Naomi Osaka is doing her greatest Zendaya impression.
In a video posted to TikTok on Thursday, Could 2, the four-time Grand Slam champion, 26, paid playful homage to Challengers, the hit romantic drama starring Zendaya as a tennis phenom caught in a steamy love triangle.
“No one: Me after watching Challengers,” Osaka captioned her submit, during which she slid on her sun shades, spun her racket and confirmed off her serve. For the background music, she selected the super-intense synth rating from the film.
Just lately, the film’s screenwriter, Justin Kuritzkes, mentioned that he was impressed to put in writing the script after watching Osaka beat her idol, Serena Williams, in an upset victory on the 2018 U.S. Open. Osaka was then 20 years previous — a prodigy identical to Zendaya’s character, Tashi Duncan, although Kuritzkes didn’t base Tashi upon Osaka. Her famously riveting match with Williams, nevertheless, was one other story.
“Immediately, this struck me as this intensely cinematic situation where you’re all alone on your side of the court and there’s this one other person in this massive tennis stadium who cares as much about what happens to you as you do, but you can’t talk to them,” Kuritzkes mentioned in a press convention final month, per Enterprise Insider.
@naomiosaka 😁😂 #challengers #tennistiktok #funnymoments
♬ Challengers [MIXED] (Challengers Soundtrack) – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross & Boys Noize
The match was an infamously tense one, with Williams, the fan favourite, arguing with chair umpire Carlos Ramos for giving her three code violations. “[Y]ou stole a point from me, you’re a thief, too,” she instructed Ramos.
After the sport, which Osaka gained 6-2, 6-4, the rivals stood subsequent to at least one one other whereas observers within the stands booed the outcome. Osaka coated her face together with her visor and cried. Williams hugged Osaka, who instructed the gang, “I know that everyone was cheering for [Williams]. I’m sorry it had to end like this. I just want to say thank you for watching the match.”
It was at that second, Kuritzkes mentioned, the story for Challengers clicked in his thoughts. “Well, what if you really needed to talk about something? And what if it was something beyond tennis?” he defined. “What if it was something that was going on with the two of you? And what if it involved the person on the other side of the net? How would you have that conversation and how could you communicate the tension of that situation using the tools that are specific to film?”
The drama in Challengers revolves round a pivotal recreation between former greatest pals Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Artwork Donaldson (Mike Faist), who’s married to Tashi, his coach. Including to the strain, Patrick is the previous lover she simply can’t give up. The film, directed by Luca Guadagnino, opened No. 1. in theaters final weekend.
(If Osaka needs to make one other social-media tribute, she may take into account sporting the “I TOLD YA” T-shirt that Zendaya made viral.)