Dec. 1, 2006

By Bonnie DeSimone
Special to ESPN.com

Benjamin Becker guaranteed himself a niche in tennis posterity by ending Andre Agassi's magnificent career in the third round of the 2006 U.S. Open. If Becker's recent results are any indication, there's evidence he will carve out a bigger space in fan consciousness before long.

The 25-year-old German and former NCAA champion from Baylor University ducked out of the limelight after Andy Roddick ousted him in the Open round of 16, but his first full season as a professional didn't end there.

Becker took on then-No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic in the second round of his next tournament and held a set point against the Croatian before succumbing. He reached the semifinals in Tokyo by beating then-No. 16 Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the quarters -- Becker's first-ever win over a top-20 player -- then joined the legions who have lost to the peerless Roger Federer this year. In Becker's last event of this eventful season, he advanced to the final in a lower-level Challenger tournament in the Ukraine, where he tumbled to Russian No. 22 Dmitry Tursunov.

That modicum of success enabled Becker to leapfrog to a career-high ranking of 58th in the world, up from No. 420 at the end of last year. In late December, he'll depart for Australia and a couple of tune-up tournaments for what will be his first automatic entry in the main draw of a Grand Slam...

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