[1] Benjamin Becker was born on 16 June 1981 in Merzig, West Germany, to Jörg, a tax office worker, and Ulrike.

[2] From 2001 to 2005, Becker played tennis at Baylor University, winning the NCAA singles championship as a junior in 2004 and leading the Bears to the team title that year.

The match was especially noteworthy as it was Agassi's last on the ATP circuit; he had announced that the 2006 U.S. Open would be his final tournament, and his defeat was followed by an 8-minute standing ovation from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.

Becker has the distinction of having played the match that finished second latest in ATP history, defeating Jiří Novák in Tokyo in 2006 at 3.24 a.m.

[4] 2007 saw Becker improving his ranking further in the early season, including through his semi-final appearances at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, where he lost to world No.

8 James Blake; and in San Jose at the SAP Open where he lost to Ivo Karlović, the tallest player on the ATP Tour (6' 10").

Given his strong performance at the U.S. Open in the preceding year, Becker's first round loss in the 2007 edition caused his ranking to drop to 79.

In 2009, Becker won his first ATP World Tour title, the Ordina Open in the Netherlands, defeating local hope Raemon Sluiter.

He qualified for the BNP Paribas Open in Paris-Bercy, where he lost to Gaël Monfils in the second round after a first-round win over Denis Istomin.

His best run of the year was in Memphis, where he reached the semifinals, defeating Dudi Sela, Xavier Malisse, and Łukasz Kubot, before succumbing to Milos Raonic.

Becker made the quarterfinals in Newport, Rhode Island, avenging his loss to Raonic in the second round, but losing to Ryan Harrison.

At the Aegon Championships, he reached the quarterfinals, defeating Bernard Tomic, Lukáš Rosol, and Alexandr Dolgopolov, before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray.

He reached the quarterfinals in Metz with wins over two Frenchmen, Benoît Paire and Albano Olivetti, but lost to another, Nicolas Mahut.