One of the objectives of the new management of the ATPheaded by Andrea Gaudenzi, was to make tennis more attractive to the younger generations. Not only tennis itself, as a sport: he looked at the personalities that give color to the professional circuit, looking for the fan to establish a certain bond or connection with several of these tennis players. That was how he pushed for the creation of a docuseries in the purest style Drive to Survive, which caused a beastly escalation of exposure at the global level of Formula One, especially in the US market. Months later, Break Point came true… although it is still an unfinished product.
Opinions about the first part of this miniseries, whose continuation will be released in June (the remaining five episodes) have been… of all kinds. From very good to fierce criticism. However, both ATP and Netflix are clear that their pairing must continue at the same time that they improve the final product: the audiovisual giant confirmed, from Indian Wells, the docuseries renewal facing the second seasonin addition to throwing data that shows some success: Break Point reached the Netflix top-10 in up to 28 countrieswith a total audience of more than 15 million that stands out, above all, in Great Britain and Australia.
And its own protagonists acknowledge some success, even though they still don’t feel like it. “Movie stars”. he confesses it Maria Sakkaristar of the episode dedicated to Indian Wells (California Dreamin’). “Our personalities are exposed in a positive way. I have had people come up to me and say that they saw me at break point, but they haven’t seen me playing tennis, which I think speaks well of the series. I was happy, because all that helps tennis. Seeing myself on television is something strange, which I’m not used to, but I suppose a reward for the work of all these years“, said Sakkari in the run-up to the Californian tournament. His opinion was seconded by that of Taylor Fritzthe other great protagonist of that third episode, which made it very clear that Break Point greatly helps the expansion of the racket sport.
“In the United States, above all, this is what we need: people who are interested in the series and who were not fans of tennis before. When I see someone say to me, ‘Oh, I saw you at Break Point,’ I treat it like someone who might end up watching tennis and become a fan. I hope the series continues, what he’s doing is great for tennis. I think that the world of tennis, being on the circuit, allows you to tell great stories. What we do is crazy and a lot of people don’t know what’s behind the scenes, all the traveling, the competition and everything that happens.”. Precisely Fritz shows a curious episode in the run-up to the Indian Wells 2022 final: the documentary clearly shows how he played that duel despite your doctor’s and trainer’s recommendationswho advocated withdrawing from the final against Nadal after the injury suffered in training.
“People have a view of tennis where they see a player go out on the court and they think he’s 100% healthy. They don’t see the physical pain, or maybe they had an argument with their boyfriend or girlfriend just before go out on court. They don’t see all the mental backpack that the players carry before being there. That was one of the most extreme examples of all that.”
HOW WAS BREAK POINT BORN?
The answer is very simple and could surprise more than one person. Curiously, a legend of this sport that does not appear in the docuseries is the great culprit that today tennis is represented on Netflix. he confesses it Paul Martinexecutive producer of the company in charge of producing the docuseries (Box to Box Films): he was talking for a year with Andre Agassi to make a movie about him. “The image that Andre had shown of the tennis bubble, the extreme ups and downs that you experience, was something that blew my mind and that moved me. When that project fell apart, we always felt that there was an opportunity to fully enter into tennis the way Andre had talked to us about, and we loved the opportunity.”confesses the British.
