NEW YORK - Benjamin Becker grew up in Germany pretending he was Andre Agassi on the tennis court. Now the 25-year-old qualifier will try to send his idol into retirement when the two meet in the U.S. Open third round.

"It's a dream come true," said Becker, who has taken a patient path into tennis, studying and playing at Baylor University in Texas -- the only college that recruited him -- before trying his luck on tour.

"I grew up watching him play. He was an idol for me. It's a chance that I'm really fortunate to experience," he told reporters on Friday.

Time has moved fast for the slightly-built Becker, who is not related to German tennis great Boris Becker, but says he is asked at every event about his famous namesake.

One year ago, Becker was ranked around 1,400, playing in qualifiers to gain entry into Futures events.

One week ago Becker was struggling to advance through the qualifying tournament to make it into the main draw at the U.S. Open for the first time.

His relative anonymity was proven on Thursday night when he tried to get a feel of the atmosphere in the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the Agassi-Marcos Baghdatis match.

"I was trying to watch it in the stadium but there were no tickets. I had to stand in the alley and then they kicked us out, so I went to the hotel and watched it," he said about Agassi's thrilling five-set win.

Becker, who has a big serve and a formidable return of serve, won a fourth-set tiebreaker against 53rd-ranked Filippo Volandri of Italy in the first round before beating 30th seed Sebastien Grosjean of France.

Next he will get a chance to knock out eight-times grand slam winner Agassi, who is playing his last tournament.

COLLEGE SUCCESS

Becker, now ranked 112th, said he could only guess at the atmosphere with more than 20,000 fans screaming for Agassi.

"I played college tennis and I had some times when maybe 200 people were cheering against me," he said.

He found success in college, where he majored in finance and is only a few courses away from graduation. Becker won the 2004 U.S. college singles championship and led Baylor to the NCAA team title.

Becker began his steep climb up the professional ranks a year ago when he hooked up with Andy Roddick's former coach Tarik Benhabiles.

"It's a nice story, he started from nowhere," Benhabiles said. "He was trying to qualify for Futures. Now he is going to break into the top 100. It's a Cinderella story."

The coach said Becker must show mental toughness in facing Agassi.

"He is not a kid from the tennis world," Benhabiles said. "He went to school and knows the realities of life. He's very rich by the experience of life, very mature. We have an adult out there."

"He's got a shot, you know. He just has to realise it's just another human being in front of him."