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‘Challengers’ and the Best Movies About Tennis 

'Challengers' — which puts Zendaya at the apex of a love triangle — is one of the most engaging movies to ever center around the world of tennis. From documentaries to satires to bio pics and thrillers, here are the others.

For non-fans, tennis can seem like an unexciting sport. Or, at least, it lacks the cinematic drama of football or baseball, two of Hollywood’s favorite subjects when it comes to sports movies. In Luca Guadagnino’s film Challengers, tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) meaningfully declares that “Tennis is a relationship.” And in Challengers, perhaps the most engaging movie to ever center around the world of tennis, it’s the relationships that keep the drama alive. 

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Set over a single tension-filled match, the film is an electric, kinetic sports movie that never really feels like a sports movie at all. It also makes you want to either pick up a racquet yourself or go watch another tennis-themed flick. And Hollywood has made a surprising number of movies set around the court, from dramas to comedies to documentaries. Whether you’re looking for a biopic like King Richard or a satire like 7 Days in Hell, here are the 10 best tennis movies out there—Challengers included. 

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers sets the stakes high both on the court and in the fraught relationships between injured tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her world-famous tennis champion husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and their long-time pal/rival Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Art, whose career is coached by Tashi, is ready to retire, but not before he takes down Patrick, an old friend with a romantic history with Tashi. The narrative shifts between timelines, slowly revealing........

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