Benjamin Becker

Benjamin Becker
Becker 2016 in Vienna
Nickname:	Benni
Nation:	Germany
Birthday:	June 16, 1981
Size:	178 cm
Weight:	72 kg
1st professional season:	2005
Resignation:	2017
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	Andrei Pavel
Prize money:	$ 4,399,584
singles
Career record:	153: 220
Career title:	1
Highest ranking:	35 (October 27, 2014)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	58: 106
Highest ranking:	58 (July 5, 2010)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Benjamin Becker (born June 16, 1981 in Merzig ) is a former German tennis player .

Tennis career

Becker began playing tennis at the age of nine. After high school , he received a scholarship and began studying at Baylor University in Texas Waco in the subjects of International Business and Finance . During his time at Baylor , he was named American College Champion of 2004 with both the university team and singles . In November 2005, Becker decided, contrary to earlier plans, to pursue a career as a professional tennis player. With participation in second and third class tournaments, he fought his way up in the world rankings.

Breakthrough in 2006

In June 2006 he succeeded for the first time to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament . In the first round of the Wimbledon Championships , he defeated Juan Ignacio Chela . In the second round came against Fernando Verdasco the off in his first five-set match on the tour.

As number 112 in the world rankings , he qualified for the US Open in New York. After beating Filippo Volandri in the first round and then the seeded Sébastien Grosjean , he met the veteran Andre Agassi in round three . In the end it was Becker who got the upper hand in four sets with 7: 5, 6: 7, 6: 4 and 7: 5 and thus ended Agassi's long career (he had previously announced that the US Open would be his last tournament ). In the last sixteen Becker was eliminated 3: 6, 4: 6 and 3: 6 against Andy Roddick . In the world rankings published on September 11, 2006, he was among the top 100 for the first time at 76th place.

At the ATP tournament in Tokyo , the number one, Roger Federer , stopped him in the semifinals with 3: 6 and 4: 6. His quarter-final game against Jiří Novák the day before had ended at 3:24 a.m. (local time) - the second-latest ending in ATP history.

2007

Becker also reached the semi-finals at the ATP tournaments in Delray Beach (3: 6, 6: 7 against James Blake ) and in San José (6: 7, 5: 7 against Ivo Karlović ) and climbed to world number 38 Previously, he had only just missed a surprise at the Australian Open. In the first round he was defeated by Marat Safin 7: 5, 6: 7, 6: 3, 3: 6 and 4: 6 in five sets .

As the season progressed, Becker often lost in round one or two. He only reached the quarter-finals at the grass tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch , where he was defeated by Antony Dupuis (then number 345 in the world rankings) 6: 7, 3: 6. In September he reached his first ATP final in Bangkok , in which he was defeated by Dmitri Tursunow 1: 6, 2: 6.

Dry spell and first tournament victory (2008–2009)

After a disappointing year in 2008, in which, in addition to many early defeats, sometimes even in the first round of qualification, he also played three quarter-finals in Adelaide (6-7, 4-6 against Michaël Llodra ), Memphis (1-6, 0: 6 against Steve Darcis ) and Basel (6: 7, 4: 6 against David Nalbandian ), he finished the season in 129th place in the world rankings. It was not until May 2009 that Becker made it back into the top 100 by winning the Challenger tournaments in Heilbronn , Baton Rouge, Rhodes and Cremona, as well as participating in the finals in Ramat HaScharon . In June Becker reached the Gerry Weber Open 2009 in Halle Wins over Victor Hănescu and Rainer Schüttler as one of five Germans in the round of the last eight, where he lost to qualifier Olivier Rochus 7: 6, 3: 6 and 3: 6. A week later won Becker in the Dutch 's-Hertogenbosch, another preparation tournament for Wimbledon by a 7: 5, 6: 3 against Raemon Sluiter his first title on the ATP World Tour . At the following Grand Slam tournament, however, he was eliminated in the second round against Jürgen Melzer 6: 7, 3: 6 and 6: 7.

At the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, Becker reached round two, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt . At the US Open 2009 he was eliminated in round 1 against Fernando Verdasco . He remained without a win in the following five tournaments. Only at the tournament in Lyon was Becker able to record an opening win again, but was eliminated in round two. The last tournament of the year Becker played in Paris-Bercy , where he first defeated Michaël Llodra before he had no chance against Nikolai Dawydenko .

2010

The year began with a successful qualification in Doha, where Becker failed in the second round of the main draw to Ivo Karlović . At Medibank International from Sydney he was eliminated again in round two a week later. At the Australian Open he lost his second round match again, this time against Nicolás Almagro in five sets. Becker was eliminated in round 2 of the subsequent tournaments in Zagreb and San José. In Delray Beach he reached a quarter-finals for the first time in the season, where he failed in the third set 6-7 to Jarkko Nieminen . When ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Becker reached Miami the fourth round after victories over Simon Greul , Ivan Ljubicic (13th in the world rankings) and Tommy Robredo (22), he lost to Andy Roddick (6: 7, 4: 6). The highlight of the clay court season were the second round participation in Monte-Carlo and Madrid, it failed because of Juan Carlos Ferrero and Roger Federer . The French Open in Paris ended for him with a first round defeat against Denis Istomin .

Becker started the grass season successfully with two successive semi-finals in Halle / Westphalia and s'Hertogenbosch. In Halle he won against world number five Nikolai Dawydenko in the round of 16, but lost in three sets against Lleyton Hewitt (7: 6, 6: 7, 2: 6) in the semifinals. At Wimbledon , round 2 was against the eventual finalist Tomáš Berdych . At the Los Angeles tournament he reached the second round, where he was eliminated by James Blake . At the US Open , Becker beat Daniel Brands in the opening match , but lost to David Ferrer in round 2 . At the Open de Moselle in Metz, he failed in round 1 against Jarkko Nieminen from Finland .

In Bangkok, Becker played his way through to the semi-finals with victories over Mischa Zverev , eighth of the world Fernando Verdasco and Daniel Brands . There he was again defeated by Nieminen 3: 6 and 2: 6. He survived the qualification for the ATP tournament in Shanghai , but lost in Round 1 against the French Gaël Monfils with 1: 6, 5: 7. In Stockholm he reached the second round with a victory over a qualifier, but then failed in two sets to Robin Söderling . Becker reached the quarter-finals in Saint Petersburg. At the BNP Paribas Open in Paris-Bercy , he survived the qualification. In the main draw he defeated Denis Istomin before failing in round 2 to Gaël Monfils. Becker finished the season with a match record of 29:31 and prize money of 553,431 US dollars.

2011–2013: crash and consolidation

At the beginning of 2011, Becker was still in 53rd place in the world rankings. After the Challenger tournament in Athens in April, he had to take a longer break. Becker missed the Grand Slam tournaments in Paris, Wimbledon and New York. It wasn't until November that he celebrated his comeback on the Challenger Tour . In terms of sport, he slipped down to 315th place in the world rankings.

The first highlight of 2012 was reaching the semi-finals in Memphis . He defeated three top 75 players before the final stop against Milos Raonic . In the ranking he jumped to 155th place. In June Becker won the Challenger lawn tournament in Nottingham against Dmitri Tursunow . In Wimbledon, he lost in the second round, straight in three sets against Radek Štěpánek . At the Newport Tennis Championships , he confirmed that the grass surface suits him . In qualifying, he reached the quarter-finals with a victory over Milos Raonic, which he could not take due to injury. In November Benjamin Becker won the Challenger in Ortisei against Andreas Seppi , who was 23rd in the ranking at the time. He finished the year 65th in the world rankings.

The first Grand Slam tournament in Australia in 2013 was over for him in the second round against Juan Martín del Potro . With the start of the tournament in Memphis in February, Becker should fail in ten consecutive tournaments in the first round. With the finals at the Challenger in Nottingham he proved his good form on grass. He then reached the quarter-finals in the Queen's Club , which he lost as well as the following first-round match at Wimbledon against world number two Andy Murray . In July and October Becker won the challenger tournaments in Istanbul against Dudi Sela and in Eckental against Ruben Bemelmans . At the end of the year he was ranked 79th in the world.

Since 2014

In February, Becker was ranked 93rd in the world and should improve to 35th by the end of the year. At the Masters in Miami he reached the round of 16. In the final of the 's-Hertogenbosch grass tournament, Becker lost to Roberto Bautista Agut 6: 2, 6: 7, ² , 4: 6. Afterwards he was in 65th place in the ranking. At the beginning of the hard court season he reached the semi-finals against Dudi Sela at the Atlanta Open , to which he was defeated in three sets. By reaching the semi-finals in Tokyo , he reached number 46 in the world rankings. He narrowly failed against Kei Nishikori 6: 4, 0: 6, 6: 7 ² . The highest ranking position of his career dates back to October 27, 2014 when he was 35th.

At the beginning of the 2015 season, Becker moved into the third round of the Australian Open . This was his best Grand Slam result since reaching the round of 16 at the 2006 US Open. In the second round, he defeated the former world number one and local hero Lleyton Hewitt in five sets. For the first time in his career he won a five set match, and for the first time after a 2-0 set deficit. He ended his career in September 2017.

Davis Cup and Bundesliga

Becker was nominated for the first time for the German Davis Cup team by Patrik Kühnen in early 2007 . In the first round, which Germany won against Croatia, he remained without a win. In March 2010, Becker was reassigned to the team for the first round match against France, he was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets. In the insignificant last individual he was also defeated by Julien Benneteau in two sets. The German team lost 1: 4 in the end.

Benjamin Becker also plays in Mannheim at TK Green White Mannheim in the Tennis-Bundesliga , where he in the year 2007 a single record of 2: 1 and a double record of 3: had 0 boast and was with green-and-white German team champion.

successes

Legend Grand Slam Tennis Masters Cup / ATP World Tour Finals ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ATP International Series Gold / ATP World Tour 500 Series ATP International Series / ATP World Tour 250 Series (1) ATP Challenger Tour (9)

Title after covering Hard Court (0) Sand (0) Grass (1)

singles

Tournament victories

ATP World Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	June 20, 2009	's-Hertogenbosch	race	Raemon Sluiter	7: 5, 6: 3

ATP Challenger Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 13, 2006	Salinas	Hard court	Jesse Witten	4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2
2.	January 26, 2009	Heilbronn	Hard court (i)	Karol Beck	6: 4, 6: 4
3.	April 6, 2009	Baton Rouge	Hard court	Rajeev Ram	6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 4
4th	April 27, 2009	Rhodes	Hard court	Simon Stadler	7: 5, 6: 3
5.	May 18, 2009	Cremona	Hard court	Izak van der Merwe	7: 6 3 , 6: 1
6th	June 10, 2012	Nottingham	race	Dmitri Tursunov	4: 6, 6: 1, 6: 4
7th	November 11, 2012	Ortisei in Val Gardena	Carpet (i)	Andreas Seppi	6: 1, 6: 4
8th.	July 14, 2013	Istanbul	Hard court	Dudi Sela	6: 1, 2: 6, 3: 2 up.
9.	3rd November 2013	Eckental	Carpet (i)	Ruben Bemelmans	2: 6, 7: 6 3 , 6: 4

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	September 30, 2007	Bangkok	Hard court	Dmitri Tursunov	2: 6, 1: 6
2.	June 21, 2014	's-Hertogenbosch	race	Roberto Bautista Agut	6: 2, 6: 7 2 , 4: 6

Balance at the Grand Slam tournaments

singles

Tournament 1	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	total
Australian Open	-	1R	3R	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	-	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	2R
French Open	-	1R	3R	1R	1R	1R	-	1R	-	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	3R
Wimbledon	-	1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	-	2R	2R	2R	1R	2R	-	-	-	-	2R
US Open	-	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	-	2R	1R	-	1R	AF	-	-	-	-	AF
Individual titles won	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Overall wins / defeats 2	0: 3	8:13	11:20	27:26	9:20	10:14	3: 9	29:31	14:19	11:20	21:32	9: 8	0-0	-	-	0-0	153: 220
Year-end position	517	119	97	40	78	65	305	53	40	130	87	58	477	-	-	949	N / A

Explanation of symbols: S = tournament victory; F, HF, VF, AF = entry into the final / semi-finals / quarter-finals / round of 16; 1R, 2R, 3R = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd main round or Q1, Q2, Q3 = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd qualifying round

¹ tournament result in brackets means that the player has not yet finished the tournament; it shows its current tournament status. After the player finishes the tournament, the bracket is removed.
² Status: end of career

Others

There is no family connection to the former German tennis player Boris Becker . Benjamin Becker's grandfather was Alfred Becker , member of the Saarland state parliament , and his cousin is radio host Tom Becker .

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Becker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Benjamin Becker (English)
• ITF profile of Benjamin Becker (English)
• Davis Cup statistics Benjamin Becker (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Becker turns a five-sentence match against Hewitt. In: rp-online.de. January 22, 2015, accessed April 18, 2017 . 
2. ↑ "The guy who shot Bambi" says bye. In: spox.com. September 14, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .