There haven’t been many great tennis movies, but there have been some great tennis scenes
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and MGM Tennis is a sport of personal intensity and triumph. Granted, there are ways to play tennis in teams, from doubles to Billie Jean King’s long-standing dream of making World Team Tennis one of our major sports. But at its core, tennis is about individuals, which is why it lends itself surprisingly well to the movies.
Occasionally, great tennis scenes give good tennis form, too. It’s not crucial, but in ranking the best of the tennis scenes committed to film, the quality comes in helpful for tiebreakers. With apologies to runners-up Bachelor Party , Borg vs. McEnroe , Clueless , Bee Movie , and The Power of the Dog , here are the 12 best examples of the microgenre.11. Match Point Woody Allen’s presence on this list is inevitable.
9. A Room With a View Photo: 20th Century Fox Tennis has often been used as cinematic shorthand for a leisure activity among the well-to-do, and A Room with a View showcases this better than most. One of the great Merchant Ivory costume dramas of the 1980s, A Room With a View begins with a vacation in Italy, where Lucy Honeychurch meets and shares a fleeting but rather swoony hillside kiss with George Emerson .
7. Battle of the Sexes The titular televised match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is one of sports’ best-remembered blowouts. King’s straight-sets triumph over the braggadocious chauvinist wasn’t much in doubt once the players were on the court, though there was plenty of speculation leading up to the match. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris chose to film the match scenes from a high angle to mimic the effect of watching on TV.
4. Bridesmaids The only tennis scene in film temperamentally fit for an AC/DC montage, Bridesmaids’ showdown between Annie and Helen is a grudge match for the ages. While the tennis itself only lasts a minute of screen time, the passive-aggressive buildup over whether people actually change makes the competition feel endless. On court, Annie and Helen spray their shots with unrestrained ferocity, aiming not for the baselines but for each other’s torsos.
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