The protagonists of Break Pointthe new series of Netflix that allows you to spy on (and understand) what life was like for some of the best tennis players in the world during 2022, they can feel like in a horror moviein the style of Final destination. One by one, the members of the flyer with which the on-demand platform launched the first season on January 13 suffered elimination from the Australian Open. This Sunday, the last ‘victim’ was the Canadian Happy Auger-Alsoseeded sixth, who lost in four sets to the Czech revelation Use Lehecka (71°).
Lehecka landed in Australia with a 0-4 mark in his Grand Slam appearances, but is already in the quarterfinals after a victory with partials of 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3)in three hours and 14 minutes of play.
“All the guys I’ve beaten here, they’re all amazing players, so I must be playing my best tennis.”commented Lehecka, after beating Croatian Borna Coric (21) and British Cameron Norrie (11) in previous rounds, results that will allow him to climb at least 32 places to position number 39 on the ATP list.
“We will see him frequently in the future”said Auger-Aliassime, who had been the executioner of the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in the third round of the Australian Open, but was left out of the picture, ‘fulfilling’ the prophecy that had begun last Friday for those who promoted the first season of the series that shows the intimacy of the professional tennis circuit.
“And then there was one. #CurseNetflix”wrote journalist Bastien Fachan, author of the book “Big 3” on Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, published on November 3, 2022, on his Twitter account. “It looks like the Final Destination movie”a follower responded to the fact that Auger-Aliassime was the only one in the race after the first week of the Grand Slam.
Seeded sixth in the tournament, the Canadian was no stranger to the “curse” being talked about in Melbourne. Is that Casper Ruud, Ons Jabeur and Matteo Berrettini were some of the players who appeared in the Netflix series and fell at the start of the tournamentwhile Nick Kyrgios, Paula Badosa y Ajla Tomljanovic They didn’t even play a game.
“My girlfriend showed it to me today, I didn’t know. I noticed that there were players losing, but it didn’t cross my mind until he showed it to me this morning. He seemed funny to me,” the 22-year-old Canadian had said, after the match with Cerúndolo.
The previous elimination occurred on Friday when the Chinese Lin Zhu (87th in the world) surprised by qualifying for the round of 16 with an exciting victory over the Greek Maria Sakkari (6th) by 7-6 (3), 1-6 and 6-4.
“I don’t know, I don’t think it’s connected. Maybe the players who lost feel that there is some connection. I don’t think so, but yeah, it’s funny how things play out sometimes“, maintained Auger-Aliassime, before this Sunday the ‘curse’ settled on his intentions in Melbourne.
Unpublished record and nightmare for the preclassified
It is a complicated Grand Slam for many seeded players. This Sunday also represented the end of the road for the Polish Every Swiateknumber one in the world, and the young American Coco Gauffwhich joined the long list of favorites eliminated from the Australian Open.
the greek Stefanos Tsitsipasthe top seed still holding out, sweated out an intense duel against the Italian Jannik Sinner, who came back from two sets to take the definition to the fifth set by 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3.
“I feel like I’ve spent a century on the court playing tennis. But what a great night! It was superb!”assured the 24-year-old Greek, undefeated in 2023 and who lost his first sets in the tournament in this match.
In the other quarterfinal tie, they will face the American Sebastian Corda (N. 31) and Russian Karen Kachanov (N. 20), who eliminated the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (No. 33) by 6-0, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4).
For his part, Korda, executioner in the previous round of the Russian Daniil Medvedevgot rid of the Polish player in five combative sets Hubert Hurkacz (N. 11) in a black day for the Slavic country.
But the blow was in the women’s box, where Swiatek, winner at Roland Garros and at the US Open, succumbed to the hard blow of the winner at Wimbledon, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (N. 25), which was imposed by a double 6-4.
This is how it was registered an unprecedented event in the Open era, which began in 1968: The top two seeds from both individual draws are out in the quarterfinals after Swiatek and the Tunisian are eliminated Our Jabeurand Spanish Rafael Nadal and the norwegian Casper Ruud.
The surprises did not end there: the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (17th) ended the hopes of raising a Grand Slam of Coco Gauff (7th) 7-5, 6-3 and went to the quarterfinals of a major for the first time since 2018, where he will meet Rybakina.
Favorite now as third seed, the American Jessica Pegula He did not fail and resolved in two sets against the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (7-5, 6-2).
What shows the new Netflix series
In the same format as ‘Drive to Survive’the success documenting the lives of Formula 1 drivers for several seasons, in Break Point the protagonists are the players who open the doors of their privacy so that the fans have the possibility of understanding all the vicissitudes that the professionals go through.
The first half of the initial season calls for four tournaments. And it covers them through the experiences of different protagonists with cameras that accompany them far beyond the courts.
The first two chapters take place at the Australian Open, the one who was shaken by the decision of the Justice to expel a Djokovic without vaccines. There, through the action at Melbourne Park, one understands a little more about the endless rebellion of the ineffable Kyrgios, who in those days was deciding whether or not to leave tennis with his ghosts of childhood obesity and his times of reveler, and his ground cable, Kokkinakis, with whom he lived an unforgettable doubles tournament.
There also about the dreams and frustrations of a couple of tennis players, such as the Italian Berrettini and the Croatian-Australian Tomjanovic -who later was the “villain” who ended the career of Serena Williams-.
The season continues in Indian Wells, the tournament that is played in the California desert and is considered the fifth Grand Slam. There, the American Fritz, who would end up winning the tournament, and the Greek Sakkari and her fight to make great history take center stage. It is also where ‘Break Point’ begins to delve into an increasingly visible problem in high-performance sport: the mental health of athletes who push their psyche beyond its limits to enhance their game.
Fritz and his decision to play the final injured and Sakkari and his retirement from tennis for less than a week, perhaps, are the pearls of a series in the great debt is not having had greater access to the privacy of Nadal, Djokovic, Federer or Serenawho seem not to have been tempted by the production wallet to air their secrets.
The Tunisian Jabeur, the first African and Arab to succeed on the women’s tour, and the Spanish Badosa, then number two in the world, are the common thread of the episode that takes place in Madrid.
The last stop of this first half of the series takes place in Roland Garros. And those who show behind the scenes of the second Grand Slam of the year are the Canadian Auger-Aliassime and the Norwegian Ruud. Through them, “intimate enemies” of Rafael Nadal, it is relived how the Spaniard once again made magic with his resilient tennis to reach 22 coronations in major tournaments.
