Let’s All Be in Love: Challengers and the Corners It Touches
- Ummo
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
Ummo, our Film and TV writer, explores how Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers turns tennis and a familiar love triangle into something far more exhilarating, ambitious… and undeniably sexy.
Let me start with a disclaimer: I’m not a sports person. The only sport I really grew up with was cricket, and even then it was limited to those high-stakes India vs. Pakistan matches that everyone and their grandmother tuned into.
So claiming I watched Challengers for the tennis would be far-fetched. In reality, it was the power of Zendaya and, of course, that clip where the tension between her character and the two men feels almost unbearable. Three people, one bed, what happens next?
What I didn’t expect was to learn not just about tennis, but about love and ambition.
It’s dizzying and electrifying, folding its timeline in on itself with flashbacks and flash-forwards until matches blur into memories to the pulsing score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
More Than A Love Triangle
We first follow Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), the tennis prodigy, the one who could’ve been the next big thing if not for an injury that ended her career too soon. She marries Art (Mike Faist), the steady and obedient one, and channels her ambition through him, coaching him toward the success she never had. Then there’s Patrick (Josh O’Connor), Art’s former best friend, who ignites something raw in her.
What’s fascinating is that every side of that triangle matters. In most stories, there’s someone who’s instantly winning the race before it starts; there’s a main lead and a second lead — K-drama fans, you know what I mean — but Challengers doesn’t play by those rules. Think Bridget Jones, torn between Mr. Darcy and Daniel, or Katniss Everdeen, torn between Peeta and Gale. In Challengers, all three characters carry equal weight, and there are three potential relationships which are explored: Art and Tashi, Patrick and Tashi and… Art and Patrick.
But truth be told, Tashi seems to want less from this love triangle than the two men do. Her marriage to Art looks picture-perfect, but it’s strategic, a way for her to stay in the game. Her affair with Patrick, meanwhile, exposes her need for passion, recklessness and need, which she wasn’t able to find with Art. All these dynamics lead us to the conclusion that the love of Tashi’s life wasn’t the men, but in fact — tennis.
Watching Tashi’s career trajectory unfold, I couldn’t help reflecting on how we’re taught to balance love and ambition. Society tells us to keep them separate, to sacrifice one for the other. If you want to get ahead, you might have to deprioritize relationships; if you choose love, you risk losing ground in your career. Especially for women, that choice can feel like a trap, and Tashi is no exception.
Art and Patrick on Masculinity
Meanwhile, Art and Patrick’s rivalry is laced with intimacy: their lingering glances at one another, their bodies reacting to each other’s presence on the court… It’s competitive, tender, homoerotic. You start to wonder whether their desire and competitive nature are really for Tashi, or for the reflection of themselves they see in each other.
These two characters open a quiet conversation about masculinity: What does it mean to be a man in a hypercompetitive world like professional sports? A world where vulnerability and queerness are still taboo? It challenges the idea that love or desire must be straight, tidy, or easily defined. But Challengers simply refuses to pick sides. No connection is secondary; Tashi and Art, Tashi and Patrick, Art and Patrick. This triangle is essential, complicated and alive.
Therefore, at its heart, I would say Challengers isn’t about tennis at all. Through this dynamic, Guadagnino redefines what a love triangle can be. It isn’t a ‘Who will they choose?’ but rather ‘What can these people tell me about need, about competition, and about desire? The love triangle becomes the medium through which these questions are explored. The tennis court and the bedroom ultimately mirror each other.
Ultimately, Challengers is electrifying, but it isn’t a feel-good film. In Guadagnino’s world, love isn’t something you arrive at — it’s something you keep playing.
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