General / Editor / 15 May 2007 /

The name B Becker is as big as they come in German tennis but rising star Benjamin Becker is no relation to the great Boris Becker.

But that hasn't stopped the young man from Merzig making his mark, especially in the last year.

From the end of 2005 until the end of 2006 he rocketed up the world rankings from the obscurity of No 477 to No 58.

And he is on the up and up today. He goes into first-round action today (Tues) at the Hamburg Masters against qualifier Oscar Hernandez of Spain. Hernandez won their only previous meeting in Barcelona in April but is ranked 79 so the odds favour Becker, who is now up to 44 in the world.

And he has every incentive to win because the prize would be a first crack at Rafael Nadal as the 2007 Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Italian Masters winner tries for a first Hamburg title.

It would be a tall order against a man with a record 77 consecutive wins on clay but the young Spaniard has to lose some time. In his favour is the fact that Nadal will know little about him as they have never met.

Becker came late to the ATP Tour as he didn't turn pro until 2005. He's no youngster, however, and will be 26 in mid-June.

The right-hander has yet to win a senior title although has two semi-final appearances to his credit this year. He reached the last four in Delray Beach in late January before losing to James Blake and then reached the last four in San Jose before going down to Ivo Karlovic in February.

But he has found it tough going in the Masters series with a last 32 slot at Monte Carlo his best effort.

Things improved at the Barcelona tournament in April when he reached the last 16 before losing to Mikhail Youzhny in two tie-breaks.

Becker rates hard courts his best surface and forehand and serve his best shots, and they helped him get to the final of the Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) tournament last November before losing to Dmitry Tursunov.

He has completed a degree in Finance and International Business having studied, and played for, Baylor University in Texas from 2001-2005.

He is a big soccer and baseball fan, supporting FC Cologne and Dallas Mavericks.

So far Becker has played three Grand Slams. He went out in the second round at last year's Wimbledon, losing to Juan Ignacio Chela in five sets, but reached the fourth round at the US Open, where he beat Filippo Volandri, Sebastian Grosjean and Andre Agassi in the American's last match, before losing to Andy Roddick.

At the Australian Open he was unlucky to go out in the first round after a five-setter with Marat Safin. After Hamburg he can look forward to his first French Open at the end of this month.

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