Just like the Swiss Grand Slam champions that have gone before him, Bernet’s signature stroke is a classic one-handed backend. But it wasn’t always the case:
“Well, it started pretty unexpected too because I always played the two-hander. When I was 10, 11, 12, I don’t really remember, my coach kind of made a joke: ‘Yeah, let’s just try one-handers’, because I was always struggling to play two-handers with the left hand. And then, I don’t know, it just looked natural, felt natural.”
He plays like Federer, indeed he even sounds like Federer in the press room. Has he spent much time with the man himself?
“I’ve met Roger once, last year at the New York US Open. That was the first time I’ve met him and I spoke to him for around 20 to 30 minutes and it was very nice. And he was very polite, as I expected!” Bernet laughed.
He was just asking me about who I practice with, what I practice more of. Like the first conversation with him. I was very happy and surprised too that he knew some of my results of already.
