Zendaya’s new film trailer a massive disappointment for tennis fans
Following the release of the movie trailer for Zendaya’s up-and-coming movie, Challengers, tennis fans have reportedly been highly disappointed by the film’s premise and Zendaya’s performance as a convincing tennis star.
Challengers, by Luca Guadagnino, is a film about a former tennis star, Tashi Duncan, who sadly gets injured early in her tennis career, marries a tennis star and becomes the perfect wife and tennis coach. Her husband, a former grand slam tennis champion, signs up to compete in a challenger event, which sees him come up against Zendaya’s former lover and reignite a love triangle from their past.
Despite an interesting plot that features both tennis and romance, the film’s trailer wasn’t received well by tennis fans. Reactions on Reddit.com, saw fans comment that the film has nothing to do with tennis, and that it is essentially a side show piece to the “drama”.
One fan commenting on the Challenger’s trailer said: “it’s also horrible to translate to film because the years of training it takes to make it look at all convincing that it’s at the competitive level is nearly impossible.”
Another fan added: “I knew immediately when the synopsis came out a while ago that this movie was not going to be very tennis-focused but more of a drama love story…”
Although some fans have hit back at the critics, commenting: “I’m not sure why people are expecting it to be like ~A TENNIS FILM~ when the circuit is clearly just the backdrop for a sexy romantic drama.”
Zendaya and her co-stars Faist and O’Connor reportedly trained for 3 months to get in shape for the film, working with former tennis player Brad Gilbert, to enable Zendaya to play a convincing lead role in the film. However, tennis fans have also taken to Twitter to slate Zendaya’s technique on the court, tweeting comments such as, “She’s not even looking at the ball”, “she brings the backswing way too high”, and “even my forehand is better than that!”
Despite the backlash which centred around Zendaya’s forearm technique, her performance was praised by her director, Guadagnino, who said: “She’s wonderful” … “I mean, wow. We edited the movie and we almost actually don’t use any of her double. She’s so good.”
Zendaya’s performance also impressed current and former tennis players to include former American player Noah Rubin who said: “I’ve never hit a forehand that clean,” and England’s Laura Robson who said: “Is it me or is the forehand technique giving Medvedev?”
Whatever your view, tennis fans can tune in and watch Zendaya take centre court in Challenger, scheduled for release in the UK on Friday 15th September 2023, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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