By Doris Ivandic
Netflix’s 2023 tennis documentary series, Break Point, attempted to dramatize the players without truly giving the audience a reason to care for the sport itself.
Following the success of Drive to Survive, Netflix were hopeful for Break Point to gain an engaged audience. Unfortunately, the tennis documentary series was cancelled after only two seasons, and a lack of success.
While the documentary attempted to give an insight into the exclusive world of tennis, it failed to bring excitement for new fans. Additionally, did not explore the sport in a way that appealed to existing tennis lovers. The first episode opened with cinematic shots and closeups of tennis players. With dramatic music and bold voiceovers, it illustrated the intensity of the sport for a few minutes. At times, it does explain the basics of how to reach victory, however it rushed information at the viewer as if they were running out of time. It also failed to give needed context to new fans. While Netflix tried to reach a new audience, the lack of context behind matches and tournaments misrepresented the full picture.
Each episode chose one player to keep most of the focus on. Additionally, the episodes feature an immense number of jumps, turning it more into an aesthetic montage instead of a serious documentary. While that could be entertaining for some, the series did not illustrate why one would want to develop a passion for tennis. It lacked a new perspective on the sport and illustrated more of the players personal lives. This plus the chosen focus on one player each episode made it difficult to understand why one would reach for the documentary unless one just wanted to see their favorite player on screen. While Netflix were given amazing access to the players and their teams, the storytelling of voiceover and montage with inserted interviews failed to make it interesting. The narrative is structured to add drama to the sport without showing the greatness of the sport itself.
Furthermore, the authenticity of the series could be looked at in two ways. One being the way in which the players are shown. Two being the accuracy when it comes to the actual sport. It gave an insight into certain players, such as Taylor Fritz and Nick Kyrgios, without properly illustrating their season, statistics, or style of playing. Similarly, it did not portray of the uniqueness of the sport. In a sense, the documentary felt as if it only scratched the surface.
While the documentary is enjoyable to a certain extent, it failed to give an insight into what tennis is truly all about. After watching Break Point, it made me understand that to make a sports documentary appeal to both new and old fans, it must have a clear sense of direction and passion. The heavy focus on aesthetic over statistics and information made the documentary lack a sense of purpose.