The First Trailer For Break Point, Tennis’ Drive To Survive, Has Just Dropped

Game, set, match.

The First Trailer For Break Point, Tennis’ Drive To Survive, Has Just Dropped

Tennis has always been popular, but it finds itself at a crossroads in 2023. With many of the world’s most famous players on the brink of retirement and some already leaving the sport – think of Ash Barty and Roger Federer – tennis needs to find a way to make sure it stays relevant to a whole new generation of sports fans.


Many sports have been eyeing the success Formula 1 has been enjoying over the last few years, which is in no small part thanks to the blockbuster success of Netflix’s access-all-areas documentary series, F1: Drive to Survive. Now, tennis is getting in on the action.

RELATED: The ‘Drive To Survive Effect’: Why Other Sports Are Now Ripping Off Formula 1

Enter: Break Point. Made by the same team behind Drive to Survive, Break Point will be an access-all-areas, intimate look at the personal journeys of a select group of top tennis players both on and off the court as they compete in one of the world’s most high-pressure sports.

“From career-threatening injuries and emotional heartbreak to triumphant victories and personal moments off the court, viewers will get a behind-the-scenes look at the pressure-tested lives of some of the best tennis players in the world,” Netflix promises.

Australian Release Date

Netflix has announced that the first half of the first season of Break Point will be released on the streaming platform in Australia on January 13th, 2023 at 7:00 PM AEDT.

Netflix is splitting the release of the first season into two parts, consisting of five episodes each. The first five episodes will be available in January, with an additional five episodes launching in June 2023.

Trailer

Who’s In It?

Break Point will follow the same winning formula Netflix hit on with Drive to Survive, and will follow the individual stories of a select few rising tennis stars (both male and female) during the 2022 ATP Tour.

Just as Drive to Survive’s first episode revolved around Australian driver and big personality Daniel Ricciardo, Break Point’s first episode will follow Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2022 Australian Open. It’s a funny parallel, isn’t it? It’s like Netflix said, “if we want this to work, we’ve got to start with an Aussie”.

RELATED: Nick Kyrgios Explains The Reason Behind His Emotional Outbursts

Other tennis players who the series will follow in the first five episodes include Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime, Greece’s Maria Sakkari, Norway’s Casper Ruud, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, Spain’s Paula Badosa, Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, the USA’s Taylor Fritz as well as another Aussie, Ajla Tomljanovic.

Naturally, we’ll also see stars like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams make appearances, too.

American player Taylor Fritz, currently ranked World No. 8, is one of a handful of stars who will appear in Break Point. Image: US Open

There’s no news yet on who will appear in the next five episodes, but from the trailer teases, we reckon Frances Tiafoe and Iga Świątek might also be the focus of some future storylines.

Our Take

We think Break Point is a brilliant idea. It’s the perfect sport for a documentary series like this: just as F1 only has 20 drivers and is largely an individual sport, tennis is the epitome of a high-profile, individual sport. Being able to follow individual players and their storylines is a no-brainer from a production perspective.

It’s also exactly what the sport needs to stay relevant in 2023.

One of the biggest criticisms of Drive to Survive is that a lot of the drama and storylines have been concocted or exaggerated. If Break Point can avoid that pitfall and stay true to real life, we could really have a winner on our hands.

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