We had the chance to attend a press conference for Challengers and during the conference the writer of the film spoke on the inspiration for a tennis story. Justin Kuritzkes talked about the way Challengers came to be during the US Open in 2018. You can check out the full quote below.

Yeah, of course.  You know, prior to writing the script, I hadn’t been that massive of a sports fan, or a tennis fan.  And then around 2018, I just happened to turn on the US Open.  And it was the final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. And there was this very controversial call from the umpire where he accused Serena Williams of receiving coaching from the sidelines.  And I had never heard of this rule, but, you know, and Serena Williams was saying, “That didn’t happen,” “I would never do that.”  But immediately this struck me as this intensely cinematic situation where you’re all alone on your side of the court, and there’s this one other person in this massive tennis stadium who cares as much about what happens to you as you do.  But you can’t talk to them.  And for whatever reason, it just clicked in my mind, well, what if you really needed to talk about something?  And what if it was something beyond tennis?  What if it was something that was going on with the two of you? And what if it involved the person on the other side of the net?  How would you have that conversation?  And how could you communicate the tension of that situation using the tools that are specific to film?  So yeah, that was really where it all started for me. 

It’s a cultural moment in the tennis moment for sure and one that has sparked much discussion over the years. Justin of course seems to only have gotten the spark to write a tennis story from that incident. The film is telling its own story and uses the kinetic energy of tennis to move its story forward. Stay tuned for our full review and reaction of the film.

Challengers opens in theaters on April 26th