American tennis player Mardy Fish was featured in an episode of the “Untold” Netflix docuseries that originally aired on September 7, 2021. This series pulls back the curtain on infamous sporting events as first-person accounts from the athletes and others who were directly involved. For Fish, the infamous occurrence was an aggregate of severe anxiety and mental health challenges, which changed his life on and off the court.
Breaking Point is a documentary that all tennis fans, players, and parents of players should watch. It casts an entirely new light on the culture of mental toughness in tennis and how the sport can complicate mental health issues that may be occurring off the court. In essence, tennis players are coached their entire lives to be mentally tough and not show any signs of weakness. Additionally, during the era of Fish’s professional career, attributing losses or an absence from competition was largely viewed as a cop-out.
Fish literally grew up in the shadow of Andy Roddick, as the two players trained at the same junior development academy. Additionally, Fish moved in with Roddick and his parents and was a defacto member of their family for a year. The documentary reveals how Roddick was regarded as the top American prospect and how Fish’s value in the junior development system was primarily viewed as Roddick’s hitting partner and buddy.
Breaking Point tells the story of how Fish eventually dedicated himself to rigorous tennis training in 2011 with the goal of making the ATP Finals for the first time in his career. The previous years of his professional life were marked with rankings swings in and out of the ATP top 100, but always peaking in the neighborhood of 20th overall. The training paid off, and he achieved a career-high ranking of #7, which propelled him to the ATP Finals in 2011.
Ironically, that success brought additional pressure on Fish. Ultimately it precipitated an anxiety breakdown. Breaking Point tells the story of how the demands and expectations in the sport can be overwhelming at the upper echelons. It will change the way you think about mental health and tennis.
Breaking Point focuses on how Fish’s anxiety and other mental health issues culminated in 2014. In June of that year, he had a cardiac catheter ablation operation to correct misfiring electric pulses in his heart. Even as Fish returned to competition under a protected ranking and series of wildcards into events, I personally questioned why a player who was not mentally tough was receiving that kind of preferential treatment. This documentary changed how I think about Mardy Fish’s playing career and even his subsequent Davis Cup captaincy.
Breaking Point is a documentary that all tennis fans, players, and parents of players should watch. It will change how you think about mental health within the context of life as well as tennis competition.
