Best Tennis Movies of All Time (The Ones Players Actually Watch)

Richie Tenenbaum losing it on a tennis court could be the best example of burnout ever caught on video.

No music.
No heroics.
Just coming apart.

This moment hits home if you've ever connected your sense of self to how well you do.

This movie shouldn't work.
And yet, every joke within works.

From:

• Fifth sets that never end
• Media stories that don't make logic
• Rivalries turning into brands

It's an exaggeration, but it's not wrong.

The truth bomb is when you've read enough tennis news, this seems less like a joke and more like the truth with jokes.

This isn't a sports movie, but it could be the finest movie on tennis ever made.

The first voiceover about the ball hitting the net? In one line, that's the philosophy of tennis.

• You may play well and still lose.
• You may play badly and yet win.

This is why it belongs here: No other movie does a greater job of showing how unpredictable things may be, on the court or in life.

This is the tennis movie that understands the mind the best.

It breaks the notion that:

• Borg had no feelings
• McEnroe was a mess.

They were both pressure cookers. They leaked in diverse ways.

The movie makes you tired mentally, not simply because of the scorelines, so the match sequences seem tight.

Writer's note: You missed the movie if you wrote about it without talking about anxiety, routines, or self-control.

Let's quit being dishonest with ourselves.
This film is corny. Not surprising. Not realistic.

And in some way, it makes me feel better.

I watch this when I'm tired of analysing tennis and just want:

Courts with grass

Slow-motion serves

The idea that love would repair your backhand

Is it true? Not really.
Is it honest about how you feel? Yes, strangely.

How it works:
It gets that people are afraid of being irrelevant in a sport when they are alone. Players never stop being afraid.

Writers make the mistake of making fun of it too much. This movie understands precisely what it is.

This is one of those films that should seem preachy but doesn't because the history is too crazy to make it sound worse than it is.

Bobby Riggs isn't a cartoon villain. He's worse because he's charming, silly, and incorrect in public.

The pace is what I enjoy about this. The tennis match doesn't seem like the end, it feels like it has to happen.

Fun fact: The production team reconstructed the Astrodome court with meticulous realism, even fixing lighting problems that made it hard to see depth.

Writing trap: Instead of stakes, listing accomplishments.
The true question isn't "Will she win?" but "What will happen if she loses?"

A movie about tennis that isn't truly about tennis.

I put off seeing this movie longer than I should have. I thought it would be Oscar bait. I was mistaken.

Yes, it's about Venus and Serena Williams, but more significantly, it's about how parents' delusions can become reality.

What this movie does right:

• The bad things about early training
• The societal constraints that keep people from playing tennis
• The idea that skill doesn't mean much without protection

The tennis scenes are meant to be calm. This isn't about winning the Wimbledon. It's about making it through the system long enough to get there.

Personal moment: Richard turns down an offer for a shortcut in one scenario. I recall stopping the movie because it made me think of how many athletes burn out too soon because they want to be validated.

A common writing error is to call this "inspirational" and then go on.
It's more unpleasant than inspirational, and that's the goal.

I have to start here since it would be wrong to act as this movie doesn't exist.

This isn't actually a "movie about tennis."
It's a relationship autopsy, and tennis is the weapon of choice.

It wasn't the rallies (they're good) that blew my mind, it was how well it captures:

• Ego pretending to be love
• Friendship that is really competition
• Wanting something but seeming to be ambitious

There have been times when I played matches not to win but to prove something. This movie knows that instinct all too well.

Zendaya's role doesn't "support" athletes like they do in other sports films. She controls the flow of the game, both emotionally and tactically. That's not common. That's true.

Fun fact: A lot of tennis coaches I know didn't like this movie.
Most people who used to compete enjoyed it. That tells you all you need to know.

A common error writers make is to summarise the love triangle instead of detailing how tennis makes it worse. The location isn't the problem, tennis is.

I don't think these films are supposed to inspire anyone. They don't make you want to pick up a racquet again, they remind you why you used to want to. Tennis sticks with you long after you quit playing seriously.

The routines, the self-talk, and the way quiet can feel louder than a throng. I probably won't ever view some of these flicks again before a game. A handful of them I go back to after I've been competing for a long.

Not because they know how to play tennis perfectly, but because they know what it takes and what it costs. And if one of them makes you think about a point you played years ago after the credits, that's not the movie's fault. That's basically how tennis works.