Netflix cannot be serious about tennis in lightweight series Break Point

© Provided by Independent.ie Real fans may find better drama on Eurosport once the Australian Open coverage starts. Stock photo

With the Australian Open about to begin , it feels like a good time to observe that tennis has made a sort of pop culture comeback recently. There was a time when it languished somewhere between tiddlywinks and darts in terms of popularity while the legends of the game, such as Pete Sampras, had little crossover appeal.

But all that changed with the emergence of the so-called ‘Big Four’ in men’s tennis – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray – with their rich and fairly even rivalries, and the race-transcending rags-to-riches story of the Williams sisters on the women’s side. The sisters’ story was told in one of the biggest films of last year – King Richard – and at the Oscars Beyoncé performed on a tennis court. The whiff of glamour and drama that the sport enjoyed in the 1970s seemed to be back.

And so it’s perhaps no surprise that Netflix is bringing out a documentary series, Break Point (Netflix), that covers both the men’s and women’s tours in 2022, and equally no surprise that it seems to be made by and for people who have never watched a full tennis match in their lives.

The starting point for the whole thing is a period the producers felt would represent a changing of the guard, the fading away of legends such as Nadal and Serena Williams and the emergence of new stars who will take their place.

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You can understand how this might have seemed inevitable, but several generations of players have learned the hard way that the legends are very hard to usurp (at time of writing Djokovic has just beaten another 21-year-old to win a title in Australia) and the players that Netflix nominates as the young bucks waiting in the wings might seem like slightly old hat to actual fans of the game.​

Naturally the first episode focuses on Nick Kyrgios, the Australian bad boy whose persona is somewhere between Jonah from Summer Heights High and a cartoon wolf. He huffs and puffs and throws his racket right on cue (“drama” which allegedly brings new fans to the game) and says things like “the pressure to be the next big thing is huge”.

But Kyrgios is 28-years-old – middle aged in tennis terms – and has long been known in the sport as a talented waster who can win one or two big matches but not the seven required for a Grand Slam. True to form, he crashes out in a flurry of expletives in the second round of the Australian Open and for a happy ending we have to make do with his run to the doubles title.

Netflix’s other bright young star is Matteo Berrettini, a hunky Italian who had been dating a female pro – Ajla Tomljanović. Their segment is most remarkable for the number of shots of Berrettini’s naked chest and for his and her refusal to fake anything approaching warmth to each other while the cameras are rolling (they reportedly broke up later in the year). Neither do especially well on the court, but they look gorgeous, which seems to be the point.​

It’s Indian Wells, the Californian tournament in the spring, before one of Netflix’s up-and-comers finally breaks through: the young American Taylor Fritz, who wins the tournament and whose pouting girlfriend commands gigantic traffic on TikTok.

The tennis itself is filmed in a breathless style in which the camera follows the ball (rather than remaining static from one angle, as it’s mostly filmed on TV) and while it more effectively recreates the impression of watching the sport live, it means you don’t really have much idea what’s going on in any one point or match.

As a diehard tennis fan, I found it like watching a trailer for a movie rather than the movie itself, with slick edits and soundbites taking precedence over substance. The makers ignored the biggest storylines in the period covered: the sudden retirement of women’s No 1 Ash Barty, and the emergence of the youngest male No 1 since the 1980s, Carlos Alcaraz.

And they seem to have calculated that sex appeal and controversy are as important as the sport itself. Perhaps the very casual fan might enjoy this but if you really want to get into tennis you’ll find far better drama on Eurosport when the Australian Open coverage starts. After being banished last year because of his vaccine status, Novak Djokovic will be back in action.

Love all: Three ace tennis documentaries

Andy Murray: Resurfacing

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“I was the number one player in the world and I couldn’t walk anymore.” This is how Murray describes his devastating injury in a documentary which charts his rise to become the first British man to win Wimbledon in nearly a century.

Sportscentury:Steffi Graf

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Graf was perhaps the best athlete ever in women’s tennis, a fierce competitor with dancing footwork. This documentary charts her extraordinary career and the moment when a deranged madman stabbed her greatest rival, Monica Seles.

Love Means Zero

Amazon Prime

The great tennis coach Nick Bollettieri died a few weeks ago. This documentary tells the story of how he coached everyone from Andre Agassi to the Williams sisters, all while surviving eight marriages and the kind of sun damage that would have killed ordinary mortals.

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