'Challengers' is an all-time great sports film
Not quite two years ago, I started playing tennis.1 My reasons for picking up a racquet were humble and practical. It was a thing to do with my dad, a way for an ex-basketball player to get a good sweat with less constant physical hazard and without always needing to find five friends.
It didn’t stay that way for long. Coming up on my two-year anniversary, I’m now playing at least two or three times a week and taking lessons regularly. I played my first competitive match just last week. I’ve got a bag stuffed with racquets and grips and dampeners. I’ve made a pilgrimage to the U.S. Open and watch the pro tour almost every weekend. I didn’t plan to become obsessed with this sport - especially not at age 40 - but I am fully in its thrall.
So, yes, of course I went out of my way to see Challengers. Truth be told, though, the promise of a bit of cinematic tennis was a small bonus. Director Luca Guadagnino’s name on the marquee was much more of a draw. I expected that, like most films that involve sports, tennis would be a mere backdrop. Major League is a romantic comedy that happens to have some baseball. Remember the Titans is a historical drama propelled by football. Challengers, I assumed, would be an erotic thriller with a side of topspin forehands and serves down the T.
And, sure, it does have some titillating moments. There is a love triangle at the heart of the story - one that is a lot more, ahem, equilateral than you might anticipate. But, much to my surprise, it is also a deeply tennis-oriented film. Challengers is firmly about tennis with a side of sexual intrigue, not the other way around.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about why I’ve fallen so hard for tennis. The textbook answer, I suppose, is that it blends raw physicality and power with grace and athleticism and higher-plane mental strategy in a way no other sport can. The deeper-lying psychology, I think, is that at the peak of your powers in tennis, you can rip a curling ball past your opponent, land it just inside the baseline, and, for a moment, feel almost like a god. Moments later, you can do it again, or you can make an astonishingly simple mental or physical error that reminds you of your human frailty. This duality, for me at least, is at the root of the sport’s allure. You work and work and work for your next god-like moment, while at the same time always risking humiliation. No matter how much of a god you are, a humbling moment awaits.
Challengers understands the fundamental nature of the sport it profiles in a way few other sports movies ever have. The never-ending quest for sublime moments on the court, even as despairing dissatisfaction lurks animates each of the three characters. It explains why Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan - her own pro career ruined by a catastrophic knee injury - pushes her already successful husband Art toward one last run at a Grand Slam title, despite his legacy (and their finances) being secure. It explains why Patrick Zweig carries on at the lowest levels of pro tennis well past his prime, chasing the potential he showed as an elite junior. And it explains why, when the credits rolled, the first thing out of my mouth was, “what a profoundly unsatisfying sport,” followed by a wry smile.
Very early in the film, a young Tashi tells Patrick that he doesn’t understand tennis - that it’s a “relationship.”
“For about fifteen seconds there, we were actually playing tennis,” she says, referring to her opponent on that day. “And we understood each other completely. So did everyone watching. It's like we were in love. Or like we didn't exist. We went somewhere really beautiful together.”
This, of course, could be read as a pure metaphor for the relationship between her and Patrick and Art. The power dynamics of a tennis rally can mirror those of a relationship - the tension of a sustained back-and-forth cut, finally, by a ferocious winner or an unforced error.
It’s also possible to read it without any subtext at all - to point to this sentiment as a distillation of why this sport is so intoxicating - why I’ve spent thousands of dollars learning it over the past few years and why Tashi Duncan just can’t let go, even after her and her husband have earned millions.
OK, so technically I messed around on a neighborhood court in the summers when I was in high school. That doesn’t really count, does it?