Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are largely in the top 2 when it comes to most men’s tennis records of all-time. Both the players have been inspirations when it comes to their longevity and success, having their own fan bases across the world. They are also amongst the richest in the sport, which means that they have many business, social and media commitments to fulfil to earn off the court.
Both generate huge interest when it comes to the lives they live. The Netflix show, Break Point did approach both the legends to feature on their show. However, much to the dismay of fans, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal weren’t a big part of the reality show as the makers could not somehow convince the players since both had their own, yet unknown projects to complete, which were on similar lines. Interestingly, even the great Roger Federer was contacted for the same, but the plan didn’t materialize eventually.
Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic difficult to approach for different reasons: Break Point producer
In an interview with RadioTimes, the producer of Break Point, James Gay-Rees spoke about the show and especially not having the likes of legends such as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Rees attempted to justify the same by saying that younger, inexperienced players would benefit more from being in the documentary since they needed the attention which was lacking due to the humungous success of the 3 legends.
Additionally, their careers and stories were mostly at an ‘interesting point’. He also clearly stated that the show was never intended to be made as a ‘Nadal-Djokovic show’, since that wasn’t possible practically and logistically.
Rees was quoted as saying –
“We obviously had discussions with everybody. But the thing is, when you’re as big as Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, apart from the fact that some of them have got their own projects happening already, which pre-existed ours, it’s hard to really corral it.
“The younger players have more to gain from being in here and, personally, I think they’re at more interesting points in their stories because when those four players have fundamentally dominated a sport maybe more than any other sport I can think about, everyone else has been sort of living in their shadow.
“From very early on, we identified the idea of the next generation, it was never meant to be the Nadal-Djokovic show. It was never going to be that. Practically and logistically, it was never going to be that, and that was never our intention. We would happily have engaged with them a little bit more, but it became pretty clear, pretty quickly that wasn’t the route we were going to take.”
Rafael Nadal was shown in increments on the show in its first season, as part of the 2022 ATP Tour season in which he won the first 2 Grand Slams of the year and 20 matches in a row. This is due to the fact that other players were either commenting about him or were left in awe of Nadal winning the Australian Open and the blockbuster Wimbledon quarterfinal against Taylor Fritz for example. In the documentary, players such as Nick Kyrgios, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Felix Augur-Aliassime were seen in the segments showing Nadal.
Nick Kyrgios was to face Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon semifinals after the Spaniard beat Taylor Fritz in five sets, but that wasn’t to be. On the other hand, Fritz was seen taking viewers through his win in the Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament, in which he defeated Nadal in the final in his home state. In later episodes, the top-ranked American player at the moment was also gung-ho about getting past the 22-time Grand Slam champion for the second time in 2022 on his Nitto ATP Finals debut in Turin.
When it comes to Frances Tiafoe, his match against Rafael Nadal in the US Open 2022 was covered extensively, a Round of 16 clash he famously won in New York City. And Felix Augur-Aliassime was seen taking on the Spanish legend in the French Open first, a match he lost in 5 closely contested sets. However, Aliassime got Nadal’s number at the ATP Finals, knocking him out of the competition with a straight sets win.
How Roger Federer was nearer to make it to Break Point
The Break Point makers did approach Roger Federer, whose team was extremely keen on participating in it. This is because his sports management company, Team8 manages a group of prominent players across the ATP and WTA Tours. However, Gees confirmed that no agreement was reached on Federer himself being a part of the documentary since he was mainly not playing any form of professional tennis at the time, quitting the game in September 2022.
“Roger Federer’s people were really into it and they represent other players that we were talking to. He wasn’t really playing tennis for a start,” Gees had said about the Swiss maestro.
Break Point has been received generally well by tennis fans, pundits and critics. It has been considered as a breakthrough documentary for the sport. The makers of the same were also creators of the Formula 1: Drive to Survive documentary.
