Challengers
Tashi, a former tennis prodigy and current instructor, helped her hubby become a champion. But, he needs to break a losing streak by facing Tashi’s ex-boyfriend and his old best friend.
“Challengers” is a 2024 American romantic sports drama directed by Luca Guadagnino, penned by Justin Kuritzkes. The film chronicles the journey of a professional tennis champion (portrayed by Mike Faist) as he navigates a comeback, aided by his wife (played by Zendaya), a retired tennis prodigy due to injury. Their path to redemption is complicated by the presence of another player (depicted by Josh O’Connor), who shares a history as both the protagonist’s former best friend and the ex-lover of his wife.
Postponed from a planned September 2023 release because of the actors’ strike, Challengers made its debut in Sydney on March 26, 2024, before hitting theaters across the United States through Amazon MGM Studios on April 26, 2024. Garnering acclaim from critics, the film has amassed a global box office revenue of $52 million.
Plot of the Movie
Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson, lifelong best friends, win the US Open boys’ junior doubles championship in 2006. Following that, they run upon Tashi Duncan, a highly regarded teenage tennis talent who both Patrick and Art find attractive. The three get together in a hotel room, and during their subsequent meeting, the two lads kiss Tashi and each other. However, Tashi breaks up the tryst before it gets too personal. Tashi promises to offer her phone number to the winner of Patrick and Art’s junior singles match the following day.After Patrick prevails in the match, he uses Art’s favorite tactic—putting the ball in his racket’s neck before serving—to indicate to Art that he had sex with Tashi.
Art and Tashi continue their collegiate tennis careers at Stanford University, and Patrick becomes a professional player who has a long-distance romance with Tashi away from home. In private, Art tells Tashi that Patrick isn’t genuinely in love with her. Upon seeing that Art is envious, Patrick jokingly tells him he still loves her when they visit Stanford.
When Tashi offers Patrick unwanted tennis instruction during a sexual encounter, they argue because he sees her as a colleague rather than his instructor. Tashi has a bad knee injury in the next match, which Patrick skips because of the fight. When Patrick comes back to console Tashi, she angrily orders him to go, and Art stands by her. Tashi receives assistance from Art during her recuperation, but she is unable to resume her tennis career.
A few years later, in 2009, Tashi makes contact with Art again and agrees to mentor him before the two start dating. He discloses that since Tashi’s accident, he and Patrick have not communicated. 2011 saw the engagement of Tashi and Art, who is enjoying professional success. Art sees in private that Tashi and Patrick had a one-night stand when they run into one other at the Atlanta Open.
Tashi and Art are an affluent power couple in 2019 who are married and have a small kid named Lily. Art has improved to be a top-tier professional tennis player thanks to Tashi’s guidance. Though he has been having trouble since returning from an injury, he is just one US Open championship away from a Career Grand Slam. Tashi hopes to gain confidence and get back on track by defeating lesser opponents when he enters Art as a wild card in a Challenger tournament in New Rochelle, New York. Now an unknown player living out of his car, Patrick enters the New Rochelle tournament and makes ends meet with his victories from the smaller circuits.
Art and Patrick begin at the opposite ends of the seeded and move through the brackets to meet each other in the final. When Patrick tries to get in touch with Art the day before the match, Art tells him that his career is gone and that he will live on in tennis history.
Patrick offers Tashi a private request to guide him to one more winning season, sensing that Tashi is not pleased with Art and that Art is bored of playing, but she turns him down. Even though Art is aware that Tashi is experiencing her tennis career via him in a virtual sense, he tells her the night before the championship match that he intends to retire at the conclusion of the season, whether or not he wins the Open. Art is left in despair and pleads with her for confirmation that she will always love him.
Art doesn’t think she supports his resignation, despite her feigned acceptance. Tashi threatens to leave Art if he loses versus Patrick in an attempt to spur him on. Following that, Tashi meets with Patrick in private to request that he toss the match to Art. Patrick nods grudgingly. Then, inside his car, the two had intercourse.
On the day of the championship match, Tashi observes Art and Patrick’s match from the stands. Art wins the second set, and Patrick wins the first. Patrick starts to lose the match with double faults as Art has the upper hand late in the decider. But instead of losing, he uses Art’s serve tic to indicate that he had slept with Tashi. Art lets Patrick score, stunned, and they tie again.
Art and Patrick viciously alternate turns during the tie break. The rally picks up steam as both of them leap for a volley at the net. Art and Patrick clash over the net as Art starts to slam the ball, and they give each other a strong hug. Tashi applauds from the sidelines.
