sports secretary, Tessa Jowell, had agreed to examine this issue, in consultation with the Home Office and Department for Trade and Industry, to see whether further government involvement was necessary.

Elsewhere, French sports minister Jean-Francois Lamour said the French president, Jacques Chirac, could be a major late asset in the Paris bid to stage the 2012 Olympics.

Mr Lamour told Le Monde that he believed a lot of IOC members had yet to make up their mind and that the presence of Mr Chirac "will count a lot" when he makes a speech on the Paris bid on the eve of the vote. The prime minister, Tony Blair, will also make a speech in Singapore before coming back to the UK to host a G8 summit.

New York City, Moscow and Madrid are the other bidding cities.