“Break Point” success helps boost social media profile of Fritz, Sakkari, Badosa and others

The boost in social media following were in stark contrast with the players’ success on court at the Australian Open

Netflix Break Point

March 8, 2023

This week’s announcement by Netflix that “Break Point” – the new behind the scenes series which began with the first five episodes in January – is to be renewed for a second season is good news for tennis authorities, who will doubtless enjoy the injection of cash it will inevitably bring.

But it also seems that it has boosted the social media profile of many of the players involved in series one.

Research from Zoomph showed that Taylor Fritz received a 15.3 percent boost in Instagram followers and a 7.3 percent rise on Twitter.

Maria Sakkari saw her Instagram profile boosted by 10.8 percent and enjoyed 6.1 percent more impact on Twitter. Paula Badosa, too, the Spaniard’s Instagram followers rising by 10.6 percent and 3 percent on Twitter.

In the same way as Full Swing, Netflix’s golf equivalent, has been in the top 10 of the provider’s ratings worldwide, Break Point was a hit, too.

Kyrgios’s social media followers increase, but not by as much

Interestingly, the person who was front and centre of the first five episodes, Nick Kyrgios, saw his Instagram and Twitter followers grow by a far smaller amount; 1.5 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.

That’s probably because Kyrgios has a far bigger following on social media than any of the other players mentioned, so even a small increase in percentage terms would relate to a big increase in real terms.

And on-court success at this year’s Australian Open, when the first episodes of the show were released, didn’t matter, with only Felix Auger-Aliassime, of the players charted, making it to the fourth round.