WATCH: Incredible Behind The Scenes Look At Rafael Nadal Putting The Fear Of God Into An Opponent Just Before He Steps Onto The Court

Julian Finney. Getty Images.

Rafael Nadal is one of the greatest athletes and competitors we've ever seen. If you are to challenge him and take him down you have to be at your absolute best and pray he blinks. It's one thing to have the physical tools to survive the countless physical points you're about to endure, but you also need to be mentally unbreakable. 

In case you didn't know, Netflix just dropped five episodes for their behind-the-scenes tennis documentary called "Break Point" that follows the same path that the extremely popular "Drive To Survive" did with F1 racing. This clip below shows you what it's like when you're about to step on the court at Roland Garros before the finals of the French Open. Put yourself in Casper Ruud's shoes here and tell me you have any shot at beating Nadal. The Norwegian had an excellent year and was playing in the biggest match of his life. Any chance of him winning went out the window the moment Rafa started running around like that. 

How do you not shit your pants? How do you not just burst out in tears? Shoutout to Netflix playing the perfect soundtrack for that clip. A true apex predator stalking his prey before he's about to rip your head off. And what happened during the match? 

Murder. 

I'm sure if you ask Nadal he'll tell you that little act there is strictly for himself to get locked in, but it sure as hell does the job in intimidating the living hell out of the challenger. He's 36 years old and still relentlessly flying around like he's 22. You can call it a hardo move, but when Rafa is great because of all this shit. He's a true marvel in every way. 

Nadal was in action last night in the first round of the Aussie Open. I actually thought he was going to lose the match and mentioned that in my blog yesterday a bit. The young Brit Jack Draper played the legend tight for two sets and I thought had control of the match heading into the 3rd set. That's when his body broke down and began to cramp non-stop. Nadal went on to win in four sets so I'm sorry to whoever took my advice, we got jobbed because of an injury. What's alarming for Nadal fans? He did not look good whatsoever after the first set. Even with Draper struggling in the 3rd, Nadal was broken and had to claw out the very end of the frame to win it. While getting by Draper was a big test, I didn't love what I saw to make me think he can beat legitimate opponents who don't get hurt in this tournament. Not sure I've ever seen him shank so many forehands before, it was bizarre. At some point father time has to arrive for Nadal and we may finally just be starting to see the impact. 

Aside from the Nadal-Draper match not a whole lot happened last night that's newsworthy aside from Kyrgios pulling out of the tournament and having to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery. It's a big blow to the tournament no doubt about it. When Nick is playing at John Cain Arena and has the place rocking it's a spectacle. Because of how well he played last season he earned himself a decent seed and therefore had a nice draw for a few matches. It was all set up for him and Djokovic to meet each other in a few rounds. Super disappointing. 

'Break Point' thoughts

As for the Netflix documentary, I didn't come away thinking it was the greatest thing I've ever seen. Could be because I've already seen these things by watching the sport, so maybe someone who doesn't watch at all will like it a lot more. 

It was cool for them to focus on the tennis world and bring us into the lives of these athletes, but there felt like a lot was left on the plate to be desired. Each episode follows around 1-2 athletes in sort of an anthology fashion. The first episode 'Maverick' mainly focuses on Nick Kyrgios. Nick had himself a tough 2nd round match with eventual finalist Daniil Medvedev. For whatever reason they failed to show one moment from their epic 3rd set. How do you just ignore this and show him losing? 

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Feels like something to include. They do follow his doubles matches where he hoisted the title, but it felt underwhelming. You get to see Kyrgios' family and how he came up, but his 'Maverick' personality was sort of ignored as well. I'm hoping the Wimbledon episode with him in the summer will be a lot better. 

The Taylor Fritz episode (3) is fantastic as you get to see him battle through a foot injury in the finals of a huge tournament Indian Wells where he beats Nadal. Netflix is telling a story with these episodes so they chose to completely ignore Nadal's abdominal injury where he suffered a painful tear during the match. Kind of egregious to leave that out in my opinion. It was a huge moment for Fritz and American tennis, but they didn't tell the whole story there. 

Anything with Ons Jabeur is fantastic content so episode four is a good watch. You get to see the brutality of the sport with Paula Badosa as she comes up short in her match. One thing that's clear as day missing from the Madrid ep? Where the fuck is Carlos Alcaraz? The number one story I thought from 2022 was the kid surging up the rankings and becoming a bonafide superstar. In Madrid he beat Nadal and Djokovic in back to back days before destroying Zverev in the final. You'd think maybe zero in on that story? Not a peep. Felt like a big miss. 

If I were to rank the episodes I'd go 5-3-4-1-2

I have a good feeling part 2 that comes out in the summer will be a lot better. You're going to see Kyrgios run to the Wimbledon final, Tiafoe at the US Open beating Nadal, Iga's dominance, and Ajla Tomljanović beating Serena in the US Open. All of those players had huge moments in the summer season and with the cameras right there with them that'll make for good TV. I guess Carlos wasn't chosen to be a focus, but I mean they gotta show some stuff with him. It looks like he's being interviewed in the quick teaser snippet they ended part 1 with. Give us Carlos!