The Tennis Issue

Game, set, love.

Mike Faist and Zendaya on the set of Challengers. (Source.)

Hi friends~

I finally saw Challengers and, wow, it fully delivers upon the hype. The dialogue, the structure, the way the nail-biting finale simulates the agony and the ecstasy of a real-life, high-stakes tennis match. Halfway through the movie, I was like, This script is genius. Who wrote it? I pulled out my phone and googled the name of the screenwriter: Justin Kuritzkes, an obscure New York-based playwright and novelist married to Past Lives filmmaker Celine Song. I mentally added them to my list of Notable Non-Hollywood Hollywood Couples alongside Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, and Anna Scott and Will Thacker.

Challengers defies easy categorization. It is a comedy, a drama, a romance and a thriller wrapped in one. Like all great sports movies, it captures the spirit of the sport being showcased — in this case, the thrill of a racket thwacking a ball, the adrenaline rush of staring down a worthy competitor, the struggle of public failure and the triumph of a game well-played.

Kuritzkes got bit by the tennis bug while watching 20-year-old Naomi Osaka defeat her idol, Serena Williams, at the U.S. Open in 2018. Williams, the GOAT and fan favorite, confronted chair umpire Carlos Ramos for calling three code violations amid her 6-2, 6-4 loss to Osaka. Ramos first penalized Williams after he spotted her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, trying to guide her from the stands, which violates the no-coaching rule. The call — and the suggestion that she was cheating — outraged Williams. Rightfully defending her honor, she told umpire: “I have never cheated in my life! I have a daughter and I stand for what’s right for her, and I have never cheated. You owe me an apology.”

The crowd booed Ramos and continued booing when Osaka won her first-ever Grand Slam title. At the trophy ceremony, she covered her face with her visor and cried; Williams gave her a hug.

“I know that everyone was cheering for her,” Osaka told onlookers in the least happy acceptance speech in tennis history. “I’m sorry it had to end like this. I just want to say thank you for watching the match.”

That’s right, she apologized. For winning. It was excruciating to witness! The whole ordeal had Kuritzkes on tenterhooks, wondering what was happening inside the players’ heads — and what they might say to each other if given the right opportunity. “Immediately, this struck me as this intensely cinematic situation where you’re all alone on your side of the court and there’s this one other person in this massive tennis stadium who cares as much about what happens to you as you do, but you can’t talk to them,” he said at a recent press conference, adding, “For whatever reason, it just clicked in my mind. Well, what if you really needed to talk about something? And what if it was something beyond tennis?”

Josh O’Connor and Zendaya in Challengers.

Inspired, he plotted Challengers, which stars Zendaya as former tennis prodigy Tashi Donaldson, who tries to coach her pro husband, Art (Mike Faist), out of a playing slump. Though Art has won all the big titles, she signs him up for a low-level tournament in suburban New York in hopes that taking on lesser opponents will improve his game and put him back on the Wimbledon circuit. There’s just one problem, though. Art’s ex-best friend, Patrick (Josh O’Connor), has entered the contest, and unlike Art, his swing still packs a punch. Adding to the tension, Tashi finds herself drawn to Patrick — a charismatic dirtbag — and an offer he makes that he knows she can’t refuse. “Tennis is about relationships,” she tells the men, dispensing a pearl of wisdom about their chosen racket sport: The best matches are played where laser focus meets heightened emotion, where time stops and things get personal. Because when an athlete manages to play really good, neck-and-neck tennis, it doesn’t really matter if he wins or loses. The trophy is not a shiny silver cup or a seven-figure endorsement deal — rather, it’s the pure joy of human connection, and being alive.

As soon as the credits rolled, I felt the urge to compile a list of favorite (non-Challengers) tennis films, books and clothes. Without further ado:

THE CINEMA OF TENNIS

• Wimbledon (2004): This winsome romantic comedy pairs Kirsten Dunst as a confident phenom not unlike Tashi and Paul Bettany as a rakish also-ran shooting his last shot on tennis’ biggest stage. Their meet-cute is, well, cringe. He accidentally walks into her hotel room while she’s showering — and her reaction isn’t horror but dopey delight. That scene would never be filmed today! But despite its flaws, the rom-com manages to hold up as a charming time capsule of a bygone era in which Kiki Dunst got to swoon, and serve, onscreen. (Off-camera, she famously dated Jake Gyllenhaal, with whom she adopted a German Shepherd named Atticus. Gyllenhaal kept the dog when they broke up. Why do I know this?)

• Venus and Serena (2012): Many tennis stars are intensely private and reluctant to share their backstage secrets — I’m looking at you, Roger Federer, and your sphinxlike game face. Fortunately, Venus Williams and her beloved sister, Serena, have a different relationship to celebrity. While granting behind-the-scenes access for their namesake documentary, the trailblazers from Compton — who conquered the white, elitist world of tennis — were silly and serious, fun-loving and fierce. And brutally honest. In childhood footage, 11-year-old Venus is asked to name the toughest match she’s ever played. “Probably the one against my sister,” she replied. What was that like? “Horrible,” she said. “She won 7-6. It was good that she won.”

• Battle of the Sexes (2017): Only Steve Carell could play a buffoon and (almost) get away with making him likable. Carell portrays Bobby Riggs to Emma Stone’s Billie Jean King in this sepia-toned period film based on the 1973 showdown between Riggs and King that captivated the nation — and altered the future of women’s tennis. As King, Stone gives an understated, grown-up performance that puts Carell’s clownish bravado in movingly bold relief. She, a professional, has to deal with this guy? Really?

THE LIBRARY OF TENNIS

I first became aware of Andre Agassi in seventh-grade speech class. My teacher had taped posters of the Grand Slam champ all over the classroom walls and would regularly make lusty references to him; if she were a Saturday Night Life sketch, she’d be played by Kristen Wiig. In 1993, I knew that Agassi had a spectacular mullet, and that he was some kind of sex symbol; in 2010, he published an unusually candid memoir called Open, revealing that his leonine, flowing mane was actually a wig. He held the hairpiece in place with pins and prayed that it would not fall off on the court. He blamed wig-related stress for losing his match against Andres Gomez in the 1990 French Open. Those are comical stories, but Agassi’s book, like the man himself, is much, much more than his hair. With rare vulnerability, he addresses his life’s peaks and valleys, leaving little unsaid. We can credit his skilled ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer, with getting the athlete to let down his guard — he did the same for Prince Harry, too.

Besides Open, I can also recommend Carrie Soto Is Back, the gripping novel from Taylor Jenkins Reid that spotlights a tennis legend who comes out of retirement to face a younger rival and defend her record.

THE LOOK OF TENNIS

Zendaya and her stylist, Law Roach, brought the “tenniscore” aesthetic into the mainstream while promoting Challengers all over the world this spring. The actress wore, among other on-theme ensembles, a custom-made Thom Browne dress with white sequins, embroidered rackets and a preppy collar. I certainly cannot recreate this perfection (!), or get my hands on a couture gown (!), but if you’re into tennis-inspired fashion, I will gladly point you in the direction of Kule, a clothing brand that makes the kind of sporty staples you’ll have forever. I recently wore the green terry Serena romper to Disneyland — not a tennis court in sight.

If you’re on the hunt for a skirt that screams “Tennis is a lifestyle, not a sport,” check out Kule’s “The Williams,” Staud’s “Rally” style in green and Nike’s “Dri-FIT Victory” version.

Meanwhile, I have my eye on these butter yellow Lacoste sneakers.

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“Tennis ball” by Wayne Thiebaud, 1968.

My lifelong affinity for tennis began in the early ’90s with my late grandmother, Mary, who taught history and coached the girls’ tennis team at Geneva High School in northern Illinois. When the weather got warm, she’d find a court and put me through drills; for a time there, I had a killer backhand. Now my swing is rusty, my speed too slow. I’m thinking it might be fun to take lessons again — and picture Mary on the other side of the net. If I could speak with her today, I’d catch her up on a lot of things, including my review of Challengers. “I loved it,” I’d tell her. “But there’s one scene that might make a Midwestern grandma a teensy-bit nervous.”

Yours in grand-coaches (and bouquets of newly sharpened pencils),

Erin