Tennis Movies (Hollywood at the Net)

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:

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.