The Only Relationship That Matters in 'Challengers'

Tennis isn’t just a game—it’s a relationship, a thing that you share, something that happens between people. It’s a rare thing, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) tells two boys she’s just met: In a match, you may see real tennis for only 15 seconds. It’s hard to understand exactly what she means until the end of Challengers, when you learn that tennis, to Tashi, is a form of raw interpersonal competition, distilled from wanting to kill someone or fuck them—or both. The intention to dominate is behind each swing of the racquet; it requires the physicality of someone who has never been hurt or has successfully forgotten that they can be.