Iga Świątek has now offered her verdict on Netflix’s Break Point, after news broke last week regarding its future.
Despite making two seasons, which were largely well received at first by the tennis community, it seems this venture failed in the key area where it was brought in to succeed.
Poor viewing figures and thus a lack of interest from the masses saw it fall flat, made more disappointing given the success of Formula 1’s alternative, Drive to Survive.
Now, speaking the the Indian Wells Press, the WTA world number one has given her thoughts on why this occurred.
What Iga Swiatek said about Netflix’s Break Point
She would claim: ‘Well, honestly, I didn’t know about that. I don’t have any answer to that right now. I was involved only in Season 1, and I gotta say that it was kind of a test for me if I’m going to be comfortable talking about my life and, like, opening up so much.
‘But I think it was a great idea, but I think we have many different and complicated stories that it’s hard to describe them in couple of episodes.
‘But on the other hand, in other sports it’s the same case. Honestly, it’s hard for me to compare why it didn’t work out in tennis but it did in golf and Formula 1. But I can only speak about my perspective. I think that the Netflix guys were really nice and really cooperative but in the end there wasn’t much impact we had in terms of editing some stuff we didn’t like.
‘I know I didn’t give much access, as much as other players. I accepted that I may not have the final voice, but there were some things that were misinterpreted. My appearance in this series kind of caused some hate towards me and my team. So I just wanted to live my life peacefully and do my job, so that’s why I didn’t get into the second season. I don’t know why it didn’t work out.
‘Honestly, I don’t want to criticize or something, but I also saw some memes about editing and how, you know, Aryna, there was a match — I think the final between Aryna and Elena.. she was serving on deuce and then Elena was returning from the advantage side. And I think anybody who knows tennis is going to notice. Yeah, it’s a shame that it didn’t work out.’
Why did Netflix cancel Break Point?
To conjure up an answer for that, Netflix needed only to look at the demand for such a programme to realise that it was not there.
After all, with Golf and Formula 1 both making successful ventures in that field, it would have been easy just to follow their path and achieve similar results.
However, in an effort to appeal to both existing tennis fans and a new audience, they actually created a show that didn’t really target anyone in particular, resulting in low viewing figures and poor ratings.
As such, it is no surprise to see it cancelled, but it does mark a huge missed opportunity for the sport, as Sky Sports’ Gigi Salmon attested.
A criminally underrated sport, this latest failure will have done little to ease that notion.
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