The latest episode of acclaimed Netflix docuseries “Untold” tells Mardy Fish’s story of mental health and anxiety like never before in the aptly named “Breaking Point.”
“Mental health doesn’t care what your name is or what you do for a living,” Fish told me before the US Open. “Everyone is in their own bubble with stresses, pressures, and expectations on themselves—no matter what job title they have. Mine just happened to involve playing in front of a lot of people, but my issues would be no different from any other person’s.”
Fish first shared his struggles with mental health through a stirring first-person narrative written for The Players’ Tribune in 2015, how at the peak of his career, the American star was forced to put his career on the backburner to prioritize his own peace of mind.
“As tennis players, we’re ingrained from a young age to not show anything—tiredness, fear—or your opponent is going to know and you don’t want that to happen,” he said.
Created by the director-producer team of and Chapman and Maclain Way—who, incidentally, were family friends of ATP veteran Sam Querrey—“Breaking Point” vividly frames Fish’s crisis through the lens of the nationwide hunt for American tennis talent, the likes of which could meet and one day surpass the standard set by John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.
The way brothers proceed to zoom in on Fish’s early days as a foil for childhood friend and rival Andy Roddick, with whom he briefly lived before embarking on their respective pro careers.
“He’s more like a brother than a friend,” Fish said. “He’s family.”
