I saw Challengers last week and I can’t stop thinking about it. As a result I keep reading a lot of Challengers lore. I read, for example, that the inspiration for the movie came partially from a particularly fierce US Open title match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. And that Zendaya’s character, Tashi, was inspired by Roger Federer's wife, Mirka. Kuritzkes. The film’s writer Justin Kuritzkes told GQ that he became obsessed with how "stressed out" Mirka looked throughout the 2019 Wimbledon final between her husband and Novak Djokovic, and so investigated her backstory.
Like Tashi, Mirka’s own tennis career was cut short by injury, and as a result she came her husband’s manager, controlling a great deal of his life. That’s one of the things I thought the movie did so well, exploring love and control and passion, and the idea that no relationship can be truly equal.
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