Is Challengers a true story? No, but Zendaya’s tennis movie is partly inspired by a real couple

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Zendaya’s New Erotic Tennis Movie The challengers turns more heads than volleys at Wimbledon.

In the film, Zendaya’s character Tashi is the quintessential tennis girl until a serious injury forces her to the sidelines, where she becomes her husband Art’s tennis coach. However, when Art (Mike Faist) finds himself on a losing streak after recovering from his own injury, she enters him in a low-stakes competition to get him back in the game. Instead, the couple finds themselves in a sexually charged conundrum when Art must face off against his ex-best friend and Tashi’s ex-lover, Patrick (Josh O’Connor).

The film hit theaters on April 26 and has already received rave reviews. But what if I told you that Zendaya and Faist’s characters are partly based on a former tennis couple? Do you think you could guess which one? Keep in mind that we’re talking about tennis dynamics here, not threesomes and love triangles.

Although screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes realized that tennis was “cinematic” while watching Naomi Osaka defeat Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open, it turns out that Tashi’s story has a lot in common with that of Roger Federer’s wife, Mirka Federer.

In an interview with GQKuritzkes said he was struck by Mirka’s “stressed” expressions during her husband’s 2019 Wimbledon match against Novak Djokovic. He said: “I was looking at her and thinking, ‘Why are you so stressed? You have all the money in the world. You’ve won 20 Grand Slams. What’s so stressful for you? There must be something else.”

That’s when he learned that Mirka (born Miroslava Vavrinec) was a professional tennis player until an ankle injury forced her to retire in 2002, just two years after meeting Roger Federer at the 2000 Summer Olympics. “She kind of became Federer’s manager and kind of managed his life,” Kuritzkes said. GQ“He gives him a lot of credit (for his success).”

According to PeopleThe couple married in 2009 and have two sets of twins: 14-year-old daughters Myla and Charlene, and nine-year-old sons Lenny and Leo. “Mirka was there when I didn’t have titles and she’s still there 89 titles later, so she had a big part to play in (the victory),” Roger Federer reportedly told reporters after winning the 2017 Australian Open. “She knows it, I know it, everybody knows it.”

In fact, Serena Williams made the connection between Art and Roger Federer in her Vogue review of The challengers. “A lot of male tennis players Really “They rely on their wives and girlfriends,” she wrote of Faist’s character. “Just look at someone like Roger Federer: he used to fight with his wife, Mirka, and they were like glue.”

She continued: “You see this a lot in men’s tennis, especially with the really successful players, but I was like that too. If you’re at the top, nobody talks to you. You’re so alone that you end up being very dependent on your team and their opinions. And I mean, I was codependent with Venus in the beginning – worse than Art was with Tashi. She was my support system. So it’s interesting that the film was able to capture some of that experience.”

You can read William’s full review here, but only after you’ve seen The challengers for yourself. Zendaya’s new tennis movie is now in theaters.

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Originally published on Glamour