MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Tennis is abuzz with specious talk of the “curse of Netflix” during the Australian Open, drawing a line from the streaming service’s new docuseries about the sport to the final turbulent times of the season-one champions.
Of the 10 players who featured prominently in the five episodes released last week, right before the start of play at Melbourne Park, only one player remained in singles competition ahead of Saturday: 22-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime from Canada.
Number 6 Auger-Aliassime, a 2021 US Open semi-finalist, said he wasn’t aware this was even a topic of conversation until Friday, when his girlfriend turned it on.
“I thought it was funny,” he said after beating 28th seed Francesco Sirondolo 6-1 3-6 6-1 6-4 to reach the fourth round. “I don’t know; I don’t think it’s connected. … Maybe the players who lose, maybe they feel connected in some way. I don’t think they do. I don’t think it’s connected, anyway.”
Well, of course it isn’t.
There is no such thing as a “curse” in the world of sports, although people certainly love to fabricate it and discuss it. Damn Bambino, for one. Jinx was another Sports Illustrated cover.
It should be noted that no one is drawing any kind of similar absurd association between active participation in the filming of the popular Netflix movie “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” – made by the same executive producers as Break Point – and on-track F1 results.
And keep in mind: Lewis Hamilton did the interviews and managed to win the Driver’s Championship in each of the first three years of that series. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, has yet to sit in front of the Netflix cameras and has collected the past two titles.
With that said, just for fun, let’s go over the list of what’s been released from Breaking Point:
Episode 1: Nick Kyrgios (withdrew before the tournament because he needed surgery on his left knee); Tanasi Kokkinakis (lost to 35-year-old Andy Murray in the second round in five sets that lasted 5 hours and 45 minutes and ended at 4:05 a.m. Friday)
– Episode 2: Matteo Berrettini (lost to Murray in the first round in 5 sets that lasted 4 hours and 49 minutes); Ajla Tomljanovic (withdrew before the tournament due to a knee injury)
– Episode 3: Maria Sakkari (lost to 87th seed Zhou Lin in the second round on Friday, in three sets); Taylor Fritz (lost to Australian 113rd-ranked Alexei Popyrin in the second round in five sets)
Episode 4: Ons Jabeur (lost to Marketa Vondrousova in the second round in three sets); Paula Badosa (withdrew before the tournament with a thigh injury)
– Episode 5: Auger-Aliassime (plays Jiri Lehecka in Round 4 Sunday); Casper Roode (lost to Jenson Broxby in the second round)
Yes, one of these is not like the others.
“It’s funny how things go sometimes,” said Auger-Aliassime.
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