‘Match Point’ to ‘Challengers’: 10 Memorable Tennis Movies
Tennis movies have had their moment in the spotlight over the years.
Two tennis movies, in fact, debuted at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival (Battle of the Sexes and Borg/McEnroe), and King Richard was showered with accolades over the 2021-2022 awards season, even winning an Oscar.
Hollywood has taken comedic and dramatic approaches to tennis movies, coming up with fictional takes and basing movies on true stories.
Take a look back at 10 tennis-themed films that serve great entertainment both on and off the court.
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The comedy stars Jeremy Sisto and David Walton as estranged brothers and former tennis partners. When Jimmy (Sisto) can’t find a partner to play in one last tennis tournament that can qualify the winning duo for the U.S. Open, he turns to Darren (Walton) for help. They know their days are numbered as tennis players, but the professional reunion might be enough to revive their relationship.
King Richard stars Will Smith as Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, who is determined to turn them into tennis pros. Smith won an Oscar for his portrayal — though his win will forever be associated with his slapping presenter Chris Rock moments before Smith was announced as the winner — while Aunjanue Ellis earned an Oscar nom for her portrayal of Oracene “Brandy” Price, mother of Venus and Serena, played by Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, respectively.
Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 erotic thriller Challengers stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as three young tennis stars caught in a love triangle.
After meeting and being entranced by Zendaya’s tennis phenom Tashi, O’Connor’s Patrick and Faist’s Art compete for her affections, with Tashi initially having a steamy romance with Patrick before an injury ends her athletic career and she winds up marrying Art and serving as his coach. The three are reunited and former best friends Patrick and Art face off at a “Challenger” tennis event in New Rochelle, New York, which Tashi enters Art in to boost his confidence amid a losing streak.
Written by Justin Kuritzkes and with a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers received recognition from a number of critics groups and awards organizations over the 2024-2025 Oscars season before it was completely snubbed by the 2025 Academy Awards.
In his review of the “smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension” film for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney writes, “The psychosexual power plays keep it pinging, as do the nuances folded into the protagonists by three magnetic actors at the top of their game. … Guadagnino smoothly interweaves the action over the non-chronological 13-year arc, steadily cranking up the electricity. He makes us aware of the extent to which the fierce athleticism of tennis comes to mirror the high-stakes competition of shifting interpersonal dynamics, yet never feels the need to overstate those parallels.”
Kimberly Nordyke and Hilary Lewis contributed to this story.
This story was first published on Sept. 22, 2017.
