[2] 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.

[4] 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.

He managed to hold both positive head-to-head records against two former world number ones Carlos Moyá who he defeated twice when Moya was in the top 10, one of them in his country of birth and the other win in his adopted country[6] and Juan Carlos Ferrero who he defeated at Palermo in 2005 which was where he had his best tournament result on the ATP tour reaching the semi-finals losing to Filippo Volandri.

In spite of the loss Behrend said " To represent a nation in the World Group of Davis Cup is the dream for any player and at 28, perhaps this was my last chance".

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.