MELBOURNE – Tennis is full of tongue-in-cheek gossip about a “Netflix Curse” during the Australian Opendraw a line with streaming services new documentation through sports to the recent hard times for the protagonists of the first season.
Of the 10 players who featured prominently in the five episodes released just before play started at Melbourne Park last week, only one remains in Saturday’s singles competition: Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 22-year-old from Canada.
6th-seeded Auger-Aliassime, a US Open semifinalist in 2021, said he wasn’t aware it was even a topic of conversation until Friday, when his girlfriend pointed it out to him.
“I thought it was funny,” he said after beating Francisco Cerundolo 6-1 3-6 6-1 6-4 to advance to the fourth round. “I don’t know; I don’t think it’s related. … Maybe the players who lost maybe feel like it’s somehow connected. I don’t think they do. I don’t think that anyway it is related.”
Well, of course it isn’t.
There is no “curse” in the world of sports, although people love to concoct and discuss them. The Curse of the Bambino, for example. The Sports Illustrated title curse was another.
It’s worth noting that no one is making a similarly silly connection between actively participating in the filming of Netflix’s popular “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” – made by the same executive producers as “Break Point” – and the F1 on-track results.
Consider this: Lewis Hamilton has participated in interviews and managed to win the Drivers’ Championship in each of the first three years of this series. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was not in front of the Netflix cameras and collected the last two titles.
Still, just for fun, let’s go through the list of Break Point releases:
– Episode 1: Nick Kyrgios (withdrew before the tournament due to surgery on his left knee); Thanasi Kokkinakis (lost to 35-year-old Andy Murray in the second round in a five-setter that lasted 5 hours, 45 minutes and ended at 4:05 on Friday)
– Episode 2: Matteo Berretini (lost to Murray in the first round in a five-setter that lasted 4 hours and 49 minutes); Ajla Tomljanovic (resigned before tournament due to knee injury)
– Episode 3: Maria Sakkari (lost in the second round to Zhu Lin in a three-way on Friday in 87th place); Taylor Fritz (lost in the second round in a five-setter to Australian wildcard entry ranked 113 Alexei Popyrin)
— Episode 4: Ons Jabeur (lost in the second round in a three-pointer to Marketa Vondrousova); Paula Badosa (retired before the tournament with a hamstring injury)
— Episode 5: Auger-Aliassime (plays Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round on Sunday); Kasper Ruud (lost to Jenson Brooksby in the second round)
Yes, one of them is not like the others.
“Funny how things go sometimes,” Auger-Aliassime said.
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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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