Tashi Duncan (later Donaldson)
Played by: Zendaya
"What makes you think I want someone to be in love with me?"
A promising tennis player whose professional career is cut short before it can start by a knee injury. She pivots to coaching and is hired by Art, whom she eventually marries; nevertheless, she is more bothered by the repeated appearances of Patrick, Art's former best friend and her ex-boyfriend, in her life than she lets on.
- Ambiguously Christian: Tashi is prevalently seen wearing a cross around her neck in practically every scene. Whether it indicates she herself is Christian, or is a reflection on her family is left up in the air.
- Career-Ending Injury: Tashi is introduced as a teenage tennis phenom. However, when playing at Stanford, she blows out her knee on the court, an injury from which her career never recovers; she has to pivot to coaching instead.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Tashi wore her hair long when she was younger, usually keeping it in a long braid when playing tennis. In the present, she has her hair cut into a bob.
- Femme Fatale: Tashi isn't above using her sexuality to manipulate the men in her life to do her bidding. Best demonstrated when she outright tells Patrick she'll sleep with him in order to get him to throw the match to Art.
- Guy on Guy Is Hot: Teenage Tashi certainly seems to think so. While hanging out with Art and Patrick in their hotel room, she asks if the boys ever hooked up with each other, and seems intrigued by the story of a sexual experience they had together when they were younger. She then sits on the bed, kisses both of them, and coaxes the two of them to kiss each other. When they do, she lies back on the bed with a satisfied smirk and enjoys the view.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Art is initially skeptical when Patrick tells him Tashi is the hottest girl he's ever seen, but can't help but tilt his head after she walks onto the court and starts owning her opponent. At the afterparty later that evening both of them are mesmerized watching her dance.
- I "Uh" You, Too: Early on in the film when Art tells Tashi that he loves her, she simply responds that she knows. This serves as an early indication that she may or may not have actual romantic feelings for him.
- Leg Focus:
- Tashi wears many outfits that show off her legs; the camera particularly focuses on her legs when Art and Patrick are checking her out before and during her match in 2006.
- Played for horror and drama with the extreme closeup on Tashi's gruesomely fractured femur.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After sleeping with Patrick the night before the Challengers between him and Art, Tashi sneaking back into the hotel room is alarmed to find her husband not in their bed. Going to check on their daughter, she finds Art in bed with Lily instead, and goes out into their parlor, where the guilt seemingly begins to wash over her.
- Power Hair: Tashi's hair is longest when she's youngest. It gets progressively shorter over each iteration as she gains in fame and power, admittedly as a coach and celebrity and not in her preferred role of a tennis player.
- Statuesque Stunner: Tashi is 5'10. When she and Art kiss in the Applebee's parking lot, she is wearing wedge heels which make her taller than he is.
- Victorious Roar: After scoring the winning point at the U.S. Open Junior women's final, Tashi screams, a demonstration of her deep passion for tennis. She shouts again after the impressive rally between Patrick and Art at the end of the film, finally witnessing them play great tennis again.
- Would Hurt a Child: Played for laughs. Tashi says that she would stab a kid or an old lady if it meant being able to recover from her Career-Ending Injury.
Patrick Zweig
Played by: Josh O'Connor
" I think maybe you're disturbed by the fact that she could've been with someone like me."
Longtime best friend and partner to Art, but the two men have a falling-out after Patrick's relationship with Tashi acrimoniously ends. Unlike Art and Tashi, Patrick went pro early but has been unable to escape the lower-ranked leagues.
- Ambiguously Bi:
- As an adult, Patrick swipes right on several women and one man on Tinder, although it's worth mentioning in this scene Patrick is living out of his car and only looking for a date so he has somewhere to spend the night.
- Patrick is also perfectly comfortable discussing the time he and Art masturbated together in front of Tashi, who he is interested in dating. (Art is much less comfortable reminiscing about the mutual masturbation.) Shortly after, he and Art make out; how much this is indicative of either's sexuality is unclear as their relationship turns rivalrous afterwards.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Patrick is described as Jewish in his introduction in Kuritzkes' script, though this is not mentioned in dialogue in the film itself. note
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Patrick is said to be well endowed in this department, which he uses to try to intimidate Art. Given that only Patrick is shown hooking up with Tashi, it's implied that she agrees he's better in bed, but it's not confirmed.
- Possibly downplayed or even subverted: Art and Patrick appear to be similarly well-endowed when they are both visibly erect during Tashi's match in 2006. However, it is implied that Patrick is more sexually adventurous than Art, which ultimately probably counts for more than physical endowment.
- Break the Haughty: In the sauna, Art brutally makes it clear that win or lose the match the next day, his place and stature in tennis history as one of the greats is already secured, while Patrick, who is getting older and having a harder time keeping up with the new crop of players, has never made it past prelims and will largely be forgotten.
- Didn't Think This Through: Patrick scoffs at Tashi's desire to go to college because she wants to learn other life skills than "hitting a ball with a racquet", dismissing it as a cynical way to make herself more marketable and assumes that he can coast through life on raw talent alone. In the present day, he's become a Jaded Washout slumming it in low-level competitions since he never bothered to become good at anything other than tennis.
- Even the Guys Want Him: There's an early shot of a gay couple checking out Patrick while he tries to check in to a hotel.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Patrick's hair is shorter in the present than in the 2000s, although still somewhat unruly.
- Riches to Rags: Patrick is said to come from a very wealthy family, but in the present day, he's sleeping in his car and relying on the kindness of strangers. Tashi implies that he can always go back to his family for money or a job, however, and suggests that his poverty is performative on some level.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Subverted and the problem with Patrick, who has been trying to coast by in the leagues on his raw talent alone. Yet without the training to hone his skills like Art, who is now a world champion, Patrick has never made it beyond the preliminaries.
Art Donaldson
Played by: Mike Faist
"I'm playing for both of us, Tashi."
Longtime best friend and partner to Patrick, but has long carried a torch for Patrick's girlfriend Tashi. After going pro, he hires her as his coach and they later marry. Tashi has since helped Art become a top-ranked player, but he knows their marriage is less than ideal.
- Ambiguously Bi: He gets pretty into the makeout session with his longtime friend Patrick (with whom he also mutually masturbated with in the past) but otherwise much of his onscreen attraction is directed towards Tashi.
- Character Tics: Patrick points out that Art always lines up his ball with the gap in the racket before a serve. It becomes a code throughout the film meaning "Patrick slept with Tashi".
- Chick Magnet:
- Patrick claims, half-jokingly half-serious, that most of the girls in the league are thirsting over Art.
- During their challenger match, a disgruntled Patrick accuses the female referee of intentionally favoring Art.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Art's hair goes from longish and curly as a collegiate tennis player to neater and clean-cut as a high-level pro.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Art has a massive blow up on the court, after Patrick signals to him that he slept with Tashi the night before.
- Not So Above It All: While Art is portrayed as being a Nice Guy who lacks the killer instincts and manipulative streak that Tashi and Patrick possess, it's later shown that he is just as capable as sinking to their lows.
- Raging Stiffie: Art physically has a boner after their makeout session with Tashi. Patrick playfully smacks his erect dick, causing Art to recoil in pain.
- Talented, but Trained: Art, like Patrick, was already a high-level juniors tennis player. Unlike Patrick, however, he didn't go pro early and prioritized honing his skills (including poaching Tachi to be his coach from another player). As a result, in 2019 Art is one of the top-ranked American players while Patrick toils in the lower leagues.
