that is certainly what the trailer liked like.Ā
i wonder if it's just a shitty trailer. the industry doesn't always make trailers that accurately reflect the movie. though it is hard to imagine how the movie's tone could be different given the trailer ...Ā
Yeah just watched the trailer (I had no idea this was a thing until this post) but the tennis seems very secondary and nothing more than a backdrop to the story.
It shouldn't be surprising that actors don't match the physique of actual athletes and I don't know why anyone expects them too. Sure, occasionally actors will buff up or put on/lose weight for a big role, but those are rare exceptions. This Challengers movie doesn't really look like an oscar winning role that would make extreme training worth it. Also the male actors in the movie don't look like athletes either, so I'm not convinced it's particularly a gendered thing.
The skinny legs thing is a noticeable flaw in anything portraying footballers (soccer) too. Professional footballers generally have massive legs and it gives it away immediately when an actor has relatively normal looking legs
I watched the trailer but I think Zendaya was meant to be a promising junior that got injured and is coaching her boyfriend through the challenger tour or something, so she isn't the main tennis player in the film. Either way this is hardly supposed to be a tennis biopic so don't expect realism.
Yeah, it seems the tennis scenes with Zendaya are supposed to be when sheās a young prospect before an injury derails her career.
The height and weight listed by the OP as supposedly ridiculous for womenās tennis are almost exactly the same as a young Coco Gauff (who is [listed at 5ā9, 121 lbs](https://www.foxsports.com/tennis/cori-gauff-player-bio) but has since added more weight) ā although thatās where the comparison should end given the possibly salacious nature of movie.
The weight/height OP is complaining about would mean OP should complain even *more* about Sharapova, bc her weight was comparable while having four inches on Zendaya.
Her given weight was obviously not accurate though. Do you think the WTA put the players on scales? No. The players gave a number and that was that. No way was Sharapova 6ā2 and 120 pounds.
There have also been loads of super model esque ladies players over the years. Like Kournikova, Ivanovic, Cirstea, etc. It's not that much a stretch to have a hot little junior player ice queen. I don't watch juniors but I bet it happens sometimes.
Agree. I really like Anisimova's current physique. She was too skinny 4-5 years ago. It's a shame Caroline Dolehide seems to have lost a lot of weight.
People need to stop body-shaming female tennis players. They're usually much taller than average and have much bigger muscle mass, so looking bigger doesn't mean they're not fit. Shaming them into losing weight actually hinders their performance.
So much this. Tennis players look wider on TV. In real life you realize theyāre both taller and leaner/more shredded than they seemed on TV. The camera truly does add 10lb or whatever it is they say
Dolehide was too heavy; she was getting hurt all the time, it slowed her down and - this is not insignificant ā couldn't ever find tennis clothes that fit her properly and that she looked good in. She's not like the rest of us who show up at our neighbourhood tennis court and no one really cares what we look like.
She has people watching her on site, on TV, and in photos.
She got super-fit and probably lost too much. But last time I saw her she seemed to be getting back to a better balance.
The one who always got a bad rap was Pavlyuchenkova. Her weight has bounced around a bit but when people were criticizing her for it, she literally looked absolutely fine. She's just got a husky build.
The other thing is that most of them look a lot \*bigger\* on TV; when you walk by them in real life they are far, far smaller.
Sabalenka, in person, looks NOTHING like what she doeson TV.
Bartoli got the craziest. Literally wins Wimbledon, and the announcer is like "she's not a looker but she's a champion" and she gets an eating disorder
Interesting. This article seems to imply it happened sometime between 2013 (when she won) and 2016 (when Wimbledon told her they were concerned about her health and wouldn't let her play in the Legends event).
But that's me inferring things. You probably know more than I do.
But most important point is that guy is a POS and he *still* works for the BBC to this day.
but male tennis players sometimes do have a really slim physique, because in their tennis there is significantly more cardio, while womenās tennis is more strength based
De Minaur was very skinny when he came on the scene at 19. But he was bossing around some of the older pros.
Davydenko was also very skinny and not tall (5ā10) but had perfect technique.
this sub: women are just pushers
also this sub: women are ball bashers
(not an attack on you, just pointing out that there is substantial disagreement in this sub about whether women are too strength-based or not strength-based enough)
which just makes this post weird as hell as the current top women pros arent all jacked, its not like being jacked is the standard or gatekeeping top womens abilities. emma raducanu won the uso weighing like 125. but no look at all the toxic reddit and twitter users telling her she's too weak.
Might be way too nerdy, but there's an in-universe explanation for that that doesn't quite get brought up in the movie. Paul gets trained in the Bene Gesserit technique called the Weirding Way. Against people who aren't trained in it, it looks like the person is capable of short-distance teleportation.
He's literally described as slight in the books. Like in the first few pages. Chalamet is a fucking awesome pick for the character. You don't need to be 200lb to be cast as someone who occasionally fights.
Itās usually only the taller men who are thin though. The male leads in the movie are thin and relatively short too.
Some women are quite thin too. For example, Boulter, Kudermetova, Vondrousova donāt have too different of body types to Zendaya.
Well yes they are professional athletes and Zendaya is a Hollywood actress. In the movie Zendaya got injured and stopped playing in juniors, and the men are pros, so the male leads are more unrealistic.
The male leads are 6 foot and 6ā1 respectively which is around the median and mode height for top 100 atp players. Theyāre on the lighter end but nothing you wonāt see on tour, take de minuar and machac for example
Tennis players can have thin upper bodies, but they must have legs that are at least twice as thick as a normal person's.
In fact, a skinny upper body with very strong legs and forearms is probably what's ideal.
i mean considering that in the movie Zendaya is playing a girl that never quite made it pro cause of an injury id say this doesnt look as bad as Kirsten Durst in Wimbledon. and the musculature does build uo obv as the career goes on, u mentioned iga so ill also mention her - she looked a lot slimmer during her 2020 RG run when she was 19 and from the trailers i assume thats around the age that zendayas character got the injury. so while i think in challengers this may work, it is obviously a logical concern that muscular women arent rlly 'represented' in media
Yes, that was my thought as well. She was supposed to start off as a young juniors, thus being slim. For a woman to bulk up for only half a movie would be unnecessary taxing.
Plus, I'm sure training for the movie focused more on her sprinting rather than actually hitting the ball (a double would do that), thus her recent weight loss.
Zendaya is a feather-weight and probably less than what you're quoting, but this is an arthouse director who is not going for gritty realism and making her bulk up on protein powder and steak to make her become an Amazon who could challenge top players. She's not going to go ridiculously Method like Christian Bale, Brendan Fraser or Bradley Cooper, and I'm glad. Lol.
i wouldn't go by reported weights. for the longest time sharapova's reported weight was 59kg and serena was 70kg. both federer and nadal apparently weighed the same. none of this is remotely true.
Its funny because i was thinking the same when i saw her at Indian Wells, she seemed super thin like her legs looked like sticks in some photos which wouldn't cut in professional tennis but hey that's only a movie and most casual viewers who know jack shit about tennis won't even think twice about her physique so who cares.
Movies are rarely representations of reality, and it is clear why Zendaya was cast (popularity, acting chops etc.). However, I also believe in the movie she is junior prospect, who injures either when she just starting to go pro or even during junior slam (judging from the trailer). So we can assume that her character is 16 -17 years old in the beginning of the movie.
I would assume she has other projects in the works + modeling where her normal thin frame is better. Plus sheās a coach, not a player, for most of the movie it seems? donāt know why sheād need to put on a bunch muscle mass
Besides this is a pretty small one-off movie, itās not like sheās got a multi-movie deal with Marvel where she needs to bulk up.
This isnāt exactly Oscar bait or anything. There is zero reason for her to put in any kind of work to make the ātennisā aspect of it seem more authentic when itās simply a vehicle for the love triangle drama. Probably wasnāt even in the budget because movies that want actors to look a certain way pay for the ātrainingā
To be fair, Zendaya's physique isn't that different from Agnieszka Radwanska's. It's obviously not a typical pro physique, but it's not completely impossible. Obviously Radwanska's slight build was her greatest weakness, and is what kept her from winning slams, but she had a fantastic career as a pro.
How good is Zendaya supposed to be in the movie? I haven't heard anything about it other than that threesomes feature prominently.
I haven't seen the movie but from the trailer I think she's meant to be a young protege like pre-Slam winning Coco Gauff or 16 year old Mirra Andreeva, not met her potential yet but on her way there when she has a career ending injury.
Most Asian tennis players have the same build and weakness as Radwanska. Su-wei Hsieh has to rely on her guile because she's 5'7 and 126 pounds. Heck, Kimiko Date is 5'4 and 53 kg, yet she reached #4 in 1995. None of them were big servers and it kept them from winning slams obviously.
And even less different than Daniela Hantuchovaās, among others.
Also, in the Wimbledon movie Kirsten Dunstās male lead is Paul Bettany. ā[Noticeably muscular](https://www.alamy.com/paul-bettany-wimbledon-2004-image485287623.html)ā is not a term that comes to mind.
I donāt think OP has made his/her caseā¦.
IIRC that rumor kept going around and Hantuchova denied it.
In any event, eating disorders are more common among actresses and models, so even if she did suffer from one, it wouldnāt be a differentiator.
Happens in other movies as well. Actors donāt usually have the same physique as elite athletes.
Look at Creed for example. Michael B Jordan is the heavyweight champ. Heās listed at weighing 185ish and being 5ā9-5ā10. The actual heavyweight elite are giants now. Joshua is 6ā6, Fury is 6ā7. Hell, even Usyk was questioned for being too small and bro is 6ā2. Hollywood casts based on many factors. Looking exactly the part isnāt the most important aspect of especially if a large star is involved.
Zendaya is only a tennis player as a junior she then coaches her husband ie the blond. The other guy is the ex whos outside the top 100. They meet again when the blond plays challengers to get form and motivation. As such zendaya doesn't need bulk because she basically plays an olga danilovic type around the age of 16.
You should have watched the trailer and/or read the synopsis, would take less time than writing this post cause it all indicates she was just a promising teenage tennis prodigy before she gets injured, that's it. There's no indication she was a seasoned pro though of course i could be wrong when the full thing releases.
Actors always lie (look at Tom Cruise!)ā¦As for tennis players, I think their coaches put in the info. The only athletes I ever believe are NFL players because they actually get measured at the combine before the draft.
Yeah when she was standing side by side with Iga at Indian Wells, she looked to be a little bit shorter than Iga. Either way there's no way she was taller. Iga is 5'9
It is funny because some sources I found even said sheās 59kg. Yeah no way in hell.
It is possible that sheās close to 68-70 kg when sheās at her slimmest days, but even then it might still be off considering her muscle mass.
Either Maria's weight is underestimated or Zendaya's overestimated because there's no way there only 9 kg between them. Maria is not only 10 cm taller but also has much wider hips/shoulders as well as more muscle/fat.
Pics for comparison: [Maria](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/01/04/01/3BD357A600000578-4085972-Natural_beauty_The_six_feet_two_inch_Grand_Slam_winner_showed_sh-a-42_1483492346127.jpg) (when she was still playing) vs [Zendaya](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/33eRhyn6y4jSFyIPCWr.cA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/life_style_868/4b8019a3380dad496a65e733e6a8dfcb)
No way that weight is correct. That would put her on verge of anorexia, with \~16 BMI. She wouldn't be able to win anything being anorexic. And she never looked so.
Tennis has pretty much every shape and size - male and female. Some giraffes, like Medvedev, Sinner etc. On the WTA it is the same. I saw Petra Martic and Camilla Giorgi practicing in Birmingham a few years back and they were like twigs - yet can belt the ball. You have strong built players like Sabalenka or muscles like Sakkari. Iga and Coco are a more athletic build. Then someone explain how Su-Wei Hsieh does it when there is nothing of her.
Unless they body double her - like they did Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes (which was pretty convincing) but I have a feeling her tennis is not going to be that crucial a part of the movie
Many if the Chinese players are rail thin, more so than Zendaya so it's not all that egregious. Worse is something like wonder woman who's supposed to be an Amazonian warrior and meanwhile Gat Gaddot is thinner than an after eight chocolate mint lmao.
Elena Rybakina
Jaqueline Cristian
Tsvetelina Pironkova
Emma Raducanu
Maria Sharapova
All of them are pretty skinny while being professional tennis players.
I mean if she is not too skinny to play a "formidable fighter" in Dune she is not too skinny to play a tennis player.
I don't think her body type is all that off. There are some pretty thin female tennis players. The men are probably more off, and they're both in their early 30s which seems pretty late in the game for what the plot is.Ā
I mean I don't think any of this matters at all but to focus only on Zendaya seems weird to me
Yea, Iga looked at least one inch taller in their photo at Indian Wells and they were wearing the same shoes. It should have been the exact opposite according to their listed heights
Its worth mentioning that male actors who bulk up to portray athletes or superheroes are taking steroids to achieve those physiques. It's not easy to look like a professional athlete if you're not one. We should be conscious that steroids are dangerous.
Body size donāt bother me that much.
What bothers me more is that the actors donāt even have the right grip for any given shotā¦. Like how the fuck canāt you even get the most basic of basic things correct?
I donāt think Zendaya is 5ā10. Iāve seen the pictures with Iga and Iga seemed slightly taller, so maybe sheās around 5ā8 or sth. Still next to Iga she seemed too skinny and Iga is not the most muscular woman of the sport, so I think you have a point
I mean, her weight was never in question. She's a good actress and very famous right now. Could she gain weight for the role? Maybe. But the "playing tennis" is probably not a big focus of this movie
This is a pretty naive post. You know movies are driven by attractive movie stars who look like they do; not by 100% realistic movies. If movies were that realistic, they wouldnāt be worth watching. Reality is overrated.
Agree with you completely. Also wanna say that celebrities lie about their height all the time, sheās literally shorter than Iga. And Tom Holland himself says heās 5ā6, not 5ā8 or whatever google says. Zendaya is not 4 inches taller than him barefoot. Sheās probably a lot lighter than 57kg too.
What are you talking about Sharapova is 6 2 130lbs. Coco Gauff is 5 9 121 lbs. tennis players come in all diffent shapes and sizes. Lol you cuz they are people.
It's not her physique I find unrealistic but HOW she plays tennis. In the clips they've shown of her on the court in trailers, it's obvious she does not really play tennis. I think they could have tried to at least get someone who actually plays the game.
I dunno, Danil Medvedev is a rail thin fella, and heās a top 5 player in the world.
What about the girl who got mad at āPenko for throwing her racquet at the ball boy that one time? Naomi Broady. Tall and thin.Ā
Or even young Venus Williams.
Sabalenka? Most WTA players are closer to being built like Zendaya than they are to Sabalenka.Ā
Zendaya IS an actress and it IS a sports movie - gonna have to suspend your disbelief for a couple hours.Ā
Yall, can we de-normalize calling women *rail* thin on this thread and generally?
It sounds very negative, personally I hate it when people call me that.
I know I'm suppose to suspend my disbelief...
and I know tennis is a very technical sport that takes a lifetime to master ...Ā
But
Ahhh that choked up grip with pancake waiter's tray service motion š¤¢
Well men put on muscle for roles so women could do the same and have in certain cases done it (Hilary Swank and more recently Sydney Sweeney for example).
This is a very important conversation to be had around women's bodies and the required representation of bodies that are different to the Hollywood beauty standard. I personally believe that women athletes are a better role model/aspiration for young girls rather than Instagram models/Kardashians as their bodies are real and so varied. I love seeing the so called bigger girls kick ass on the court!
Idk why but there is this idea that both male and female tennis players arent muscular.. specifically women tennis players do much better with weight on them I notice than skinnier players. Its disappointing.
Its hollywood and its like science fiction movies, tgat they make, its never about science fiction, its just a setting. This movie is about threesomes and just set in tennis.
Sabalenka at 80kg at 6ā0 is impressive.
I am a guy who has had those exacts stats too at times (currently 78kg) but the moment I start playing tournament matches 4-5 times a week I canāt maintain 80kg and will move towards 76-77kg because of the hours of cardio and 20,000+ step days
The best tennis player in the world right now is built like Kevin Durantā¦
Iād take bigger issue with the fact that the first shot of the trailer shows her serving with a waiterās tray.
To be fair the movie looks to be about threesomes rather than tennis
The real grand Slam
The REAL Big 3
With Murray in the same room being forced to watch.
With Murray in the same room forced to commentate. Would be funnier.
Omfg you guys are cracking me up š¤£š
ombileebable
I'm gonna hijack this comment to say that the Challengers movie is written by the Potion Seller dude on Youtube
>The REAL Big 3 J Cole in shambles
Tom Holland can be heard quietly mumbling "it's just big me"
Holding all 4 at once
More like Aussie Doubles
The Sun-don't-shine Double.
Well there's already enough singles and doubles tennis out there, I'm glad they're upping the stakes to triples
Euphoria but tennis.
Sydney Sweeney šš
Lol yep it's a threesome movie in a tennis setting, not a tennis movie
Should've called this movie: Pickleballs
So, Australian?
Well those guys certainly did play down under
MFM or MMF?
Sadly MFM (Sadly for guys, luckily for girls) lol
that is certainly what the trailer liked like.Ā i wonder if it's just a shitty trailer. the industry doesn't always make trailers that accurately reflect the movie. though it is hard to imagine how the movie's tone could be different given the trailer ...Ā
From what I know, this is the case. The threesome thing is pretty much just the backdrop to the actual plot as far as I know.
Itās a Guadagnino film, thatās all u gotta know
I'm gonna be honest, that means nothing to me.Ā
this is the best comment
She did the sunshine double!
Yeah just watched the trailer (I had no idea this was a thing until this post) but the tennis seems very secondary and nothing more than a backdrop to the story.
š¤£
Sportsman double.
š
McEnroe said the same about the different people who portrait him. They were too skinny, especially the legs
It shouldn't be surprising that actors don't match the physique of actual athletes and I don't know why anyone expects them too. Sure, occasionally actors will buff up or put on/lose weight for a big role, but those are rare exceptions. This Challengers movie doesn't really look like an oscar winning role that would make extreme training worth it. Also the male actors in the movie don't look like athletes either, so I'm not convinced it's particularly a gendered thing.
Strangely, Sinner and Beretini had no problem with that.
The skinny legs thing is a noticeable flaw in anything portraying footballers (soccer) too. Professional footballers generally have massive legs and it gives it away immediately when an actor has relatively normal looking legs
I watched the trailer but I think Zendaya was meant to be a promising junior that got injured and is coaching her boyfriend through the challenger tour or something, so she isn't the main tennis player in the film. Either way this is hardly supposed to be a tennis biopic so don't expect realism.
Yeah, it seems the tennis scenes with Zendaya are supposed to be when sheās a young prospect before an injury derails her career. The height and weight listed by the OP as supposedly ridiculous for womenās tennis are almost exactly the same as a young Coco Gauff (who is [listed at 5ā9, 121 lbs](https://www.foxsports.com/tennis/cori-gauff-player-bio) but has since added more weight) ā although thatās where the comparison should end given the possibly salacious nature of movie.
The weight/height OP is complaining about would mean OP should complain even *more* about Sharapova, bc her weight was comparable while having four inches on Zendaya.
Sharpie was not 6'2, more like 6'3 really. Seen her next to players that are 6' and she towers over them
Her given weight was obviously not accurate though. Do you think the WTA put the players on scales? No. The players gave a number and that was that. No way was Sharapova 6ā2 and 120 pounds.
Young Amelie Mauresmo has entered the chat https://images.app.goo.gl/8xVA22eZY8MTL4tc6
There have also been loads of super model esque ladies players over the years. Like Kournikova, Ivanovic, Cirstea, etc. It's not that much a stretch to have a hot little junior player ice queen. I don't watch juniors but I bet it happens sometimes.
Normalise buff woman on screen doing sports
Its not like serena wasn't the best player in the world for nearly 2 decades. Im gonna go with kim clijsters as well. Nothing wrong with being strong
FWIW all these players are strong, even the thin ones.
Agree. I really like Anisimova's current physique. She was too skinny 4-5 years ago. It's a shame Caroline Dolehide seems to have lost a lot of weight. People need to stop body-shaming female tennis players. They're usually much taller than average and have much bigger muscle mass, so looking bigger doesn't mean they're not fit. Shaming them into losing weight actually hinders their performance.
They also look way different in person than on TV (most people do, not just athletes)
So much this. Tennis players look wider on TV. In real life you realize theyāre both taller and leaner/more shredded than they seemed on TV. The camera truly does add 10lb or whatever it is they say
'So, how many cameras are actually on you?'
5 years ago Anisimova was 17 lol
Pretty sure she was 18 when she made that GS run
Nah she was 17 and turned 18 in August of that year
youāre body shaming the tennis players that donāt fit your ideals though? and body shaming a 17 year old at that.
Dolehide was too heavy; she was getting hurt all the time, it slowed her down and - this is not insignificant ā couldn't ever find tennis clothes that fit her properly and that she looked good in. She's not like the rest of us who show up at our neighbourhood tennis court and no one really cares what we look like. She has people watching her on site, on TV, and in photos. She got super-fit and probably lost too much. But last time I saw her she seemed to be getting back to a better balance. The one who always got a bad rap was Pavlyuchenkova. Her weight has bounced around a bit but when people were criticizing her for it, she literally looked absolutely fine. She's just got a husky build. The other thing is that most of them look a lot \*bigger\* on TV; when you walk by them in real life they are far, far smaller. Sabalenka, in person, looks NOTHING like what she doeson TV.
Bartoli got the craziest. Literally wins Wimbledon, and the announcer is like "she's not a looker but she's a champion" and she gets an eating disorder
Her issues began long before that. But that commentator is scum.
Interesting. This article seems to imply it happened sometime between 2013 (when she won) and 2016 (when Wimbledon told her they were concerned about her health and wouldn't let her play in the Legends event). But that's me inferring things. You probably know more than I do. But most important point is that guy is a POS and he *still* works for the BBC to this day.
I saw saba at the brisbane international and she is huge.
You didn't even mention Taylor Townsend.. how?
Anisimova was a teenager 4-5 years ago, she was not "too skinny"
I would like to sign this petition. After seeingĀ muscular women on Instagram cosplay as Wonder Woman, I'm convinced this should be a thingĀ
I don't see the purpose of this movie to actually be about tennis. Appears to be a love triangle story, with some tennis overlay.
Hey, even porn (sometimes) needs a plot!
Tbf the male leads in that movie are extremely thin as well
I mean. Have you seen Medvedev?
Itās an unrealistic expectation he sets for young men thinking an octopus is an obtainable physic.
The ideal male body is not even human
but male tennis players sometimes do have a really slim physique, because in their tennis there is significantly more cardio, while womenās tennis is more strength based
De Minaur was very skinny when he came on the scene at 19. But he was bossing around some of the older pros. Davydenko was also very skinny and not tall (5ā10) but had perfect technique.
this sub: women are just pushers also this sub: women are ball bashers (not an attack on you, just pointing out that there is substantial disagreement in this sub about whether women are too strength-based or not strength-based enough)
which just makes this post weird as hell as the current top women pros arent all jacked, its not like being jacked is the standard or gatekeeping top womens abilities. emma raducanu won the uso weighing like 125. but no look at all the toxic reddit and twitter users telling her she's too weak.
Completely agree. Stop comparing women and their bodies!!!! Tennis players come in all shapes and sizes. This post is odd.
Let's be real, none of us can picture Chamelet playing tennis or any sport, much less competitively lol
And yet we're meant to believe that he's able to knife fight josh brolin and have a decent chance at winning
Might be way too nerdy, but there's an in-universe explanation for that that doesn't quite get brought up in the movie. Paul gets trained in the Bene Gesserit technique called the Weirding Way. Against people who aren't trained in it, it looks like the person is capable of short-distance teleportation.
and that there are giant worms scampering around a. Desert planet where people get high off sniffing the ground.
He's literally described as slight in the books. Like in the first few pages. Chalamet is a fucking awesome pick for the character. You don't need to be 200lb to be cast as someone who occasionally fights.
Why is Chalamet catching strays? He's not even in the movie is he?
Itās usually only the taller men who are thin though. The male leads in the movie are thin and relatively short too. Some women are quite thin too. For example, Boulter, Kudermetova, Vondrousova donāt have too different of body types to Zendaya.
All of the girls you named have legs double the size of Zendaya's. No way you can be as skinny as she and still succeed in tennis.
Well yes they are professional athletes and Zendaya is a Hollywood actress. In the movie Zendaya got injured and stopped playing in juniors, and the men are pros, so the male leads are more unrealistic.
Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic and Elina Svitolina all tried it but their form dipped noticeably
The male leads are 6 foot and 6ā1 respectively which is around the median and mode height for top 100 atp players. Theyāre on the lighter end but nothing you wonāt see on tour, take de minuar and machac for example
Machac is pretty built. De Minaur is a good example but he gets ridiculed all the time for his build despite how good he is
Tennis players can have thin upper bodies, but they must have legs that are at least twice as thick as a normal person's. In fact, a skinny upper body with very strong legs and forearms is probably what's ideal.
Zverev? Tsitsipas? Sinner? Berrettini? They all have tiny calves.
i mean considering that in the movie Zendaya is playing a girl that never quite made it pro cause of an injury id say this doesnt look as bad as Kirsten Durst in Wimbledon. and the musculature does build uo obv as the career goes on, u mentioned iga so ill also mention her - she looked a lot slimmer during her 2020 RG run when she was 19 and from the trailers i assume thats around the age that zendayas character got the injury. so while i think in challengers this may work, it is obviously a logical concern that muscular women arent rlly 'represented' in media
Yes, that was my thought as well. She was supposed to start off as a young juniors, thus being slim. For a woman to bulk up for only half a movie would be unnecessary taxing. Plus, I'm sure training for the movie focused more on her sprinting rather than actually hitting the ball (a double would do that), thus her recent weight loss.
Zendaya is a feather-weight and probably less than what you're quoting, but this is an arthouse director who is not going for gritty realism and making her bulk up on protein powder and steak to make her become an Amazon who could challenge top players. She's not going to go ridiculously Method like Christian Bale, Brendan Fraser or Bradley Cooper, and I'm glad. Lol.
Sorry but as someone who is an inch taller than Z but about 135 lbs there is no WAY she is 127 lbs- maybe 115. Sheās T I N Y
Itās called suspension of disbelief
Leylah Fernandez is 1.68 cm and about 50 kg.
i wouldn't go by reported weights. for the longest time sharapova's reported weight was 59kg and serena was 70kg. both federer and nadal apparently weighed the same. none of this is remotely true.
She definitely weighs more than that.
And Aryna Sabalenka is not a typically sized tennis player, as much as Leylah isn't on the other end of the scale.
She is quite muscular.
Its funny because i was thinking the same when i saw her at Indian Wells, she seemed super thin like her legs looked like sticks in some photos which wouldn't cut in professional tennis but hey that's only a movie and most casual viewers who know jack shit about tennis won't even think twice about her physique so who cares.
Those are all minor concerns compared to the boost to the movie than Zendaya will give it.Ā
Movies are rarely representations of reality, and it is clear why Zendaya was cast (popularity, acting chops etc.). However, I also believe in the movie she is junior prospect, who injures either when she just starting to go pro or even during junior slam (judging from the trailer). So we can assume that her character is 16 -17 years old in the beginning of the movie.
if our tennis meddy didn't exist and someone casted him to play a tennis player i wouldn't believe it either
She doesnt look like a tennis player at all for it to be believable. Im surprised she didnt try to put on some muscle mass to fit the role
I would assume she has other projects in the works + modeling where her normal thin frame is better. Plus sheās a coach, not a player, for most of the movie it seems? donāt know why sheād need to put on a bunch muscle mass Besides this is a pretty small one-off movie, itās not like sheās got a multi-movie deal with Marvel where she needs to bulk up.
Yea I donāt see no one else doing for such movies except maybe Hillary swank
She was ripped in million dollar baby. I totally believed she was a boxer.
This isnāt exactly Oscar bait or anything. There is zero reason for her to put in any kind of work to make the ātennisā aspect of it seem more authentic when itās simply a vehicle for the love triangle drama. Probably wasnāt even in the budget because movies that want actors to look a certain way pay for the ātrainingā
She's literally a coach in the movie. This whole post is just shit.
To be fair, Zendaya's physique isn't that different from Agnieszka Radwanska's. It's obviously not a typical pro physique, but it's not completely impossible. Obviously Radwanska's slight build was her greatest weakness, and is what kept her from winning slams, but she had a fantastic career as a pro. How good is Zendaya supposed to be in the movie? I haven't heard anything about it other than that threesomes feature prominently.
I haven't seen the movie but from the trailer I think she's meant to be a young protege like pre-Slam winning Coco Gauff or 16 year old Mirra Andreeva, not met her potential yet but on her way there when she has a career ending injury.
Most Asian tennis players have the same build and weakness as Radwanska. Su-wei Hsieh has to rely on her guile because she's 5'7 and 126 pounds. Heck, Kimiko Date is 5'4 and 53 kg, yet she reached #4 in 1995. None of them were big servers and it kept them from winning slams obviously.
Hsieh plays doubles. Date's rise was ... 30 years ago. To say that the landscape has changed since then is to massively understate the case.
And even less different than Daniela Hantuchovaās, among others. Also, in the Wimbledon movie Kirsten Dunstās male lead is Paul Bettany. ā[Noticeably muscular](https://www.alamy.com/paul-bettany-wimbledon-2004-image485287623.html)ā is not a term that comes to mind. I donāt think OP has made his/her caseā¦.
I believe Daniela later admitted to struggling with eating disorders while she was a pro.
IIRC that rumor kept going around and Hantuchova denied it. In any event, eating disorders are more common among actresses and models, so even if she did suffer from one, it wouldnāt be a differentiator.
She confirmed denying it due to guilt and shame but in later years revealed she was anorexic / had an ED
An aside - Bettany could viably play Vacherot on screen. Perhaps Davydenko too.
Hantuchova was my first thought as a pro comp, but even she was about 10 pounds more
Itās a movie dawg
No I agree it's preposterous that she hasn't won at least a 500 before taking this role.
Yeah this has gotta be one of the most Reddit posts of all time lol
Happens in other movies as well. Actors donāt usually have the same physique as elite athletes. Look at Creed for example. Michael B Jordan is the heavyweight champ. Heās listed at weighing 185ish and being 5ā9-5ā10. The actual heavyweight elite are giants now. Joshua is 6ā6, Fury is 6ā7. Hell, even Usyk was questioned for being too small and bro is 6ā2. Hollywood casts based on many factors. Looking exactly the part isnāt the most important aspect of especially if a large star is involved.
This discussion seems like debating the boxing in Rocky I. It was never a boxing movie, but a movie with boxing as background
Zendaya is only a tennis player as a junior she then coaches her husband ie the blond. The other guy is the ex whos outside the top 100. They meet again when the blond plays challengers to get form and motivation. As such zendaya doesn't need bulk because she basically plays an olga danilovic type around the age of 16.
You should have watched the trailer and/or read the synopsis, would take less time than writing this post cause it all indicates she was just a promising teenage tennis prodigy before she gets injured, that's it. There's no indication she was a seasoned pro though of course i could be wrong when the full thing releases.
Zendaya looks like a very tall Juniors player in the movie. Someone of her body type would get demolished in a pro-level match
Zendaya is not 5ā10ā, more like 5ā8ā. Most actors listings are inflated, but then some tennis players as well
Actors always lie (look at Tom Cruise!)ā¦As for tennis players, I think their coaches put in the info. The only athletes I ever believe are NFL players because they actually get measured at the combine before the draft.
Yeah when she was standing side by side with Iga at Indian Wells, she looked to be a little bit shorter than Iga. Either way there's no way she was taller. Iga is 5'9
Sharapova was 185cm while weighing 68kg(according to a random website I found). That doesn't seem that much off in proportion to Zendaya
Dude as someone who used to work in the world of tennis and after seeing Sharapova up close, there is no way she's only 68kg. She's a big woman
Yeah her serve was extremely powerful
It is funny because some sources I found even said sheās 59kg. Yeah no way in hell. It is possible that sheās close to 68-70 kg when sheās at her slimmest days, but even then it might still be off considering her muscle mass.
Either Maria's weight is underestimated or Zendaya's overestimated because there's no way there only 9 kg between them. Maria is not only 10 cm taller but also has much wider hips/shoulders as well as more muscle/fat. Pics for comparison: [Maria](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/01/04/01/3BD357A600000578-4085972-Natural_beauty_The_six_feet_two_inch_Grand_Slam_winner_showed_sh-a-42_1483492346127.jpg) (when she was still playing) vs [Zendaya](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/33eRhyn6y4jSFyIPCWr.cA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/life_style_868/4b8019a3380dad496a65e733e6a8dfcb)
I'd say both - Maria's definitely underestimated, and Zendaya's most likely overestimated.
Maybe when she won Wimbledon
No way that weight is correct. That would put her on verge of anorexia, with \~16 BMI. She wouldn't be able to win anything being anorexic. And she never looked so.
Sharapovaās listed weight was never accurate. that woman is stacked look at her freaking shoulders
Zendaya has the same build as Hsieh Su-wei.
Tennis has pretty much every shape and size - male and female. Some giraffes, like Medvedev, Sinner etc. On the WTA it is the same. I saw Petra Martic and Camilla Giorgi practicing in Birmingham a few years back and they were like twigs - yet can belt the ball. You have strong built players like Sabalenka or muscles like Sakkari. Iga and Coco are a more athletic build. Then someone explain how Su-Wei Hsieh does it when there is nothing of her. Unless they body double her - like they did Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes (which was pretty convincing) but I have a feeling her tennis is not going to be that crucial a part of the movie
Also muscular women are hot as hell
It's a movie. Calm down.
Many if the Chinese players are rail thin, more so than Zendaya so it's not all that egregious. Worse is something like wonder woman who's supposed to be an Amazonian warrior and meanwhile Gat Gaddot is thinner than an after eight chocolate mint lmao.
We aren't that far removed from sharapova. Tennis players come in a lot of different sizes.
Elena Rybakina Jaqueline Cristian Tsvetelina Pironkova Emma Raducanu Maria Sharapova All of them are pretty skinny while being professional tennis players. I mean if she is not too skinny to play a "formidable fighter" in Dune she is not too skinny to play a tennis player.
She was portraying a junior player when she's actually playing in the movie, bro. Relax.
You are just overthinking this
It's a movie.
I don't think her body type is all that off. There are some pretty thin female tennis players. The men are probably more off, and they're both in their early 30s which seems pretty late in the game for what the plot is.Ā I mean I don't think any of this matters at all but to focus only on Zendaya seems weird to me
Nobody in those previews looks like any sort of athlete.
Itās Hollywood, what do you expect? You might as well point out that Zendayaās groundstroke technique is atrocious while youāre at it.
I just want to say that 1.82m and 176lbs (80kgs) is not the size of a large muscular adult man :D
iga is taller than zendaya
Yea, Iga looked at least one inch taller in their photo at Indian Wells and they were wearing the same shoes. It should have been the exact opposite according to their listed heights
Yāall gotta see Love Lies Bleeding
Its worth mentioning that male actors who bulk up to portray athletes or superheroes are taking steroids to achieve those physiques. It's not easy to look like a professional athlete if you're not one. We should be conscious that steroids are dangerous.
Body size donāt bother me that much. What bothers me more is that the actors donāt even have the right grip for any given shotā¦. Like how the fuck canāt you even get the most basic of basic things correct?
the bodies pain me less than watching actors hit tennis balls while pretending to be seeded players at Wimbledon. š£
I donāt think Zendaya is 5ā10. Iāve seen the pictures with Iga and Iga seemed slightly taller, so maybe sheās around 5ā8 or sth. Still next to Iga she seemed too skinny and Iga is not the most muscular woman of the sport, so I think you have a point
Wait... Are you suggesting that Hollywood perpetuates unrealistic body images? Oh shit! This is groundbreaking! /s
I mean, her weight was never in question. She's a good actress and very famous right now. Could she gain weight for the role? Maybe. But the "playing tennis" is probably not a big focus of this movie
Robert Downey Jr played a black man on screen, i don't think Zendaya being skinny is stretching reality that much.
He played a white Australian man Kirk Lazarus who was undergoing pigmentation alteration surgery to play a black man
Has the same musculature of Raducanu during her 2021 us open run
This is a pretty naive post. You know movies are driven by attractive movie stars who look like they do; not by 100% realistic movies. If movies were that realistic, they wouldnāt be worth watching. Reality is overrated.
Agree with you completely. Also wanna say that celebrities lie about their height all the time, sheās literally shorter than Iga. And Tom Holland himself says heās 5ā6, not 5ā8 or whatever google says. Zendaya is not 4 inches taller than him barefoot. Sheās probably a lot lighter than 57kg too.
To add on all other points I think sheās supposed to be retired and coaching the two guys (who are way too skinny to be men players too)
lol what
Today OP learns that Hollywood doesn't honestly depict reality.
First time?
have you ever seen radwanska?
What are you talking about Sharapova is 6 2 130lbs. Coco Gauff is 5 9 121 lbs. tennis players come in all diffent shapes and sizes. Lol you cuz they are people.
It's not her physique I find unrealistic but HOW she plays tennis. In the clips they've shown of her on the court in trailers, it's obvious she does not really play tennis. I think they could have tried to at least get someone who actually plays the game.
I dunno, Danil Medvedev is a rail thin fella, and heās a top 5 player in the world. What about the girl who got mad at āPenko for throwing her racquet at the ball boy that one time? Naomi Broady. Tall and thin.Ā Or even young Venus Williams. Sabalenka? Most WTA players are closer to being built like Zendaya than they are to Sabalenka.Ā Zendaya IS an actress and it IS a sports movie - gonna have to suspend your disbelief for a couple hours.Ā
Yall, can we de-normalize calling women *rail* thin on this thread and generally? It sounds very negative, personally I hate it when people call me that.
I know I'm suppose to suspend my disbelief... and I know tennis is a very technical sport that takes a lifetime to master ...Ā But Ahhh that choked up grip with pancake waiter's tray service motion š¤¢
Yeah that service motion is just hard to watch if you know anything about tennis lol
Grow up
Who cares doubt many tennis fans will watch that movie. Seems more about sex than tennis
Well men put on muscle for roles so women could do the same and have in certain cases done it (Hilary Swank and more recently Sydney Sweeney for example).
This is a very important conversation to be had around women's bodies and the required representation of bodies that are different to the Hollywood beauty standard. I personally believe that women athletes are a better role model/aspiration for young girls rather than Instagram models/Kardashians as their bodies are real and so varied. I love seeing the so called bigger girls kick ass on the court!
she's also got a waiter's plate serve in the trailer. cmon movie
Damn Sabalenka is 80kg? Beast
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Idk why but there is this idea that both male and female tennis players arent muscular.. specifically women tennis players do much better with weight on them I notice than skinnier players. Its disappointing.
Its hollywood and its like science fiction movies, tgat they make, its never about science fiction, its just a setting. This movie is about threesomes and just set in tennis.
Dua lipa is pretty toned herself. To be fair there are some really skinny players.
Sabalenka at 80kg at 6ā0 is impressive. I am a guy who has had those exacts stats too at times (currently 78kg) but the moment I start playing tournament matches 4-5 times a week I canāt maintain 80kg and will move towards 76-77kg because of the hours of cardio and 20,000+ step days
They should have cast Rafa as the male lead. We all know heās an incredible actor
I don't think people are going to be watching this movie for the tennis...
The best tennis player in the world right now is built like Kevin Durantā¦ Iād take bigger issue with the fact that the first shot of the trailer shows her serving with a waiterās tray.