Emmy-winning actress Zendaya revealed her first impression of tennis to Jimmy Kimmel. This famous star has recently worked in a tennis-themed movie Challengers, which garnered a lot of spotlight from the media including the tennis fraternity.

From Venus Williams to Coco Gauff, everyone praised Zendaya’s efforts. However, the actress finally spills the beans on how hard it was for her to learn the sport for her upcoming movie.

Zendaya reveals her respect for the sport as she felt ‘terrified’ to act like a real tennis player on screen

Challengers movie’s protagonist Zendaya spoke about her respect for the sport as she delved deeper into how difficult tennis is. She said- “I have such a respect for the game and you know I think all of like, naturally you look at someone like ‘yeah I can do that’ and you get up there and it’s not that.” Here, Zendaya expressed that although at the beginning she felt she could do it, tennis was a very hard sport to learn. Zendaya said- “I remember one spin like ‘let me try to show you serve, let me see if I can do this. From one of our amazing tennis doubles and that thing went by so fast I didn’t even see. At that time I didn’t have my glasses on, really can’t see, I was like ‘ I don’t know where that ball just went.”

The Emmy-winning actress previously told People Magazine that she was terrified even when she knew that the balls during the shoot were not real tennis balls. Zendaya said- “The more I had to pretend to do tennis in front of a camera with an audience, the more terrified I felt, And I was not even using a real ball! I’m just doing the form and footwork and getting my swing right and doing it in front of a whole bunch of people as if it’s the US Open, and I’m terrified” 

While Zendaya’s adorable showcased the challenges the actresses faced while filming the movie, famous coach Brad Gilbert and the film’s director both praised Zendaya’s tennis kills.

Brad Gilbert joined Challengers director to praise Zendaya for her hard work

The actress was under Coco Gauff’s famous coach Brad Gilbert’s guidance for her movie Challengers. Gilbert, in an interview, complimented Zendaya by drawing comparisons with one of his best pupils, Coco Gauff. Gilbert said– “Believe it or not actors got a lot of the same DNA as tennis players. So I really think that working with Zendaya kind of really maybe was impedance for good experience for working with Coco. Well take Z, she is driven to be the best she can and a lot of tennis players did. Coco got the same kind of DNA and you know expects and demands a lot from herself. And I think with Zendaya taking on the role like she literally absorbed herself and she want to figure out, you know literally she was starting from scratch, you know how she can you know be the best version of herself for this”

Film director Luca Guadagnino also praised Zendaya’s efforts. He said– “I mean, wow. We edited the movie and we almost actually don’t use any of her double. She’s so good,”  

Nevertheless, Zendaya’s admission revealed that shooting for  her role as a tennis player was truly difficult for her. However, she worked hard and surprised her mentors with an amazing performance.