Fans are blaming the 'Netflix curse' after stars of 'Break Point' tennis docuseries suffered early Australian Open exits

• The stars featured in Netflix's new tennis docuseries have struggled at the Australian Open.
• Nine of the 10 "Break Point" participants were no longer in the tournament field ahead of its second week.
• Fans have noticed and are calling the phenomenon the "Break Point Curse" or "Netflix Curse."

The young stars featured in Netflix's new tennis docuseries — "Break Point" — have struggled mightily at the 2023 Australian Open.

And viewers have taken notice.

Nine of the 10 players whom the show bills as the future of the sport — and not-so-implicitly insinuates will assume the sport's mantle from legends like Serena Williams and The Big Three — were not in the field for the first Grand Slam of the year by its second week. Only Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime remains in the draw.

Fans have started referring to the phenomenon as the "Netflix Curse" or the "Break Point Curse."

"You place a bunch of bets, and then hopefully some of those bets pay off," James Gay-Rees — an executive producer of "Break Point" — told Insider regarding the players the series chose to follow. "And obviously not all of them do."

The story began before the competition even kicked off earlier in the week. Three of the players heavily featured in the first five episodes of the series — Nick Kyrgios, Paula Badosa, and Ajla Tomljanović — pulled out of the tournament due to injuries.

The show only lost one of its stars in the opening round of play, though his defeat drew lots of eyes thanks to his megawatt opponent. World No. 14 Matteo Berrettini dropped a five-set thriller to 35-year-old Andy Murray — one of the very veterans "Break Point" has tasked the Italian and his young counterparts with unseating.

The second round featured a flurry of upsets, with "Break Point" subjects consistently on the losing side. World No. 2 Ons Jabeur lost to Markéta Vondroušová; No. 3 Casper Ruud fell against Jenson Brooksby; No. 9 Taylor Fritz dropped a decisive fifth set vs Alexei Popyrin; and Thanasi Kokkinakis suffered a brutal come-from-behind defeat at the hands of Murray, the aforementioned spoiler of Netflix's party.

"I actually feel really privileged to be in this situation, because winning tournaments is their priority," Gay-Rees said. "So to let us into that process — good or bad, win or lose — is really important."

Even though they advanced through to the third round of the tournament — an elusive feat among the "Break Point" crew — Maria Sakkari and Auger-Aliassime both faced intense battles to make it that far.

Sakkari nearly found herself among the group of Netflix stars who lost early in the tournament, as Russian teenager Diana Shnaider stole the first set of their second-round bout Tuesday. The 27-year-old from Greece survived a tiebreak to win the second set before running away with the third, but the clash was surely more of a struggle than she'd bargained for.

The third round proved no easier for Sakkari. She lost a first-set tiebreak to China's Zhu Lin before cruising to victory in the second. But the world No. 6 Sakkari faltered after a back-and-forth third set to become the ninth victim of the supposed streamer's curse.

Auger-Aliassime, meanwhile, needed a full five sets to overcome Alex Molcan's second-round upset bid; the Slovak forced the 22-year-old Canadian sensation to climb back from two sets down in order to move on in the tournament.

Now, after beating Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in four sets on Friday, Auger-Aliassime is the lone "Break Point" participant headed into Week 2 of the Australian Open. 

And while it's clear that from these results that Netflix's rising stars haven't risen up for their first big test since the series' debut, Gay-Rees is confident that "their time is coming."

"It hasn't fully arrived, [but] the spaces are opening up," he told Insider. "But it's not gonna be an instant changeover.

"The next generation have to work very hard to dislodge [the sport's veterans] because they're, you know, fairly good at tennis and have been doing this for a long time," he added, of stars like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Murray. "And they've also got all the tricks; they've got the mental strength, the game, the attitude, the bodies to keep on going.

"I think it's more fun in a way if it's not a fait accompli," Gay-Rees continued. "It's gonna be hard to do this, but it has to happen at some point."

Tennis fans and newcomers to the sport alike can watch the first five episodes of "Break Point" on Netflix. The second half of the series' first season — which features a slew of stars who remain in the running for the 2023 Australian Open title — will debut in June.