I’d Love to Serve Up Some Tennis Movies
We are well into the thick of the 2024 pro tennis season, with the French Open fast approaching. So, I thought this would be a great excuse for me to write another “top things to watch in a very niche subgenre” article. Let’s get this mixed doubles championship started!
Doubles Team 1: Match Point (2005) and Challengers (2024)
Truth be told, I barely remember anything about Match Point other than it was a Woody Allen movie starring Scarlett Johansson; and though it didn’t have that much actual playing of tennis, my (cat) gut feeling is that it was a perfectly competent showing. If Match Point were a real tennis player, it would be someone like Michael Chang or Marion Bartoli. Good, solid athletes who have each won a singles championship at one of the four majors, but not iconic household names like Arthur Ashe or Maria Sharapova.
And I haven’t seen Challengers yet. I read that Brad Gilbert, Andre Agassi’s former and Coco Gauff’s current coach, was the trainer for Zendaya. Perfect choice by the executive producers — Gilbert was the one who coached Agassi all the way from the Challenger circuit of low-ranked players, to his huge comeback victory at Roland Garros, thus completing the career Grand Slam.
