The highly anticipated Netflix docuseries “Break Point” released some concrete details about the release of the series earlier today. The official teaser of the show that followed around the world’s best tennis players in 2022 became available to fans this week as Netflix announced the first five episodes of the series will debut on Jan. 13, just three days before the start of the 2023 Australian Open.
Tennis Netflix series sets debut date
Tennis fans became aware of this Netflix project late in 2021 as the company was trying to build off of the profound success of “Drive to Survive,” a series that followed around the stars of Formula One.
The team behind the critically acclaimed F1 series spent the 2022 year on the ATP and WTA tours, capturing behind-the-scenes moments of some of the best players in the sport. Netflix describes the series as such:
“Break Point follows a diverse group of tennis players on and off the court as they compete in gruelling slams with hopes of winning a final and even bigger dreams of becoming world number one. Break Point gets up close and personal with top players on the tennis circuit through an entire year travelling across the globe for all four Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA tours.”
While most fans knew the show was being shot during the 2022 season, Netflix held its details close to the vest. Today we learned many of the names set to appear in the first five episodes and what each episode’s key focus will be.
Netflix doc episode list (with key players for each)
Ep 1: Australian Open (Kyrgios, Kokkinakis)
Ep 2: Australian Open (Berrettini, Tomljanovic)
Ep 3: Indian Wells (Sakkari, Fritz)
Ep 4: Madrid (Jabeur, Badosa)
Ep 5: French Open (Auger-Aliassime, Ruud)
— James Gray (@jamesgraysport) December 14, 2022
You will notice throughout the show that the producers are more infatuated with telling the stories of the younger players in the sport. Of course, the story of the 2022 tennis season cannot be told without the likes of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams, but do not expect to get many glimpses of behind-the-scenes footage of these legends. Similar to “Drive to Survive”, ATP and WTA players and tennis personalities had to opt in to agree to being filmed and followed by the documentary camera crew, in Formula 1, teams like Haas and McClaren have agreed to participate, while current F1 Champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing famously opted out of Drive to Survive Recently.
One of the more noteworthy points I gathered from today’s news dump was the involvement of many former players and coaches in the series. Many episodes will feature interviews with Paul Annacone, Chris Evert, Patrick Mouratoglou, Toni Nadal, Martina Navratilova, Andy Roddick, and Maria Sharapova.
As for the future of the series, five more episodes are set to debut in June of 2023. These episodes will focus on Queens Club, Eastbourne, Wimbledon, the US Open, WTA Finals, and ATP Finals. This will conclude the ‘first season’ of the series as the producing team focuses on developing the next five episodes for January 2024.
Sports documentaries that offer a look behind the curtain have achieved critical acclaim in recent years, including Amazon Prime’s “The Test” covering the Australian men’s Cricket team, and “All or Nothing” a series that has covered professional sports franchises including the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles, the Brazilian National football team, Arsenal and Manchester City in the Premier League, and the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
The ATP and WTA Tours will be hoping that by providing Netflix’s camera crews with unprecedented access, more fans will be exposed to the personalities and excitement of professional tennis and highlight what it takes for tennis athletes to achieve greatness on its grueling yearly calendar.
Main Photo from Getty Images
