Watching Nick Kyrgios and other ‘next generation’ stars, life on tour resembles a nightmare more than living the dream
Nick Kyrgios is a professional tennis player, one of the best in the world. He has an adoring girlfriend, Costeen Hatzi, and an amiable sidekick called “Horse” , as well as thousands of fans in the stands to cheer his winning shots. But it is still not enough – probably, it never quite is. “Tennis is an extremely lonely sport,” he says. “That’s what I struggle with the most.”
For better or worse, Kyrgios looks set to land a fresh load of fans with the release of the Netflix series Break Point, a 10-part docusoap that follows the fortunes of the so-called “next generation” of tennis stars; the band of twentysomething athletes who have been challenging Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. These younger players all speak the same language and share the same hopes and fears (the dream of winning a big title; the terror of not fulfilling their true potential). But the logic of their profession makes them antagonists not friends. They talk to the camera but never to one another.