This week’s dominant tennis news story was the release of the movie Challengers, starring Zendaya. Maybe we’ll get back to real tennis next week.
Rafael Nadal’s last tennis match in Madrid: Defeat, but a win: How much can he push? How long can he go? How does his body feel when he opens his eyes for the first time each morning, when he rolls out of bed when he leans over to pick up his 18-month-old son, Rafa when he walks onto the court for a warm-up session and strokes the ball for the first time? Full Story: The Athletic
Iga Swiatek’s unique personality helps bring a different approach to her sponsorships: World No. 1 women’s tennis player Iga Swiatek’s “reluctance to put herself out there commercially is a trait that has paradoxically worked” in her favor when it “comes to boosting her bank balance.” Full Story: Sports Business Journal
Boris Becker discharged from bankruptcy court in England: erman tennis legend Boris Becker was discharged from bankruptcy court in London after a judge found Wednesday he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to repay creditors tens of millions of pounds. Full Story: ESPN
‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya’s Tennis Courtship: “Challengers” is sort of a sports movie. But not really, though it contains a lot of tennis action. It’s also a story of friendship between two men who, at times, hate each other. Chiefly, it’s a love triangle, but it isn’t clear what any of the three participants might consider an ideal solution. In short, it’s a muddle. Full Story: The Wall Street Journal
Zendaya Calls ‘Challengers’ a ‘Complicated, Beautiful Mess’: Challengers is filled with tension, clean winners and unpredictable plot twists. Directed by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name, it uses clever chronology and structure to tell the triangulated story of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). In all combinations and permutations, they kind of love each other and kind of hate each other. Depends on when you’re doing the status update. Full Story: Sports Illustrated
Zendaya’s tennis drama ‘Challengers’ tops box office: Zendaya’s tennis drama “Challengers” scored the top spot in the domestic box office this weekend, bringing in $15 million, as movie theaters are still struggling to match last year’s ticket sales. Full Story: The LA Times
Challengers: Could Zendaya’s tennis husband hack the ATP Challenger Tour? While basically everyone leaves the theater thinking about love triangles and threesomes, the minds of tennis heads drift to the dynamics of their sport, where top players really do show up in the tournaments, which are, on paper, below their standing in the global game. Full Story: The Athletic
Brad Gilbert Took the Cast of Challengers to Tennis School: A living icon of the sport, Gilbert consulted on Challengers, filling out Justin Kurtzikes’ kinetic script with choreographed points, as well as teaching the film’s stars to play passable tennis. Fittingly, Gilbert is something of a sensei in the mental warfare aspect of tennis. His book “Winning Ugly,” published 32 years ago, remains an essential manual on how to gain the mental edge on your opponent. It makes Gilbert something of a perfect choice to shape the game seen in Guadagnino’s sports thriller. Full Story: GQ Sports
Here’s Exactly How “Challengers” Made Those Tennis Matches So Intense And Realistic: For Challengers, Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor trained with Brad Gilbert, who recently coached Coco Gauff to her US Open win in 2023. Full Story: Buzzfeed
‘Challengers’ Is Sexy … but Is It Good Tennis: How accurately does the film portray the world of tennis on and off the court? Full Story: The New York Times
How They Served the Tennis Scenes in ‘Challengers’: Painstaking effort went into building the energetic competition moments in Luca Guadagnino’s love-triangle tennis drama. Here’s a closer look at the process. Full Story: The New York Times
This Week in Professional Tennis
| Date | Tournament | Tour/Level | Location |
| 5/8-19 | Internazionali BNL d’Italia | ATP 1000 WTA 1000 | Rome |
