Taylor Fritz overcomes nerves and plays down Netflix ‘curse’ at Australian Open

Taylor Fritz kicked off his 2023 Australian Open campaign with a confident win over Nikoloz Basilashvili and played off suggestions that a “Netflix curse” is doing the rounds at Melbourne Park.

The eighth seed has been tipped as one of the dark horses to win this year’s season-opening Grand Slam with many believing he could well be Novak Djokovic’s biggest challenger for the title.

The American, though, made a sluggish start to the match as he was broken in game three, but he hit back with breaks in games eight and 10 to take the opening set. Breaks in games six and eight of the second set gave him a two-set to love lead.

Basilashvili then broke in the opening game of the third set and went on to serve it out before a break in game 12 of the fourth set earned Fritz a 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win.

The match on John Cain Arena started under an open roof, but it was closed midway through the first set due to extreme heat and the American felt the break did him the world of good.

“It gave me a chance to regroup a little bit,” he said of the delay. “I came out, it’s the first match, first Slam of the year, it’s my first time being a Top 8 seed. I came out a little nervous but kind of regrouped. I felt like maybe closing the roof wasn’t the best for me because I wanted it to be a little bit faster on the court. I felt like it slowed everything down.

“I did a good job regrouping, just relaxing a bit and just playing a lot more solid.”

Fritz is one of the stars of Netflix’s tennis documentary Break Point, which was released on January 13, and several other players who feature have suffered setbacks at this year’s Australian Open.

Nick Kyrgios, Ajla Tomljanovic and Paula Badosa all pulled out due to injury while Matteo Berrettini lost against Andy Murray on Tuesday.

The internet has dubbed it the “Netflix curse”, but Fritz saw the funny side of it.

“I noticed the people pulling out of the tournament, but I didn’t know it was a thing, like ‘I’m going to lose my first round because I’m in the Netflix show,’” he said.

The 25-year-old added with a smile: “I didn’t think of that.”

READ MORE: Netflix’s tennis series Break Point: How to watch it, release date, which players feature, episode guide