Becker seeks more definition

NEW YORK -- Benjamin Becker’s identity crisis continues.

He is a tennis player from Germany who is not the Becker tennis fans think of. Nor is he related to Boris.

He is the player who won the most celebrated match of last year’s U.S. Open and who is remembered mostly as the other guy across the net from Andre Agassi.

And now, as the player to deal Agassi the last loss of his legendary career, he struggles with his own worthiness.

It has been a year since Ben Becker hit that enormous ace down the middle to finish his four-set victory over Agassi, a year since he was summoned to a microphone to speak to the crowd of 23,000 in Arthur Ashe Stadium and many millions more watching around the world. It has been a year since he sat down and listened as Agassi stunned and dazzled tennis fans with his farewell oratory.

Now that he is back, he knows that forehands, backhands and first serves won’t be the thing he is asked about the most.

Sunday afternoon, after a practice session with Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on the quiet of the Louis Armstrong Court, the young and impressionable Becker talked about how he remains conflicted about the Agassi match.

“For my tennis, for my career, it was a good thing,” he said. “I got enough ranking points to get into main draws.”

After the U.S. Open, which took his ranking from No. 112 to No. 76, he beat Nieminen in a semifinal in Tokyo that got him into a final against Roger Federer, where the inevitable occurred. He ended the year with $238,049 in winnings -- not bad for a struggling former NCAA champ from Baylor who was in only his second Grand Slam event at last year’s Open -- and now, at age 26, is ranked No. 49.

“But I had trouble for a while afterward,” he continued. “I don’t remember much about what happened on the court after the match. I know he made a great speech and I know if I had known I had to speak, that I would have been so nervous I wouldn’t have been able to get any words out.

“I remember going into the locker room and just kind of sitting there, maybe for half an hour, and it was really quiet where I was. Nobody around. Nobody knew me. I had just been on the tour about a year, and I was a nobody.”

Which remains an issue with Becker.

“I had trouble accepting that I deserved to be the one to beat Agassi in his last match,” he said. “He was a legend, he had been one of my heroes growing up as a player. I thought it should have been somebody better known -- maybe it should have been [Marcos] Baghdatis the match before. Or somebody like [Pete] Sampras. A Hollywood kind of ending.”

Even after a limping Agassi had survived his mammoth struggle in the previous round against Baghdatis, Becker said he didn’t allow himself to think about beating Agassi.

“To be honest,” he said, “I didn’t think there was any way I could.”

The way he did, most likely, was because Agassi had back and leg injuries so severe that, after beating Baghdatis in an equally memorable five-setter, he had had to lie on his back for 30 minutes on the sidewalk just to decrease the pain and then take a painkilling shot the next day.

Now, the whys are decreasingly important to Becker, as he slowly turns his first U.S. Open into a fond memory.

“Just to be in that stadium, full of people, and playing him,” Becker said. “It is an experience I will never forget.”

Agassi holds no ill will over his last conqueror and shrugs and smiles when asked about Becker.

“It had to be somebody,” he said.

Gradually learning to use last year as a springboard, Becker hopes to become exactly that.

A somebody.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. For previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

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Featured matches

Today at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.:

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM

Jelena Jankovic (3), Serbia, vs. Jarmila Gajdosova, Slovakia

Justine Henin (1), Belgium, vs. Julia Goerges, Germany

Roger Federer (1), Switzerland, vs. Scoville Jenkins

Venus Williams (12) vs. Kira Nagy, Hungary

Serena Williams (8) vs. Angelique Kerber, Germany

LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM

Marcos Baghdatis (18), Cyprus, vs. Max Mirnyi, Belarus

Jarkko Nieminen (26), Finland, vs. John Isner

Ana Ivanovic (5), Serbia, vs. Aiko Nakamura, Japan

Tatiana Golovin (17), France, vs. Ahsha Rolle