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Berrer Unlikely to Ruffle Feathers

DUBAI — In a football-obsessed country like Germany, Michael Berrer can walk freely on the streets as it is highly unlikely that anyone will stop the world number 56 for an autograph.

But incredibly, the 29-year-old German journeyman stopped Russian world number six Nikolay Devydenko from reaching the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships 
on Wednesday.

Berrer, whose game and Davydenko’s injured wrist paved the way to the quarters after he took the first set 6-3, says only the players can make his country fall in love with tennis again. After all, the Germans have stopped following the game ever since Boris Becker and Steffi Graf kissed goodbye to their beloved sport.

“Now we have an expert here who is doing that, one from the German press,” Berrer, pointing towards a veteran German journalist, said at the press conference.

“But I think that depends all on the players. Of course, also you have to win a Grand Slam. You should not lose in the semifinals. If you do that, then you are a loser in Germany (Germany have produced two Grand Slam semifinalists in Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer and one finalist in Rainer Schuettler in recent years). It’s like that.

“If you are in the final, you’re the first loser. They are very spoiled, of course, because we had only winners, we had Boris Becker, Michael Stich and Steffi Graf.

“And if you are in the semifinal it’s not so good, but it’s how you see it.

“Also I think the national federation has to do more for the sport, of course. They have to work more on the media presence. They have to try to get the tennis back on the television, because I am sure my match against Nikolay was not on television. You will not see even the semifinal in Germany.”

Berrer though was confident that his game was good enough to trouble Davydenko on Centre Court.

“Yes, at the moment, I’m very self-confident. My way of playing, I think can hurt a lot of guys. So today I felt like I had a chance, and I was a little bit disappointed to be honest (when Nikolay retired). But it’s okay. I’ll take it.”

Berrer then reveals the secret to his success in recent months. “I have a new coach (Claudio Pistolesi). Maybe that’s one of the reasons, yeah. He is pretty good coach.

“We have worked on everything like hitting the ball hard, serving well. Now I can hit the ball a little bit harder than the others, so that it makes a difference. But let’s see how it will be tomorrow.”

The German, who recently played his first ATP final of his career in Zagreb, was really pleased with his performance on Wednesday.

“I think I played very aggressive tennis. That’s a good thing as I knew what I had to do because I didn’t change the direction too often.

“I played the ball where it came from. He doesn’t like that so much. He likes to run, play it from running. So I tried to play it just to make him play from the stand. I also went to the net a lot, put pressure on the second serve. So, I felt good. It was not a win really, but 
doesn’t matter.”