'Netflix Curse' takes over Australian Open as many players bow out early

Several tennis players faced early eliminations at the Australian Open. Many of these players were featured in a Netflix docu-series 'Break Point and the spectators have begun attributing their failure to a 'Netflix curse' which has been doing the rounds.

Casper Ruud, Ons Jabeur and Matteo Berrettini were among the players featured in Netflix series to exit this year's tournament early, while Nick Kyrgios, Paula Badosa and Ajla Tomljanovic were forced to pull out even before it began.

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime was another player who featured in the show, came very close to exiting the Open in the second round earlier this week. But he managed to pull through with a thrilling five-set comeback win over Slovakian Alex Molcan.


When asked about the 'curse' after his third-round win over Francisco Cerundolo on Friday, the 22-year-old told reporters: "My girlfriend showed me today. I wasn't aware.

"I was aware that players were losing, I'd see players were losing, but it didn't cross my mind until, yeah, she showed me the thing this morning. I thought it was funny.

"I don't know. I don't think it's connected. Maybe the players that lost, maybe they do feel like it's connected somehow. I don't think they do. But, yeah, so funny how things work out sometimes."

Taylor Fritz, another player who appeared in the docu-series, also down played the potential effects of the curse, earlier this week, before being eliminated in the second round.

Netflix jokingly addressed the notion of a curse on Twitter, retweeting an image of the players that are no longer in contention at the Australian Open with the caption: "To clarify: this is purely a coincidence..."

(With inputs from Reuters)