Benjamin Becker Tennis: June 2007

Becker News + Blog

Sunday, June 24, 2007
Becker's Grass Season Progressing Along Nicely

Benni made a good run at the Ordina Open...reaching the quarterfinals. He was stopped by Anthony Dupuis, the veteran French player 76 63. The start of the match was delayed for several hours due to rain, moved to a different court, delayed again, and then eventually started but not completed due to darkness (on the longest day of the year). Trailing 76 33...Benni came out the next day needing to get to a third set but came up short.

Enjoy some of the photos taken from this week's Ordina Open by Thomas Schulze.

3 wins, 60 ATP points later...Benni is ready to take on the world's best at Wimbledon. He plays 24th seed Juan Ignacio Chela in the first round...a rematch from last year when Benni made his grand slam debut with a 4-set victory over Chela.

Good luck BB

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Well Deserved Day of Rest

Benni won his opening round matches in both singles and doubles at the 2007 Ordina Open and was given a day off today before resuming his winning ways tomorrow.

Benni beat Olivier Rochus 63 76(4) on Sunday. Rochus was able to get to break point several times on Benni's server, but was never able to convert. Meanwhile Benni converted on his one and only opportunity in the 6th game of the first set. Although he was drawn to play Baghdatis in the 2nd round, the 16th ranked Cypriot withdrew from the event after playing a long week in Halle...in order to be fully refreshed for Wimbledon. Instead Benni will play Yves Allegro, who is famously known on the Tour as Roger Federer's best friend and sometimes doubles partner. Allego came from a break down in the 3rd to beat Kristian Pless.

In Doubles, Benni partnered with Pless and beat Haggard and Matkowski very easily. They will have to play well in their next match as the face top seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm.

Friday, June 15, 2007
Benni Goes Down But Not Without a Knockout First

After winning a hard fought 64 76 match against Gabashvili on Monday BB enjoyed a few days in the spotlight of his home country's tournament, doing various interviews and appearances on behalf of the tournament. On Wednesday he partnered with countryman Chris Kas, but fell to Soderling and Kohlschreiber 64 75.

The tournament scheduled his 2nd round match last on Thursday...leaving the winner as the final man to reach the quarterfinals with Jarkko Nieminen waiting in the wings.

Gicquel came out firing and broke Benni immediately, racing out to a 3-0 lead. After breaking Benni to close out the first set, Gicquel easily held serve and was up love-15 on Benjamin's serve before something happened that both men will remember for the rest of their lives. Benni blasted a serve that was called out and Gicquel went down as if he'd been punched by Mike Tyson square. The poor guy got nailed in the family jewels and was in severe pain.

Benni showed class by making sure his opponent was ok. Of course he wasnt...well he was, but not so quickly. A 10-minute injury timeout ensued.

Fortunately for Benni this broke Gicquel's momentum and he was able to get on track and actually came within inches of breaking Gicquel and have a chance to serve for the second set. Unfortunately he could not convert on any break points and lost a tough tiebreaker 7-5.

Benni moves on to the Ordina Open in S'Hertogenbosch, Holland...before traveling to London for Wimbledon.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
BB Chat ReCap

BB took some time before playing his first match in Halle to chat with some of his loyal fans on this website....It was the first time we tried doing this and it wasn't perfect, but it was a good start. BB signed on to the forum at about 2pm EST/8pm in Europe on Sunday night to answer some questions.

We are going to try this again with a different live chat format that will make it easier and quicker...in addition we will be sure to email all registered members of the site with exact details days in advance so BB's fans can mark their calendars and think up some questions. Thanks to those who stopped by on Sunday to take part in the session.

Sunday, June 10, 2007
LIVE CHAT SOON

Benni will be on the forum in 30 minutes for those who are available....dont worry we will have more scheduled chats if you couldnt make this one.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Becker Q&A live this Sunday

Benni will be stopping by to interact with the community with a Q&A session this Sunday time to be determined. We hope to see you and all his fans show up whether it be just to say hi and show your support or to ask some in depth Zen questions about the game of tennis or anything in between.
If you are already a member of the forums go here and get started early.
If you are not a member of the forums go here and sign up now it only takes a minute.