Graf’s Father Arrested on Tax Charge : Tennis: Top-ranked player is not detained. Peter Graf may owe millions.

Police arrested the father of six-time Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf on Wednesday, citing “urgent suspicions of tax evasion” in the management of his daughter’s huge income from prizes, gate receipts and product endorsements.

The arrest of Peter Graf, at the family’s mansion in the southern German town of Bruehl, closed weeks of speculation in Germany that with tax inspectors circling ever closer, the elder Graf--and perhaps even the tennis champion herself--would soon either be arrested or leave the country.

There have even been suggestions that Steffi Graf, who has been complaining of severe back pain, might give up her career.

She was not detained in Wednesday’s arrest, and authorities said that although investigations are continuing, they have no cause at the moment to issue a warrant for her.

German media coverage of the ongoing Graf tax-fraud investigation has consistently painted the 57-year-old father in villainous tones, while portraying his 26-year-old daughter as an innocent young woman who had no idea how much money she made, much less whether her father was reporting it correctly.

Taxes are “a complex subject,” she was recently quoted as telling the German news agency, Deutsche Presse Agentur. “It’s much too hard for me to understand. I put it into the hands of my father, or tax experts, a long time ago.”

The senior public prosecutor in Mannheim, Peter Wechsung, said he had obtained an arrest warrant Monday because he believed the elder Graf might be destroying evidence or preparing to flee Germany. Peter Graf’s overdue tax bills allegedly run into the millions. At this level, tax experts say, fraud convictions usually carry a jail term.

Germans have been following the Graf affair since July 11, when it was revealed that about a dozen tax inspectors had made a surprise raid on May 23, seizing a large number of documents.

Authorities have been unwilling to reveal much about what they carried away, and a confused story has been leaking out ever since, involving shell companies in low-tax countries and reports of large payments being made in cash.

Although lawyers for the Graf family declined to comment on the allegations immediately after the arrest, Peter Graf has maintained that he has done nothing wrong. He has also claimed that it has been years since he managed his daughter’s finances, having delegated the matter to tax experts.