Naomi Osaka shares tennis moves set to ‘Challengers’ score

Tennis star Naomi Osaka gave her reaction to Luca Guadagnino’s vibrant tennis film Challengers on Thursday, she shared her own on-court moves to the film’s viral techno score.

On TikTok, Osaka posted a video of herself moving through a tennis serve and twirling her racket with her fingers after writing, “Me after watching Challengers.”

Although the tennis player has no official ties to the hit film, in which Zendaya is involved in a love triangle with Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes previously said. Business insider It was Osaka’s win over Serena Williams in 2018 that partially inspired the film.

At the 2018 US Open, the then 20-year-old Osaka defeated Williams in a dramatic match that was colored by three code violations for Williams, for receiving coaching, racket abuse and verbal abuse. Williams, specifically outraged by the insinuation that she cheated by communicating with her coach, called referee Carlos Ramos a “thief” for giving her a point, and postponed the match significantly by arguing with Ramos and the officials of the match.

“This immediately struck me as an intensely cinematic situation where you’re all alone on your side of the court and there’s another person in this huge tennis stadium who cares as much about what’s happening to you as you do, but you can’ Don’t talk to them,” Kuritzkes said.

After her win, Osaka tearfully told the audience, which spent most of the awards ceremony cheering, “I’m sorry it had to end like this.” Earlier in the evening, Williams told her fans to “make this the best moment we can” and “be positive.”

“For whatever reason, it just clicked in my head,” Kuritzkes continued about his moment of inspiration. “Well, what if you really want to talk about something? And what if it was something other than just tennis? What if it was something going on between the two of you? And what if it concerns the person on the other side of the net? How would you have that conversation and how would you convey the tension of that situation using the tools specific to film?”