I am a self-confessed tennis junkie. No two ways about it. I just finished watching a round robin match of the Sony Ericsson WTA season ending the tour season. It got me thinking about movies that features tennis as a sport. Yeah we have baseball, basketball, football (US and World–soccer), race car driving … you name it. In my research I have stumbled upon this really cool website: Sports In Movies.
I then did the obligatory task of searching under the sport of tennis and this is what the search yielded:
| Alphabetical List of Tennis Movies | ||
| TITLE | YEAR | RATING |
| Match Point | 2005 | R |
| Nobody’s Perfect | 1989 | PG-13 |
| Tennis Anyone…? | 2005 | NR |
| Wimbledon | 2004 | PG-13 |
Chart Source: SportsInMovies.com
ONLY FOUR MOVIES? How can that be? Before I rundown this list, there is obviously one significant omission Strangers on a Train. Who can forget this?
Now back to the list … I have seen 3 out of 4 the movies listed (Never heard of “Nobody’s Perfect” until I did the search). And while Match Point features a tennis player, it is essentially a very minor plot point (and part of the title). Tennis Anyone is pretty much a turkey made by folks who obviously love the game and just wanted to make a film about it. But it has Draco Malfoy’s dad in it so it cannot be too horrific of a watch.
That just leaves Wimbledon. I was at first skeptical about this film because it was in and out of theater, which did not bode well. But I finally caught it on HBO a number of years ago. And I am glad I did. Paul Bettany and a pre-overly famous James McAvoy? And it is shot in and around London? You really cannot get sweeter than that. Besides it is a cute story with characters who were doppelgangers/composites of real life players. If you love tennis I highly recommend this film.
[…] put I have tennis on the mind as of late. I have previously alluded to my love of tennis and tied it into films that feature the sport prominently. Now, I would like to take the opportunity to take a closer look […]