Benjamin Becker (born June 16, 1981 in Merzig,
Saarland, Germany) is a professional tennis player.
Becker's primary weapon is a very big serve that he
can hit in the 140's (mph), along with powerful
groundstrokes.
Becker is not related to former World No. 1 Boris
Becker. He won the 2004 NCAA singles title while
helping Baylor University to the team title.
2006 was a breakthrough year for Becker. In June
2006, he qualified for Wimbledon and defeated Juan
Ignacio Chela before losing in the second round to
Fernando Verdasco.
At the 2006 U.S. Open, he defeated Filippo Volandri
and #30 seed Sébastien Grosjean to reach the third
round, where he would go on to defeat former World
No. 1 Andre Agassi in 4 sets. The match was
especially noteworthy as it was Agassi's last on the
ATP circuit: he had announced that the 2006 U.S.
Open would be his final tournament, and his defeat
was followed by an 8-minute standing ovation from
the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd. The day after
Becker's win over Agassi, his own U.S. Open bid was
ended by Andy Roddick in the fourth round.
Following the 2006 U.S. Open, Becker confirmed his
status as a promising newcomer on the ATP Tour,
improving his ranking from #421 at the beginning of
the year to #62 in November 2006. As a result,
Becker received the Newcomer of the Year award
during the 2006 ATP Awards, and won the Sportsman of
the Year award in his part of Germany. After
completing his first season on the ATP Tour,
Benjamin made the fastest rise of any player into
the top 50.
2007 saw Becker improving his ranking further in the
early season, including through his semi-final
appearances in the ATP event held in Delray Beach
International Tennis Championships, where he lost to
world #8 James Blake; and in San Jose at the SAP
Open where he lost to Ivo Karlovic, the tallest
player on the ATP Tour (6'10"). As a result,
Becker's ATP ranking peaked at #38 in March 2007.
However, in 2007 Becker was unable to progress
beyond the first round in any of the Grand Slams or
ATP Masters Series events, with the exception of the
Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost in the second
round to Thomas Johansson. Given his strong
performance at the U.S. Open in the preceding year,
his first round loss in the 2007 edition caused his
ranking to drop to 79. Despite a strong performance
in Bangkok, where he lost in the finals to Dmitry
Tursunov, Becker has thus far been unable to regain
a ranking in the top 50.
While Becker has not yet captured any titles on the
ATP level, he does have the distinction of having
played the match that finished second latest in ATP
history, defeating Jiří Novák in Tokyo in 2006 at
3:24 a.m. Lleyton Hewitt has the distinction of
winning the latest match, finishing his third round
encounter in the Australian Open with Marcos
Baghdatis at a whopping 4:23 AM.
