Background
Behrend is of German descent and was born in Porto Alegre and raised in Novo Hamburgo where his father Claudio who was a volleyball player owns and runs a graphic and printing company.
Behrend is of German descent and was born in Porto Alegre and raised in Novo Hamburgo where his father Claudio who was a volleyball player owns and runs a graphic and printing company.
His career-high Association of Tennis Professionals singles ranking was World Number. His career -igh in doubles was World Number. 43 in October 2007. Behrend retired in 2007 and said he regrets never having the opportunity to have played Andre Agassi before he retired.
Behrend has opened up a tennis academy in his hometown of Alsdorf called ToBe.
He started playing tennis at the age of five and in addition to playing tennis as a youngster he played football, handball, volleyball and swimming before focusing on tennis. Behrend has three brothers and is a fan of the Gremio and Borussia Dortmund football teams.
In 1991 Behrend went to Germany at the age of 17 to play club tennis, through his German background he was able obtain a German passport which made it easier for travel and financially more lucrative for him to represent Germany than Brazil, at time as a Brazilian player, he would have taxed at 45% of his prize money. On the subject of representing Germany and not Brazil.
Behrend believes that there was no opportunity for him at the start of his career to become a professional in Brazil and in Germany he was able to receive financial assistance.
He had always wanted to be called up by Brazil, but was upset at the politics behind the scenes, when it came to the fourth player, given that Gustavo Kuerten, Fernando Meligeni and Flávio Saretta were all fit, then they were selected and the often the fourth member was ranked behind him in the rankings, therefore "I am a Brazilian with a German passport".