On Thursday, Aussie Sean Berman continued his good run in the junior boys’ singles, beating 10th seed Guilherme Clezar from Brazil 6-4 6-2 to move into the semi-finals.
In the previous round, Berman beat third seed and fellow Australian junior Jason Kubler in straight sets, and before that, he held off Slovak Jozef Kovalik, the 16th seed, in three sets.
At the beginning of the week, there was confusion about which country Sean was representing – was it the United States or Australia? Watching Berman at courtside in his first round match, Sean’s mum confirmed that it was Australia. She said the family have done a lot of travelling for the sake of Sean’s tennis, but they are all right behind him - and excited by their most recent move back to her home town of Melbourne.
Sean was born in South Africa just before the Berman’s moved to New Zealand. When Sean was 12, the family then relocated to Los Angeles to further Sean’s tennis education. That remained their home until a few months ago, when they settled in Melbourne.
“I spent some time in America, playing and travelling and training. But now I’m here in Australia and playing for Australia,” Sean said in a post-match interview.
Asked how he thinks the move to Australia will improve his game, he replied, “Tennis Australia has some unbelievably good tennis coaches with extremely good knowledge. I think what they’ve got to offer me will be very beneficial to my game, and I think it can really work out.”
Sean has been representing Australia at the Australian Open 2010 in both the main draw qualifying rounds and the junior boys’ singles competition.
A loss in the first round of the qualifying to Daniel Evans from the United Kingdom was a valuable experience. “I had a tough first-round match. I lost but I learnt a lot from it.” He says he has been able to bring that out to his boys’ singles matches.
While Berman says that his serve is not his strength, it was certainly working for him against Clezar on Thursday. He won 87 per cent of points on his first serve, and did not give up a break point opportunity. Sean believes that his ground game is his strength. Determination and a never-give-up attitude also appear to be paying off.
Other media outlets have reported Berman as saying he has set his mind on playing in the juniors at Wimbledon in July, but all Berman has been saying of late is that he has a challenger tournament planned. “I haven’t looked too far ahead. I’ve just been concentrating on my next match,” he says.
Earlier in the week, the new Aussie had a chance to have a hit-up with Rafael Nadal. When asked whether it had been his dream to have a hit with Nadal, Berman politely replied that it was his dream to beat Nadal.
Let’s hope so.
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