Power and Glory: a scene from Breakpoint Credit: Netflix
Second half of Netflix Tennis Documentary Series Breakpoint ', which returns to Netflix on June 21, must be really silly. Because we already know what's going on. Since Breaking Point is about the wild tour of the world's best tennis players and begins at Wimbledon 2022, it would hardly be a spoiler to say, for example, that Novak Djokovic defeated Nick Kyrgios in the final.
But whether it's Kyrgios' admission that he once contemplated suicide, or the astonishing level of fitness of the current women's world No. the antics of Ayla Tomljanovic's father/coach/comedy partner Ratko (who forgets to book a hotel room even when his daughter beats Serena Williams), «Breaking Point» is both frank and suspenseful. You will never look at Grand Slams the same way again.
This is because Break Point extracts the psychological drama and ambiguity from the binary outcomes of competitive sports. Since the release of the first five episodes in January, the series has become a must-see for armchair psychologists, not just tennis fans. As with Drive to Survive (the long-running Formula One series being produced by the same production company), Break Point is more of a collage of character exploration than a reel of intense matches.
«It's one of the few sports where two people are facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, and they're the only ones on the court fighting each other,» says Breakpoint showrunner Kara Leah. “And that can be cruel. It's like watching gladiators in the arena. If you've been to a match, you know you can hear a pin fall — it can be completely silent and then explode. And it's incredibly dramatic.»
To add drama to the series of matches already played, Break Point begins by changing the perspective of viewers.
«Our goal was to make the games exciting,” Leah says. “So that you don’t just watch the match, you really feel like you are with him.”
And you really feel like you're right in the match when self-proclaimed bad boy Nick Kyrgios drives the Greek god Stefanos Tsitsipas to madness in last year's vicious clash at Wimbledon, or the California golden boy. Taylor Fritz is defeated in the first round of last year's US Open.
However, being around some of these players isn't always fun. Leah talks about filming Kyrgios, whose temperament and results change a lot from episode to episode. Netflix shows Kyrgios and his team in the first episode of a new series — and it is in this episode that he talks about contemplating suicide.
“We had no idea what they would say because this episode is pretty raw. episode in terms of his mental health and what he went through. But the team of Kyrgios was very strong and said: «Show it.» We want viewers to form their own opinion on this.»
Pressure drops: Nick Kyrgios protests decision during Wimbledon tournament in 2022. Photo: Zach Goodwin
According to her, Break Point's filming methodology is borrowed from top-notch wildlife photographers, using high-resolution cameras, high frame rates (allowing for heartbreaking slow motion) and very long lenses for extreme close-ups. For all major tournaments, three film crews were invited to film additional game sequences, as well as detailing the background sound to create an atmosphere.
“Our sound engineer filmed the crowd for hours. , hitting the ball with a racket, grumbling and shouting of the players,” says Leah. “We also brought our editorial team to Wimbledon and sat them down on Center Court to watch the game. What do you hear? What smells? What angles surprise you? We wanted them to not just see it, but hear it and feel it so that we can bring this immersive experience to every episode.”
The filmmakers then went even further by combining audio interviews that were filmed when the players were at ease with no cameras in the room, with footage of the match.
«When a player says, 'I'm losing. I can't handle. I've got to get out of here,» under their in-game footage, you suddenly find yourself in their head,» says James Gay-Reese, executive producer of Break Point. “You will never hear this on the regular airwaves. The key was to understand what they were going through at the moment, good or bad. We also recorded many of their coaches [during the match to record their instructions and responses], which is a game changer in some ways.”
'It's an incredibly intense sport': Boris Becker on the court at Boom! Boom! World vs. Boris Becker Image Credit & Copyright: Andy Height
All of this means that you will find out what really makes these players tick. “Tennis is a very closed sport,” Leah says. “What we were trying to get away from was that in tennis, quite often you get very mundane answers at the end of the game [at mandatory press conferences]. I mean these poor guys are tired and don't really want to talk to you. And so they give very obvious answers to the questions they are asked… and they get asked the same questions all the time. We asked a very different set of questions.”
Leah says that before she started working on Break Point, she was like most tennis fans: tuning in for a home grand slam, maybe watching the other three, but that's about it. Creating a breakpoint showed her that tennis is ruthless.
“I had no idea how much tennis there was. I mean, it's 11 months out of the year and it's an incredibly intense sport — the physicality is insane.»
Leah has filmed team sports before Break Point, but not individual sports like tennis. Mental pressure, according to her, is completely different.
“In team sports, no one is to blame. Unless you miss a penalty. Many players have told me something really interesting: if they win, they experience this joy themselves. But if they lose, they will have to take it all on themselves too. Now I have so much respect for the players — I completely hooked them. Now I am completely obsessed with tennis. Every week I pay attention to each tournament. I love it.»
'A lot of it is mental': Break Point focuses on Kyrgios' fight. Photo: Netflix
She is not the only one. Tennis as a sport is experiencing a resurgence in popularity, with the number of adults reporting they played tennis in 2022 up 43% from the previous year, according to LTA data released in February.
And this popularity is reflected on the screens. It all started in theaters with 2017's Battle of the Sexes (in which Emma Stone and Steve Carell entertainingly replayed the showdown between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs). That same year, the excellent Swedish feature film Borg vs. McEnroe told the story of the 1980 Wimbledon final and the epic rivalry between Bjorn (Sverrir Gudnason) and John (Shia LaBeouf). Then there was 2021's King Richard, for which Will Smith won an Oscar for playing Serena and Venus Williams' father (shortly after punching Chris Rock in the face).
Now he has a moment for the small screen. Breakpoint follows Showtime's McEnroe documentary last year; meanwhile this year we had Boom Boom: The World vs. Boris Becker on Apple TV, a gripping two-part documentary about the rise and fall of the German playboy, and Gods of Tennis, which explores the legends that changed the game, and currently broadcast on BBC Two.
Want more? Next month, Amazon is launching Love at 15, which stars Poldark's Aidan Turner as a tennis coach who may have abused the trust of one of his charges.
Amazon's Fifteen-Love Stars Aidan Turner of Poldark By: ROB YOUNGSON
Oh, and if all that's not enough, in September Luca «Call Me By Your Name» «Challengers» Guadagnino is bringing things back to theaters by playing Zendaya as the wife and coach of a Grand Slam champion who signs him up for the Challenger tournament where he will face off. against her former lover.
More than ever, these shows use sports as a lens that reflects cultural history and social change, with two people kicking fluffy yellow balls along the way to address deeper issues of sexism, racism and class prejudice. As a representation of the two sides of an argument, tennis serves as a winning metaphor.
Break Point, for its part, touches on racism and sexism in the game, but is mainly interested in the players' aforementioned struggle with their mental health.
“I think it’s more convenient for everyone to talk about mental health now, whereas five or 10 years ago it definitely wasn’t,” says Leah. It's an inevitable focus in a game where matches are won and lost less with the racquet and more with the mind.
“When you get into the top 50, all these players are fantastic and they can all beat everyone. another any day,” Leah says. “So what is the difference between a person who wins and a person who does not win? They all know — there's so much going on in the mind.»
Breakpoint Part 2 returns to Netflix on June 21
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