“Break Point” on Netflix, or the impalpable cruelty of professional tennis

At a time when sports documentaries have established themselves as a safe bet on streaming platforms, it was logical that the lucrative model of “Drive to Survive”, a Netflix series that makes its honey behind the scenes of a Formula 1 season , would make babies. Tennis variation of the program, posted online in the early days of the Australian Open, “Break Point” strictly follows each of the editorial principles. Not only does she, in her turn, serialize the major events of the past season, but she undertakes to penetrate the intimacy of a selection of players in the game, a way of satisfying the curiosity of fans, and of attracting in the same time an audience of neophytes.

tennis for dummies

One of the first sequences of the series sets the tone. It presents the new fiancée of the whimsical Australian player Nick Kyrgios who confesses to having never watched a tennis match on television in his short life, a pretext for a voice-over to remind the lay spectator of two or three basic rules of competition ( the way of counting the points, of prioritizing the main tournaments).

To this silly dimension, nourished by a form that is standardized to say the least (where the intensity of the matches is sometimes diluted in a montage that favors glamor and beautiful images), is added a medley of contradictory interests and minimal rules of propriety that force “Break Point” to revolve around reality