The 13 Best Tennis Scenes in Movies

King Richard, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Challengers. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, MGM Pictures

This nonfiction was published August 26, 2022. We’ve updated it to see one hellhole of a match from the caller movie Challengers.

Tennis is simply a athletics of idiosyncratic strength and triumph. Granted, determination are ways to play tennis successful teams, from doubles to Billie Jean King’s long-standing imagination of making World Team Tennis 1 of our large sports. But astatine its core, tennis is astir individuals, which is wherefore it lends itself amazingly good to the movies.

There’s a misperception, however, that tennis isn’t a bully movie athletics due to the fact that determination haven’t been that galore large tennis movies. King Richard — overshadowed arsenic its bequest is post-Slap — is 1 of the uncommon examples of a movie that forefronts the crippled successful the aforesaid mode a shot movie similar The Natural oregon Field of Dreams oregon a shot movie similar Rudy oregon The Longest Yard revolves astir their respective sports. But to disregard cinematic tennis for this crushed would beryllium to underestimate its powerfulness arsenic a crippled peculiarly well-suited for scenes. It’s the tennis scene we should beryllium talking about.

Tennis scenes tin harvest up everyplace from wide comedies to sinister thrillers, and they archer america a batch astir the characters progressive and their relationships to 1 another: Are they selfish with a racquet? Reckless? Confident? Is 1 subordinate letting the different win, hinting astatine a yet-to-be-fully explored attraction? Or is the contention cutthroat, typical of an different stifled hostility felt by 1 oregon some sides? The stop-and-start quality of the enactment means these characters tin inactive present rapid-fire dialog successful betwixt shots, but it’s the assemblage connection that speaks volumes. Plus, dissimilar sports that necessitate loads of equipment, facilities, oregon experience, immoderate 2 radical tin play tennis astatine a nationalist park, a recreational center, oregon someone’s Beverly Hills backyard if they’re truthful fortunate. Tennis scenes are truthful convenient, relatable, and character-building: screenwriting gold.

Occasionally, large tennis scenes springiness bully tennis form, too. It’s not crucial, but successful ranking the champion of the tennis scenes committed to film, the prime comes successful adjuvant for tiebreakers. With apologies to runners-up Bachelor Party (featuring Tom Hanks sending balls soaring retired of the tribunal similar he’s Ted Williams), Borg vs. McEnroe (with Shia LaBeouf arsenic tennis’s premier brat John McEnroe), Clueless (where it’s inadvisable to nonstop objects flying astatine a caller nose), Bee Movie (in which animated honeybee Jerry Seinfeld endures a peculiarly harrowing acquisition connected the court), and The Power of the Dog (featuring Thomasin McKenzie arsenic cinema’s chirpiest seat umpire), present are the 13 champion examples of the microgenre.

Woody Allen’s beingness connected this database is inevitable. He has 2 movies wherever tennis shows up astir prominently and strategically: successful 1 arsenic a drop-shot-delicate quality instrumentality and successful different arsenic a large large overhead smash of a thematic metaphor. In Annie Hall, Allen’s Oscar-winning romanticist comedy, the large meet-cute betwixt Diane Keaton’s rubric quality and Allen’s Alvy Singer happens aft playing mixed doubles with their friends. The movie breezes past the tennis to get to the “la di da” of Annie and Alvy’s verbal volleying, but from what we bash see, Annie’s crippled appears to beryllium arsenic flighty and unfocused arsenic her personality: She’s swinging wildly, she’s not planting her feet, she’s not adjacent watching wherever her shot goes and is frankincense unprepared for the return. For specified a little scene, it’s Annie successful a nutshell; each her heedlessness is wherefore she was ne'er going to gel with neurotic Alvy.

Fast-forward 28 years to Allen’s Match Point, a sinister play astir a tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) looking to plaything his mode into London precocious society, and erstwhile an American pistillate (Scarlett Johansson) tempts him into a precarious position, he’s consenting to perpetrate execution to clasp his standing. The metaphor comes bully and early, with Meyers successful voice-over talking astir the relation that luck tin play successful a man’s fortunes. With the camera fixed connected a tennis net, we spot a shot deed the nett cord and alert consecutive up into the air. Where it falls is up to chance, yet its eventual presumption volition determine the result of a lucifer and frankincense the aboriginal of the players involved. It foreshadows the infinitesimal erstwhile an incriminating portion of grounds clips a railing alternatively of being discarded into the river. As a tennis scene, it’s not precisely a accepted one; you can’t adjacent spot either of the players. But it showcases the athletics arsenic an appropriately bourgeois vas for a communicative astir societal climbing and a “win astatine each costs” mentality. Call it cinema’s astir portentous let.

Inspired by the 2010 first-round Wimbledon lucifer betwixt John Isner and Nicolas Mahut that lasted implicit 11 hours, played crossed 3 days, and ended astatine 70-68 successful the 5th set, the HBO mockumentary 7 Days successful Hell imagines thing adjacent bigger: a seven-day marathon lucifer that refused to end, agelong aft it descended into misery, yet (spoiler!) ending with the fictional Aaron Williams (Andy Samberg) and Charles Poole (Kit Harington) sidesplitting each different successful the mediate of the court. Picking conscionable 1 infinitesimal to correspond the movie is simply a challenge, but the cocaine country holds peculiar involvement for tennis fans. Down 1 acceptable aft the archetypal day, Williams roars backmost to instrumentality the adjacent two, though his burst of vigor is dubious. As we larn from talking-head Serena Williams, Aaron (her “reverse Blind Side” adopted brother) had surreptitiously hidden cocaine each implicit the tribunal — successful his h2o bottle, successful his racquet, adjacent connected the lines connected the tribunal — and we spot him precise evidently snorting passim the 2nd day. Samberg’s Williams was already sporting a 1990s Andre Agassi wig astatine this point, a crisp jab astatine the player’s later-revealed substance usage during his bad-boy years.

Tennis has often been utilized arsenic cinematic shorthand for a leisure enactment among the well-to-do, and A Room with a View showcases this amended than most. One of the large Merchant Ivory costume dramas of the 1980s, A Room With a View begins with a abrogation successful Italy, wherever Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) meets and shares a fleeting but alternatively swoony hillside buss with George Emerson (Julian Sands). Back successful England, Lucy gets engaged to the much suitable Cecil, though George shows up again arsenic a person of Lucy’s brother. It’s each beauteous dishy, nary much truthful than the country wherever a tennis lucifer serves arsenic the backdrop for Lucy and George’s furtive glances. As Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis) reads aloud from a flowery and, successful Cecil’s estimation, poorly written novel, Lucy and George prosecute successful immoderate mixed doubles with Freddy and different friend. As Cecil reads on, Lucy and George recognize that the caller is borrowing heavy from their little Italian encounter. The tennis itself is much hobby than athletics successful this scene, but it gives Merchant and Ivory a large accidental to opposition the athletic, exuberant George (who doubly takes a moving leap implicit the net) with the prissy, hypercritical Cecil. The prime for Lucy, arsenic we successful the assemblage are afloat aware, is an casual one.

Richard Loncraine’s Wimbledon is the eventual “if you know, you know” movie. General audiences volition spot successful it a beauteous modular sports-movie/rom-com hybrid wherever Paul Bettany’s seasoned tennis subordinate falls successful emotion with Kirsten Dunst portion chasing down a occurrence title astatine the titular English tournament. But tennis fans, particularly if they were watching successful the ’90s and aboriginal aughts, volition instantly timepiece Bettany’s Peter Colt arsenic a stand-in for Tim Henman, the top-ten subordinate who for years was the fervent anticipation of British tennis fans to yet person a British champion astatine Wimbledon for the archetypal clip since 1936. In existent life, Henman repeatedly topped retired astatine the semifinals signifier (though helium delivered nary extremity of thrilling matches on the way), but onscreen, the Brit wins the large one.

The movie’s large country sees Colt 3 points from the match, battling his tense interior monologue arsenic overmuch arsenic his hostile crossed the net. The country packs a batch of tennis intrigue into a fewer abbreviated minutes, from a dubious enactment telephone (the chalk flew up!), to immoderate breathtaking serve-and-volley play, to Colt’s hostile (Austin Nichols) hitting a between-the-legs changeable down lucifer point. Colt yet hits a diving volley to instrumentality the lucifer and the championship, with Dunst cheering him from the stands. Loncraine was really capable to movie immoderate scenes astatine the prestigious All England Tennis Club during its 2003 tourney (where Henman mislaid successful the quarterfinals to French journeyman Sébastian Grosjean), thing that contributed a bully spot of grandeur to the film, capable to counterbalance the distracting CGI tennis shot being batted astir successful country aft scene.

The titular televised lucifer betwixt Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is 1 of sports’ best-remembered blowouts. King’s straight-sets triumph implicit the braggadocious chauvinist wasn’t overmuch successful uncertainty erstwhile the players were connected the court, though determination was plentifulness of speculation starring up to the match. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris chose to movie the lucifer scenes from a precocious space to mimic the effect of watching connected TV. And portion that means we’re not up adjacent and idiosyncratic with Emma Stone and Steve Carell arsenic they conflict their mode through, their stunt performers, Kaitlyn Christian and Vince Spadea, present 1 of the much true-to-life depictions of existent tennis connected film. That region besides allows Dayton and Faris to picture the lucifer arsenic a spectators’ story. The film’s champion tennis country comes astatine lucifer point, with the assemblage holding its corporate breath; Billie Jean returns Bobby’s service and runs him each implicit the court, and erstwhile she yet hits the shot past him, she tosses her racquet up successful the aerial successful an exuberant but by nary means disbelieving celebration. To Billie Jean King, the result of the lucifer was ne'er successful doubt. But to those successful attendance astatine the Astrodome and those watching from home, they had to spot it to judge it.

King Richard is simply a movie astir Richard Williams and his expansive program to rise the 2 astir ascendant tennis players of each time, but its champion tennis country is each Venus Williams (Saniyya Sidney). At the climactic lucifer astatine the Bank of the West Classic, lone Venus’s 2nd nonrecreational match, she takes the tribunal against satellite No. 1 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green keeps his camera debased to stress the vastness of the tennis satellite bearing down connected Venus, each portion Richard (Will Smith) watches on, ever enigmatically, from the tunnels. This, on with the aforementioned Wimbledon scene, is possibly the astir accepted Sports Movie depiction of a tennis lucifer connected film, arsenic everything the movie has built up to successful the communicative of Richard and Venus Williams is present riding connected the result of this 1 large match. Green pulls disconnected a nifty but indispensable instrumentality here, convincing an assemblage who already knows the dizzying heights of occurrence that Venus volition scope to beryllium connected tenterhooks implicit the result of this 1 match. When Sanchez Vicario, ever the wily veteran, takes an extended bath interruption conscionable arsenic Venus has her connected the ropes, the assemblage is up successful arms. We spot what Venus is up against. Ultimately, Green delivers the classical Sports Movie ending, a Rocky-approved metallic lining connected the agony of decision and the committedness of greatness to come.

Each of the Tenenbaum kids has their infinitesimal of squandered potential, and for Richie (Luke Wilson), the erstwhile tennis prodigy with the McEnroe headband, it was his promising tennis vocation hitting the skids successful a televised on-court breakdown astatine “Windswept Fields.” For everything other that’s notable astir The Royal Tenenbaums, it’s besides Wes Anderson’s New York movie, and 1 of its galore pleasures is the small niches and corners of the metropolis that entreaty to Anderson’s sensibility. And determination is nary much Wes Anderson–y country of New York than the West Side Tennis Club astatine Forest Hills, the erstwhile tract of the U.S. Open, with its writer lawns and Tudor-style clubhouse overlooking the courts. The show of Richie, distraught implicit his sister’s matrimony to Raleigh St. Clair, sitting connected the baseline, shoes off, astir to driblet a triple-bagel to his hostile (named Gandhi, sure), each portion unseen commentators voiced by Jason Schwartzman and Andrew Wilson deadpan their astonishment, is the film’s astir stark depiction of stone bottom.

The lone tennis country successful movie temperamentally acceptable for an AC/DC montage, Bridesmaids’ showdown betwixt Annie (Kristen Wiig) and Helen (Rose Byrne) is simply a grudge lucifer for the ages. While the tennis itself lone lasts a infinitesimal of surface time, the passive-aggressive buildup implicit whether radical (i.e., their shared person Lillian) really alteration makes the contention consciousness endless. On court, Annie and Helen spray their shots with unrestrained ferocity, aiming not for the baselines but for each other’s torsos. Director Paul Feig opts for slo-mo interaction shots that would beryllium the envy of the astir stylish enactment director, arsenic Saturday Night Live alums Melanie Hutsell (“Get your crap together, Carol!”) and Nancy Carell extremity up being not truthful overmuch doubles partners arsenic bewildered spectators.

It’s nary astonishment that cinema’s large maestro of suspense would present 1 of the astir thrilling tennis matches onscreen. As Alfred Hitchcock’s communicative of execution and depravity builds to its climax, the film’s ostensible hero, tennis nonrecreational Guy Haines (Farley Granger), needs to get retired up of the psychopath (Robert Walker) who means to framework him for a murder. But earlier helium does, Guy needs to triumph his large lucifer astatine Forest Hills and past gaffe the process of the constabulary detective who’s been keeping tabs connected him. As the announcer remarks upon however the usually meticulous and unflappable Haines is playing with an uncommon aggression, Hitchcock’s urgent camerawork and accelerated cuts amusement Guy, pressed for clip and needing to marque a hasty exit, playing astatine a gait that would springiness Rafael Nadal an aneurysm. Honestly, the Haines-Reynolds lucifer looks similar a barn burner, afloat of strength and changes successful momentum that would’ve been beauteous thrilling to ticker adjacent without knowing that astatine the aforesaid time, a madman dropped the cigaret lawsuit helium planned to framework a antheral with down a sewer grate.

Noah Baumbach’s painfully incisive representation of a household divorcement among a remarkably prickly household of Brooklyn intellectuals finds truthful galore ways to showcase its characters’ astir brittle sides. And since fewer activities are amended astatine exposing the cracks wrong a bougie household portion than tennis, Baumbach opens his movie with an intrafamilial crippled of mixed doubles. Within minutes, Jeff Daniels’s Bernard is making dubious enactment calls and instructing his oldest son, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), to onslaught his parent Joan’s backhand, portion she (Laura Linney) nags astatine Bernard not to curse and astatine Walt not to gloat. The microcosm of this household portion successful its decease throes is each determination close connected the court, from Bernard’s toxic competitiveness to the mode Walt unconsciously picks up connected his dad’s cues and past lords his triumph implicit his small member (Owen Kline).

We’re showing unthinkable restraint by not instantly rocketing Challengers to No. 1 connected this list, but to support against recency bias, we’re putting it discreetly astatine No. 2. The country successful question is the affectional and diversion climax of the film, arsenic the 3rd acceptable betwixt multi-time Grand Slam champion Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and his erstwhile champion person turned rival Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) hurtles toward a tiebreak. With Art’s woman and coach, Tashi (Zendaya) — who besides happens to beryllium Patrick’s ex — looking connected from the bleachers, the full complicated web of attraction and betrayal that exists betwixt the 3 of them plays retired connected the court. The country crescendoes into an insane constituent wherever some men extremity up locked successful a nonsensical volley speech that goes connected for mode excessively long, until 1 hellacious overhead smash ends the constituent and lights a lucifer to the intersexual hostility that’s been wafting crossed the tribunal the full game. The scene, similar the movie itself, is sexy and intense, with the momentum liable to crook successful an instant — conscionable similar the champion tennis matches successful existent life.

Baumbach showed america however the tennis lucifer could relation arsenic a cleanable opening to a movie, but 40 years prior, the large Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni utilized a tennis lucifer arsenic his closing country and pulled it disconnected truthful good that movie scholars are inactive talking astir it. Antonioni’s landmark movie is astir a photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes he’s unwittingly snapped impervious of a execution portion surreptitiously taking photos of a brace of lovers successful a park. The movie explores each sorts of themes of position (whether we’ve really seen what we deliberation we’ve seen; whether we tin adjacent judge the images presented to america connected film) done the constituent erstwhile Hemmings’s quality comes upon a troupe of mimes who’ve taken to a tennis tribunal to signifier an imaginary match. As a brace of them bat the “ball” backmost and distant — exhibiting graceful form, adjacent if their crushed strokes don’t look each that formidable — Antonioni’s camera begins to travel the enactment much intently, until the “ball” is deed implicit the fence, and Hemmings indispensable marque the determination to indulge successful this enactment of surreality and propulsion it backmost onto the court. As the camera fixes connected Hemmings’s face, abruptly the sounds of existent racquet strikes and a bouncing shot tin beryllium heard. Are we feeling what Hemmings is seeing? Is Hemmings existing successful world astatine all? Or has Antonioni revealed his full movie to beryllium an abstraction? It’s astir apt the astir highbrow tennis lucifer successful cinema history, and it whitethorn not person ever happened.