Game point! Bazaar’s guide to the best tennis movies

With Wimbledon recently wrapped and the U.S. Open now upon us, the buzz about tennis—from the intensity of the game to what stars are wearing courtside—has been ubiquitous. The strong serves and dynamic doubles teams provide any aficionado with plenty to unpack long after finals matches have finished. But if you find yourself thirsting for even more tennis drama, the catalog of movies about the sport will deliver the same slow tension as the game. From acclaimed documentaries like Citizen Ashe to blockbusters like Challengers, tennis has long been used as a narrative device in award-winning movies. Here’s Bazaar’s guide to the best matches played on screen.

Citizen Ashe (2021)

The story of tennis player Arthur Ashe—the only Black man to ever win a singles title at a Grand Slam—is portrayed thoughtfully in Citizen Ashe. Focusing on Ashe’s personal life as closely as his sporting career, the documentary tackles his legacy as a tennis player and activist. Its beginning shows Ashe’s quiet approach to becoming a pro—training hard for a place in the sport during the Civil Rights Movement. Ashe refused to be bullied out of the tennis world, and won 45 ATP singles finals throughout his career. After a health decline forced him to exit the game, he went to South Africa to fight apartheid, focusing on activism. At the end of his life, he contracted HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion, and pivoted to spreading awareness about the virus. None other than John Legend produced this documentary, which includes interviews with icons John McEnroe and Billie Jean King about Ashe’s impact. It’s basically catnip for all die-hard tennis fans. Beyond its undeniable entertainment factor, this important watch delivers insight into the life of an underappreciated player who turned the tennis world on its head.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

The famous 1973 “Battle of the Sexes,” in which then-29-year-old Billie Jean King defeated 55-year-old former men’s champion Bobby Riggs in straight sets, was both a major media moment and a hallmark of the women’s liberation movement. The movie named after the iconic match, with Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs, takes it to the screen with striking accuracy. It paints Riggs as an old tennis star and gambling addict who needs to recoup some cash. To create headlines, he bets that even at the age of 55, he could beat the top women’s tennis player—for a prize, of course. King agrees to play him only when a fellow female player, Margaret Court, is defeated. While Riggs struggles with his debt, King has an affair with her hairdresser, Marilyn Barnett. Though the fate of the match, and King’s win, has gone down in history, this movie is a must-watch—not for the event’s outcome, but as a 1973 period piece with a formidable woman at its center.

King Richard (2021)

In King Richard, Will Smith plays Richard Williams, who coached two of the most well-known names in tennis: his daughters Venus and Serena. Before they were born, he decided that they would be champions, constructing a multi-step plan for how to make them winners and bring their family out of poverty. As they work tirelessly toward the goal, they meet Paul Cohen, a professional who agrees to coach only Venus. But Serena secretly enters competitions alongside her sister, showing that they refuse to be split up. As they make their way through a predominantly white world of tennis, the girls attend high school like somewhat normal teenagers, maintaining their training throughout, but not entering junior competitions. With Venus and Serena Williams as executive producers, this film is basically verified, revealing everything up until the point at which they go pro. If you couldn’t get enough of the relationship between ice skater Alyssa Liu and her father after the Winter Olympics, this movie gives another view into a dynamic where sports and family become linked.

Blow-Up (1966)

While not strictly a tennis movie, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up contains one of the best on-screen tennis scenes. The film follows a London fashion photographer named Thomas who thinks he’s accidentally captured a murder in one of his images. Through the use of photography, Antonioni interrogates the line between reality and imagination. As Thomas tries to figure out the truth, he is sucked into drug-fueled parties and unreliable narratives. The film ends brilliantly with a mimed tennis match. Thomas catches sight of it, picking up an invisible ball and throwing it back to the players: a symbol for the elusive nature of truth. In this feature that won the 1967 Palme d’Or at Cannes, the photographer undergoes a change in his perception of life itself, making it the director’s most critically celebrated work. Another reason to watch: real supermodel Veruschka makes a fashionable appearance alongside Jane Birkin.

Wimbledon (2004)

Sports rom-coms combine falling in love with a love of the game. In Wimbledon, this interweaving of passions happens when Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) and Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst) meet by accident at a London hotel. While Peter’s career seems to be ending—he is planning his retirement—Lizzie is a rising American star. As their infatuation begins, Peter starts to win matches, and Britain begins to favor him, cheering him on. The two keep seeing each other despite Lizzie’s disapproving father and their upcoming matches. They find love while navigating the ins and outs of the game in this perfect, lighthearted watch. It’s a movie that doesn’t ask anything from its viewer but to enjoy.

Venus and Serena (2012)

Chronicling the 2011 season in which both Serena and Venus Williams struggled with health issues, this documentary follows the sisters as they battle illness, simultaneously reflecting on their past. Using archival footage, the filmmakers bring viewers back to the beginning, showing the athletes as girls playing on the courts in Compton. As the story evolves, it highlights the talents that made them into rivals, and how they stayed close despite years of competition. Their unique shared upbringing unfolds poetically on screen, tracking their journey to the top of the sport in spite of the racism and sexism they faced. Whether a viewer comes into this documentary knowing the whole story or nothing at all, they will walk away with a new sense of the sisters’s remarkable story through this intimate portrait.

Challengers (2024)

Challengers is a feat in that it manages to get tennis, homoerotic bromance, and Zendaya into one movie. And of course, it was accomplished by none other than director Luca Guadagnino. The story begins at the start of our characters’ careers, as three of the most promising young tennis players at Stanford. Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) are tight-knit doubles partners until they meet Tashi (Zendaya), a rising star who gets in the middle. As both boys crush on her, their friendship turns into a rivalry that’s further fueled by their athletic competition—and by Tashi’s own evolving relationship with tennis. Time is nonlinear in this film, which jumps between various moments and perspectives along the decades-long love triangle and effortlessly turns a tennis match into a brilliant narrative tool.

Renée (2011)

This compelling documentary looks at the life of the first transgender tennis player. Renée spotlights the life of Renée Richards, a Yale graduate and surgeon, who during the 1970s fought for her right to play professional tennis as a woman in the U.S. Open. When Richards was banned from entry into the competition, she sued the United States Tennis Association and ended up at the New York State Supreme Court. She won the case and was able to make it to the doubles finals in 1977. Despite her impact on the game, even a committed tennis fan may not be familiar with her name. Director Eric Drath includes interviews with Richards and her family, bringing attention to an important woman and a fight for equality that is ongoing.

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Alfred Hitchcock added to tennis’s on-screen legacy with Strangers on a Train. When a famous tennis player, Guy (Farley Granger), meets a psychopath, Bruno (Robert Walker), on a train ride, the two make a hasty deal each to each murder a person the other wants out of his life. While Guy takes it as a joke, he soon hears his cheating wife has been strangled to death. He’s then stalked by Bruno to complete his side of the bargain. This psychological thriller is primarily focused on the dynamic between Guy and Bruno, but Hitchcock’s tennis scene is one of the most thrilling parts of the movie, using the game to escalate the killer’s pursuit.

Borg vs. McEnroe (2017)

The rivalry between Björn Borg (Sverrir Guðnason) and John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) is one of the most famous in sporting history. Borg vs. McEnroe, set in 1981, starts by reminding viewers that Borg was known to maintain cold composure while McEnroe had bursts of anger. Their contrasting personalities created tensions, making their eventual meeting at the Wimbledon finals a high-stakes, all-eyes event. Both players struggle with the immense pressure of their careers, dealing with it in different ways. As they head into the finals, Borg vs. McEnroe expertly weaves their internal headspaces into the game. And would a Hollywood movie about a Swede be complete without a Skarsgård? Borg’s coach Lennart Bergelin is fantastically played by Stellan Skarsgård. A tennis classic, this film captures a fascinating dynamic with a cinematic grandeur not often brought to the courts. A spoiler: It closes with a note on how the two become good friends in the future, with Borg even serving as the best man at McEnroe’s wedding.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

There is only one character who plays tennis in The Royal Tenenbaums: Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson). Richie is born into a family of child prodigies, with his gift being his natural tennis skills. Rather than following his eccentric siblings through their childhood years, the movie instead focuses on them as adults, after two decades defined by mishaps and failures. Having fallen out of touch, they are reunited as their father, Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman), is dying. In this absurd yet touching family portrait, director Wes Anderson gives us unforgettable characters overcoming grief and findinf comfort in their reconciliation. Richie, the tennis pro, arrives back home to his father after a mental breakdown. He realizes his adoptive sister, who he’s in love with, has married another man. Fighting with his next-door neighbor, Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), over her affection, the character wears Borg-esque tennis gear throughout the movie. The game itself is used as a reference to a time he was young and allowed to love innocently.

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson, The Squid and the Whale is about two boys living in 1986 Brooklyn, severely affected by their parents’ divorce. Using tennis as a metaphor for the back-and-forth battle between the couple, the movie is about the sport in that it’s punctuated by doubles matches and affairs with tennis coaches. In the midst of it all, brothers Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank Berkman (Owen Kline) are living together in Park Slope. When their separated parents decide on joint custody, the siblings take sides and their fighting only worsens. Beautifully shot on 16mm film, Baumbach creates a semi-autobiographical story that lets you feel its specific kind of childhood heartbreak.

The French (1982)

William Klein takes tennis fans behind the scenes of the French Open in The French. With the first documentary crew given access to shoot backstage, he captures the 1981 season, giving viewers a look into the tennis world of another time—fans smoking in the stadium, players goofing around before their matches. Recognizable stars of the time, including Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, and Yannick Noah, all make appearances. Klein captures them in a way that seems impossible now—through an intimate camera lens of which the athletes were unafraid. Other notable directors such as Wes Anderson have repeatedly referenced the film, with Anderson even presenting a screening of it at New York’s Metrograph theater in 2021.

The Christian Licorice Store (1971)

This film gets its title from Tim Buckley’s song, “Pleasant Street.” Cane (Beau Bridges), a pro tennis player living in L.A., gets tempted to take forays into the glamorous world of Hollywood. Instead, he decides to follow his coach’s advice, staying away from opportunities like hair spray ads and modeling gigs. When his coach suddenly dies, Cane chases stardom and gets sucked into a life of wild parties. This movie, starring Bridges and two-time Bond girl Maud Adams, shows the dark side of the Hollywood set. Though its plot is often shallow, with cliché dialogue and the bad-boy-gone-rogue trope at its center, it remains a fun, entertaining watch. A few decades of age and layers of nostalgia probably act in its favor.

7 Days in Hell (2015)

Sometimes you can learn as much from a mockumentary as you can from a documentary. If you know nothing about tennis and everything about comedy movies, 7 Days in Hell might help you grasp the basics of the game. Directed by Jake Szymanski, who did Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, the film stars Andy Samberg and Kit Harington as tennis champions competing in the longest tennis match ever played. With Jon Hamm narrating, its cast is stacked with comedic royalty. Despite the seemingly outrageous storyline, the real longest-ever match stretched across three days at Wimbledon in 2010. Since then, the tiebreak rule was implemented to prevent long, strenuous games, making this movie more fictitious fun than reality-based—though it can teach audiences a thing or two through its parodying of the tennis world.

This article originally appeared on harpersbazaar.com/US in August 2026.

Lead image: Courtesy of the Studios

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