by JEANIE CHUA
SECTION EDITOR
I’ve been a fan of Zendaya since her Disney days, and she’s continued her run of success by starring in some of my favorite series and movies—Euphoria, Dune II, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now Challengers.
Since seeing the Challengers trailer, I couldn’t wait for its release in April. Zendaya suggested in an interview to watch the movie three times, so that’s exactly what I did.
Challengers is a sports drama/romance that revolves around the main characters Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Art and Patrick have been childhood friends and bunkmates since they were 12, known as Fire and Ice on the high school tennis courts. Their friendship changes after they see Tashi, a tennis phenom, compete. Initially, it’s a light-hearted competition between the two for who can get the girl. However, it evolves into a serious love triangle that strains their friendship. I don’t believe Tashi truly loved either of them the same way they loved her.
To Tashi, tennis was everything:
“It’s a relationship … For about fifteen seconds there, we were actually playing tennis, and we understood each other completely. So did everyone watching. It was like we were in love. Or like we didn’t exist.”
The competition starts in high school when Tashi encourages the boys by saying she’ll give her phone number to whoever wins the tennis match. It doesn’t seem to matter to Tashi who wins; she just wanted someone who could stay on her level. Patrick wins, leading to a romantic relationship that continues into college.
But not long into their relationship, Tashi and Patrick get into a huge fight that leads to their breakup. Tashi criticizes Patrick about his tennis performance, and he accuses her of being full of herself:
“I’m your peer. I’m not your … groupie. And I’m definitely not your student,” Patrick retorts.
I like to think this argument flustered Tashi and led to her career-ending injury, which further solidifies their breakup because tennis means everything to Tashi. Their breakup also leads to the start of her relationship with Art and the end of Art and Patrick’s friendship. They get married, have a daughter, and everything seems perfect.
As the years pass, they reconnect after Tashi signs up Art to be part of a challenge match, which Patrick happens to be competing in as well, so he can qualify for the U.S. Open. Throughout their marriage, Tashi’s lifetime regret of not being able to continue playing tennis is expressed through her coaching of Art:
“We’ve always been doing this together. I’m playing for both of us, Tashi,” Art acknowledges.
Tashi knows that Art would be willing to do anything for her. That’s why Art’s tennis career has always been about her fulfilling her failed tennis career through him. So when Art tells Tashi that he’s retiring regardless if he wins the 2019 U.S. Open or not, Tashi tells him that she’ll divorce him. Later that evening, Tashi meets up with Patrick and asks him to lose in order to give Art the confidence he needs to qualify and win the tournament, which leads to her having an affair.
The movie then cuts to the final points of the challenge. Patrick hints to Art about his affair with Tashi. Art is reasonably frustrated, but rather than doing what Tashi wants, Art smiles at Patrick and plays the kind of tennis that he and Patrick used to play … a fun game.
From the start, I believed that Art loved Tashi more than he loved Patrick, but Patrick loved Art more than he loved Tashi … while Tashi loved tennis more than anything. The final match between Art and Patrick helped them see that.
Challengers is a great movie experience that, at face value, captures tennis beautifully. I don’t know a single thing about tennis, but honestly, it made me want to play. But besides that, I believe that this film teaches the important lesson of truly loving someone and not settling for less because it’s comfortable. Art and Tashi are examples of relationships that settle for less; people who marry for the comfort that was once there.
Challengers teaches older teens and young adults—which I believe is the audience that this message is especially important for—to always settle for more.
The Mainsheet 