No. 6 seed Benjamin Becker will begin his SAP Open campaign with a first round match against Lithuanian youngster Richard Berankis

Benjamin Becker is seeded here in San Jose, but still has a difficult first round match ahead of him on Tuesday. The draw has pitted him up against Richard Berankis, the world No. 73, in what could be a very tricky contest. Becker is ranked just outside of the top fifty, but is considered to have an outside chance of winning the title this week. He was a runner-up here in 2007.

Berankis is one of the youngest players on the tour, and he’s climbed the rankings at an astonishing pace. He made it to the third round of the Australian Open last month with an accomplished victory over Marinko Matosevic, and a straightforward retirement win against an injured David Nalbandian. He was taught a lesson by David Ferrer in the third round though, and it’s clear that he’s still lacking experience. That said, he has the ability to give Becker a stern test on Tuesday.

These two opponents have yet to face off in an ATP World Tour contest, which makes it difficult to make too many predictions about this match. Despite this, it’s fair to say that Becker enters the match as the favourite. There is definitely the potential for an upset here, but we’ll have to wait and see how well Berankis plays on the day.