Break Point, a new documentary tennis series, is streaming on Netflix this week. The creators of the wildly popular documentary F1: Drive to Survive are behind Break Point.
Break Point is the tennis series we’ve been waiting for
Tennis is, at last, receiving the global attention it deserves. Break Point devotes a whole year to traveling the world for all four Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA tours, getting up close and personal with the globe’s greatest tennis players.
Although tennis as a sport has been dominated over the past 15 to 20 years by superstars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Serena Williams, this series is about players aspiring to that prominence. And even if you’re just a casual tennis fan who watches for a few weeks at Wimbledon each year, you’ll quickly become enamored with this new crop of stars. For a new documentary series, Break Point has unrivaled access to some of the best in the world.
Managing defeat is a recurring issue in Break Point. How can tennis professionals continue to play when they are, in the eyes of the vast majority of competitors, “losers” throughout every single tournament?
There is only one “winner” at the top of the sport, so those who live out of a suitcase give up their bodies and sacrifice time with their families, experiencing mental exhaustion and stress.
“Tennis is infamously tough […] You have to be in the hotel rooms as well as the changing rooms before and after a game […] You have to be there for those times of defeat because, for a tennis player, it’s all about defeat.
“In tennis, you lose far more often than you win. But even if you’re a champion, you might lose on the court. ‘Am I good enough?’ you wonder. But it would be best if you continued to face it; otherwise, you are not a tennis player. That’s the whole idea of the sport: you’re always looking, trying to figure out who you are and where you’re going,” said Maria Sharapova, Russian superstar tennis player.
Break Point gets it
If Break Point gets one thing right, it’s the brutal, self-loathing aspect of the sport; the mental strain it takes on its protagonists; how players frequently equate their self-worth with wins and losses, and how rapidly they can slip into darkness when they don’t perform well on the court.
Break Point dives deeply into the tormented psychology and anguish but balances it out by emphasizing the particular human relationships that keep them going, as well as the outpourings of delight following their wins, large and small.
Paula Badosa, Maria Sakkari, and Ajla Tomljanovic did not shy away from being vulnerable on camera, providing us with some of the show’s most heartbreaking and moving sequences.
“I’m desperate to leave the court. I have so many negative thoughts in my brain, ‘you’re a lousy player, you’re not capable of doing this,'” Badosa explains after a crushing defeat to Simona Halep at her home event in Madrid.
“People expected me to give up tennis and become a housewife, but I never gave up on my ambition,” says Jabeur.
“When I’m okay, I feel at home on court and I feel like this is my place,” Badosa says in an intimate talk with her team as they check in on her mental health. “But I move on from that to ‘get me out of here, I want to die.'”
Eye catching for Break Point
Taylor Fritz injures his ankle during practice just hours before the final versus Rafael Nadal. His coach and physio feverishly attempt to persuade him out of playing despite the pain, arguing that he would simply extend the recovery process. Still, Fritz is obstinate to the point of a camp brawl. Ultimately, he takes several injections to his ankle and eventually defeats Nadal to win his first major title.
The series is a mashup of a tennis primer for those unfamiliar with the sport and an attempt to spotlight a varied set of players, each of whom comes from a different background but ultimately faces the same mental obstacles and demands provided by an unforgiving 11-month world tour.
On January 13, the first five episodes of ‘Break Point’ will be available on Netflix.
The episodes with Alcaraz and Swiatek will air in the summer.