Taylor Fritz and Maria Sakkari, trailed by a black-clad Netflix digicam crew, have been greeted by heat applause once they ascended to the out of doors stage on the grounds of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Tuesday. The stars of Break Point Episode 3 arrived simply hours after Netflix introduced there can be a second season.
Those ubiquitous staff are everywhere in the grounds at ‘Tennis Paradise’, capturing behind-the-scenes moments for episodes that can be seen subsequent 12 months.
“We’re really excited,” Paul Martin, government producer of Box to Box Films, instructed the gang earlier. “Excited to get to play in this space for another year. Hopefully, it continues for 10 more seasons.”
In this season’s Indian Wells episode — titled “California Dreaming” shot on the BNP Paribas Open a 12 months in the past — we discovered that Sakkari might be essentially the most caffeinated participant on the Hologic WTA Tour (six espressos in a single day!) and, in response to Ajla Tomljanovic, super-intense on court docket however a “teddy bear” off it.
Sakkari, who superior to the ultimate right here earlier than falling to Iga Swiatek, mentioned the collection appears to be reaching the informal tennis fan.
“I don’t think we’re like movie stars right now,” Sakkari mentioned, drawing laughter. “It’s just our personalities being exposed — in a good way. I’ve had people coming up to me and saying I watched you on Break Point, but not playing tennis, which I think was very good for the show. I was happy because that whole thing really helps tennis.”
Fritz, whose dramatic drive to the title in his native event — he beat Rafael Nadal within the closing on a significantly compromised ankle — was the episode’s dominant thread, agreed.
“It’s good to see that because those are people who aren’t tennis fans,” Fritz mentioned. “In the U.S. especially, that’s what we need. So whenever there’s someone saying, `Oh, I saw you on Break Point,’ I see that as someone maybe potentially who might watch tennis as a fan. What it’s been doing for the sport is great. Hopefully that continues.”
The first 5 episodes of the collection have been launched prematurely of the Australian Open, and episodes 6-10, protecting the second half of the 2022 season, will drop in June. The early returns have been encouraging. Break Point reached the Top 10 in 28 international locations, participating an viewers of greater than 15 million, with Australia and the United Kingdom on the high of the record.
While it didn’t attain the Top 10 within the United States, given its giant inhabitants, it generated the biggest variety of new followers. The featured gamers skilled a major bounce of their social media numbers.
“Tennis, being on tour, there’s a really great story to be told,” mentioned Fritz, whose No. 5 Pepperstone ATP Ranking is the very best for an American man since Andy Roddick in 2009. “Because what we do is pretty crazy and a lot of people don’t really know the behind-the-scenes, the traveling, the competing and everything that goes on. I’m glad the reception’s been great.”
Martin, who oversees the collection with co-producer James Gay-Rees, revealed how the collection got here into being. Describing himself as a fan however not essentially an aficionado, Martin had spent a 12 months speaking with Andre Agassi about making a movie.
“Just the picture that Andre painted in the tennis bubble, the extremes of highs and lows was just kind of mesmerising, really exciting,” Martin mentioned. “When that project fell away, we always felt there was a way to dive into tennis the way that Andre had talked about we would love the opportunity.”
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It got here when the Drive to Survive collection captured an enormous worldwide viewers, notably in America. When Netflix requested Box to Box what different sports activities may lend themselves to “reality” tv, tennis was one of many first solutions.
The story of the injured Fritz’s title run, enjoying in opposition to the desires of his father and coach, was the type of narrative that Martin hopes for.
“People have a version of tennis where they see two players walk out on court and they think that they’re 100 per cent fit, at the top of their game,” he mentioned. “They don’t see the bodily ache. They might need had an argument with their boyfriend or girlfriend earlier than they walked out on court docket.
“They don’t see how much baggage these players sometimes take out to the court. That was one of the most extreme examples of it.”
Sakkari drew a pleasant hand when she instructed the gang that Indian Wells is her favourite event of the 12 months — and never simply because she reached the ultimate a 12 months in the past. The public response to her star activate Netflix has humbled her.
“I never thought that coming from a very small country I would get to the ranking level where I was last year,” she mentioned. “Seeing myself on TV is nothing that I’m used to. It was type of bizarre in a means, but additionally good to see the totally different gamers within the episode.
“It’s the reward for the work I’ve done all these years.”
Learn extra about Break Point
Source web site: www.atptour.com
