Starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, ‘Challengers’ has been captivating audiences since its premiere in late April.
The film follows Tashi, a young tennis star whose career is derailed by a knee injury. After retiring from the field, she becomes the coach of Techni, whom she met in her youth and who is also her husband. When the athlete faces a losing streak, he creates a plan to cheer himself up. However, their goals take an unexpected turn when Art must confront Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
Both because of the authenticity with which the tennis players and the sport were represented, and because of the rise of movies based on true stories, many have questioned whether the story is true. Here we tell you.
Is ‘Challengers’ based on a true story?
Despite the authenticity of the portrayal of the tennis players’ lives in ‘Challengers’, the film is not based on a true story. According to screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, the idea for the film came from watching the 2018 US Open final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams.
“There was a really controversial call towards the end of the game where Serena Williams was penalized for taking instructions from the sidelines. He was very upset and said that this had not happened. But the referee punished her. And I had never heard of that rule, that you can’t talk to your coach during the game. And immediately I knew it could be really cinematic,” he recalls.
The characters of ‘Challengers’ are inspired by real tennis players
Similarly, the characters in the film are completely fictional, but Kuritzkes was inspired by many real tennis players and well-known stories in the so-called white sport.
Perhaps the clearest example is that of former tennis player-turned-coach Tashi: the character Zendaya plays has strong parallels with Mirka Federer, Roger Federer’s wife.
Kuritzkes commented in an interview with “GQ” that he thought of the character when he saw her “very nervous” in the 2019 Wimbledon final.
“I was looking at her and thinking, ‘Why are they so stressed? You have all the money in the world. They have won 20 Grand Slams. What is so stressful for you? It has to be something else,” he recalls.
Digging a little deeper into her history, she discovered that she was also a tennis player before an ankle injury halted her career. After that, he became “sort of a manager” for Roger Federer, he commented in the aforementioned conversation.
In addition, the “Challengers” screenwriter revealed that tennis player Andre Agassi’s book “Open” “was a big inspiration for the film,” since “it’s very specific about the life of an athlete and what it feels like to be at the top of your game and not you fall in love with the sport and you still have to do it.”
Have you seen ‘Challengers’ yet? Let us know what you think of Zendaya’s movie in the comments.
Source: univision
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
