Connect with us
Image: Netflix

TV

“The Breaking Point” Looks at the Career of Tennis Pro, Mardy Fish

Untold, Episode 4: “The Breaking Point”

There’s been a lot in the sports media this year about elite professional athletes and mental health. The well-covered stories over Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka withdrawing from their competition have been tinged with both rank sexism and a lot of bile from those obsessed with “toughness.” But that media coverage has also heavily implied that this sort of thing didn’t happen until very recently. 

“The Breaking Point,” this week’s fifth and final episode of Netflix’s Untold sports documentary series looks at the story of a top male professional athlete- in the same sport as Osaka, even- who underwent his own battle with anxiety, one that seriously affected his career- and even caused him to step away from major competitions. 

Mardy Fish was a top American tennis player, in the early 2000s, and toiled at a time when professional tennis was far from its era of major relevance, the women’s game was much more interesting than the men’s, and of the top players on the men’s circuit, none were American. 

Fish arrived on the scene around the same time as his contemporary Andy Roddick, with whom he was both a friend and rival. 

The Breaking Point
Image: Netflix

The film, directed by Chapman Way and Maclain Way,  follows Fish’s rise, his relationship with Roddick, and his occasional triumphs and failures, which included a heartbreaking loss to Roddick. Fish never won a Grand Slam tournament, although he won some minor ones. 

Eventually, Fish came to terms with an anxiety disorder, which had greatly affected both his play on the court and his happiness. But this isn’t that classic story of athletic triumph over adversity- Fish did return to action after his diagnosis, but he was effectively done as a top player by that point, although he later became captain of the American Davis Cup team. 

“Breaking Point”, while a sympathetic and engaging portrait of Fish, isn’t the best installment of the Untold series, as that title goes to “Crime and Penalties,” the fourth episode that dealt with the mobbed-up minor league hockey team the Danbury Trashers. It also won’t make the greatest impact of the series; that was clearly “Malice at the Palace,” the first episode, which looked at the famous NBA brawl from 2004. 

It’s also not quite the best tennis documentary of recent years, nor does it do anything particularly original or unconventional with the documentary form. There were two great ones in 2017, which were Love Means Zero (the examination of long-time tennis coach  Nick Bollettieri), and the French doc McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, which set new, florid narration – and a punk rock soundtrack- over footage of a McEnroe match from the ’70s. 

The Breaking Point
Image: Netflix

There was even a documentary series, also on Netflix, just a couple of months ago, about Naomi Osaka herself, although it was mostly filmed and completed before her French Open withdrawal. 

With the first series now complete, Netlfix’s Untold can be called a success, with a great deal of potential to tell undertold (if not completely untold) stories from throughout sports history. It can very much be Netflix’s answer to ESPN’s 30 for 30 and Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring

Written By

Stephen Silver is a journalist and film critic based in the Philadelphia area. He is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle and a Rotten Tomatoes-listed critic since 2008, and his work has appeared in New York Press, Philly Voice, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Tablet, The Times of Israel, and RogerEbert.com. In 2009, he became the first American journalist to interview both a sitting FCC chairman and a sitting host of "Jeopardy" on the same day.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Trending

2001: A Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: Clarke and Kubrick’s Odyssey of Discovery

Culture

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie review Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie review

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Caps Off the Trilogy With a Heartfelt Bang (Mostly)

Film

Deep Impact was a serious look at the end of the world Deep Impact was a serious look at the end of the world

25 Years Later: Deep Impact was a Serious Look at the End of the World 

Film

The Best Movies of 1973 The Best Movies of 1973

The Golden Year of Movies: 1973

Culture

The Zone of Interest The Zone of Interest

Cannes 2023: Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a Manicured Vision of Hell

Culture

Jeanne Du Barry review Jeanne Du Barry review

Cannes 2023: Maïwenn’s Great Hair Goes to Great Lengths in Jeanne Du Barry

Culture

Black Flies Gripping Black Flies Gripping

Cannes 2023: Black Flies— Gripping Descent into the Underbelly of New York’s Urban Misery 

Culture

Asteroid City: A Gimmicky Vanity Project Asteroid City: A Gimmicky Vanity Project

Cannes 2023: Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is a Gimmicky Vanity Project

Culture

La Passion de Dodin Bouffant: La Passion de Dodin Bouffant:

La Passion de Dodin Bouffant: Surfeit Cooking Drama Most Inane Film at Cannes

Culture

BlackBerry movie review BlackBerry movie review

BlackBerry Is a Wonderfully Canadian Account of a Dying Tech Dream

Film

Godzilla 1998 Godzilla 1998

Godzilla at 25: When Hollywood Made a Manhattan Monster Movie, with Disastrous Results

Film

The Mother Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez The Mother Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez

Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother is Eerily Similar to Enough, But That’s Not a Bad Thing

Film

10 Best SummerSlam Matches 10 Best SummerSlam Matches

10 Best SummerSlam Matches

Culture

Discovery channel Discovery channel

The Head-Scratching Moves Discovery Has Been Making

Culture

Sean Connery Sean Connery

60 Years Later, Dr. No Remains the Paragon of Bond

Film

The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Reloaded

20 Years Later: The Matrix Reloaded was Underwhelming, but Still Underrated

Film

Connect