'It's about putting all the pieces together – but the puzzle is really big," Tomas Berdych says wryly as he considers the size and complexity of his ambition to break into the top four of men's tennis with a first grand slam win. At the start of the European clay court season, the world No5 smiles for, in his adopted home of Monaco, the 28-year-old Czech emerges as a far more engaging man than the serious professional he appears on court, or during banal press conferences.
"You have to be extremely professional," Berdych says. "That's what I need to get the best out of my tennis. But people only see the guy who looks like this [Berdych pulls an amusing face of constipated concentration]. They are looking at this 'focused' guy who doesn't do anything. It's very boring. And, of course, you get asked the same questions. If someone did the stats you would probably find the same 10 questions after every match. So that's why I like Twitter to show a different side of myself."
Soon after Roger Federer appointed Stefan Edberg as his new coach last December, to follow the addition of Boris Becker to Novak Djokovic's entourage a week earlier, Berdych revealed his sense of humour on Twitter: "Breaking news!!! #tb hire new coach ...#wearefamily" When you clicked on the attached image a picture of an old bus emerged with the words "Vintage Coach Hire".
He tweeted later: "I have big problem with my new coach ... he drinks so much uffff #wearefamily". The accompanying picture was of a petrol pump filling up his imaginary gas-guzzling old coach.
Berdych is equally quick to acknowledge the fierce drive of the world's leading players as they strive to either retain their supremacy or to crack the old vanguard and join Stanislas Wawrinka, who became a new grand slam winner at this year's Australian Open. Berdych lost to Wawrinka in an excruciatingly tight four-set semi-final. "It was very close against Stan," he says, sighing. "There were three tie-breaks."
Wawrinka had also beaten Djokovic, winning an epic quarter-final, and he defeated Rafael Nadal in the final. It was the first time in 13 attempts that Wawrinka prevailed over Nadal and it bolstered Berdych and other aspiring grand slam winners. For years they have been kept at bay by Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and, more recently, Andy Murray.
"Stan gave all of us new hope and new energy," Berdych says. "He showed it's possible. From 2005, there were very few players who won a grand slam besides those four [in the eight-and-a-half years separating the 2005 French Open and Wawrinka's Australian breakthrough, only Juan Martín del Potro, who won the 2009 US Open, broke the monopoly that saw the 34 other grand slams shared between the "big four"]. It's incredible.
"But now it's absolutely right to say it's opening up, and this is why I don't feel tired after 12 years [on tour]. I have a new impulse and I'm very close. I have extra energy to work harder and get higher because I know it also took Andy [Murray] a long time to win his first slam."
Murray, after numerous losing finals, won the US Open in 2012 and Wimbledon last year. Returning to the theme of appointing a new coach to complete the mazy grand-slam jigsaw, Berdych stresses that Murray's recruitment of Ivan Lendl "was a really big factor. I know Ivan well and he definitely had a big influence on Andy. Ivan didn't teach him anything new technically but psychologically he did."
Now that he and Lendl have parted, Murray has the tricky task of choosing his next coach. "It doesn't really matter if it's a big name or a more ordinary guy," Berdych says. "Andy could choose someone very different. But they need to click. You definitely need the right chemistry, psychologically.
"When you see someone coaching Federer you think: 'Did the guy pay Roger to learn from him?' But now it's very nice because, when Roger was young, Stefan was his idol. This is an example of the strange chemistry you need. I'm not saying Stefan can't give him one or two tips but, really, what can you say to a guy who has won 17 slams? It's just about chemistry, and it can give Roger a lift."
read more: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/14/tomas-berdych-stanislas-wawrinka-wimbledon
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