Benjamin Becker Tennis: November 2006

Becker News + Blog

Thursday, November 30, 2006
ESPN.com Article

This is a great article on BB...Its nice to see a tennis writer profile some new players besides Federer, Nadal, Roddick or Blake...Those guys are great, but there are other personalities on the Tour...BB has a good chance of winning the award for Best Rookie/Newcomer in the ATP.

As the challenger level is technically ATP tournaments, Becker is 2nd in world in overall wins (behind Federer) with 69.

Becker named Sportsman of the Year in Saarland, Germany...that is no small feat.

BB is training hard with Tarik and company in Miami this week.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
On Becker's Eyesight

Writes Alan Hinton at the Hattiesburg American in "Pro tennis players' eyesight not as good as they think":

[...] what would Mac do now that professional tennis is using, at least in some tournaments, an instant replay system? Would he turn into a player as calm as Roger Federer?

[...] There were 229 challenges in the U.S. Open. Players were right on 72 of them. That's 31.4 percent. Benjamin Becker, the guy who ended Andre Agassi's career, challenged three calls, and was correct on all three. But this is the interesting part. Federer, the best player in the world, challenged 17 calls. He was right on seven of them. And Andy Roddick, the best player in the United States, challenged 10 calls. He was right on two of them.

FYI: To be accurate about the stats, players would use up their challenges on good calls as there is no penalty for challenging a good call. -- MDC

Monday, November 20, 2006
Ukraine

Becker completed his first season on the ATP Tour by reaching the finals of the $125k challenger in the Ukraine...where he lost to top 20 player Dmitry Tursunov 76 64. With the result Becker rises to #58 in the rankings.

Friday, November 17, 2006
Revenge is Sweet: Becker whips Dlouhy in Ukraine

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine — Former Baylor tennis standout Benjamin Becker crushed Czech Lukasz Dlouhy, 6-1, 6-0, Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the $125,000 Privatbank Open indoor tournament.

Becker’s win avenged a straight-set loss to the No. 91 player in the world last week in the Bratislava Challenger. It also was his most lopsided win since turning pro in June 2005.

Becker, No. 62 on the ATP computer, will face No. 246 Viktor Troicki today for a spot in the semifinals. The Serb advanced with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 upset of fifth seed Tomas Johansson of Sweden.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Becker in Bratislava

Ben is the #1 seed at the $125k Tatra Bank Open in Bratislava. He is striving to get his ranking into the top 50 for the end of 2006. Ben's ranking has improved more spots than any other top 100 player this year...over 360 spots.