The Boris Becker Tennis Academy in Hochheim will keep its name.

Despite being sentenced to two and a half years in prison in Great Britain, Boris Becker will remain the namesake of the sports boarding school that is being built on Frankfurter Strasse.

The Wiesbaden entrepreneur Khaled Ezzedine, who builds and runs the tennis school together with a partner, agreed on this with Becker's lawyer Christian-Oliver Moser.

"People love it when someone is loyal and forgiving and when you don't step on someone who's already on the ground," says investor Ezzedine Der Spiegel.

Moser confirmed the agreement to the mirror.

Indoor tennis courts with more than 20 courts

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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According to Ezzedine, the "Boris Becker International Tennis Academy" will be the largest tennis school in Germany.

More than 20 places are planned in three connected halls and almost as many outdoor places, as well as a hotel and a boarding school for 170 children and young people.

Completion is not expected until autumn 2024 at the earliest.

A first phase of construction with eight indoor courts was completed more than a year ago, and tennis lessons have already started there.

During a visit last November, Becker announced that he would be present on the school's tennis courts himself, give advice to the youngsters and work out the teaching program together with the coaches.

In addition to physical education, the boarding school offers regular school classes up to the Abitur.

Hochheim Mayor Dirk Westedt (FDP) said that despite the verdict, the name Boris Becker would remain "as a tennis ace".

In Anglo-Saxon countries there is more of a culture of getting back up after a fall than in Germany.

During the planning phase of the sports boarding school, the head of the town hall expressed his delight at the project several times.

The tennis academy is a win for the city because it attracts visitors and brings in trade tax.

The hotel planned for the school is an advantage for Hochheim because there are no guest beds in the city.

A court in London sentenced the three-time Wimbledon winner to imprisonment last Friday, of which he must serve at least half.

The athlete had not disclosed assets of more than one million euros in his insolvency proceedings.

A jury of jurors had therefore found him guilty three weeks ago.

The 54-year-old Becker had denied the allegations.

He can appeal against the judgment.