Tennis on Film: Rating King Richard (2021), a top-tier tennis film worthy of its Oscar

One of the biggest surprises of the 2025 film awards season was seeing the way Challengers (2024)—a film starring Zendaya set on the lowest rungs of the professional tennis tour—was completely panned by the Academy of Motion Pictures.

Despite all the buzz around its Golden Globes-winning techno soundtrack created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the Luca Guadagnino film didn’t receive a nomination in any category—triggering waves of online discourse among movie fans.

Read More: ‘Challengers’ star Josh O’Connor reacts to film’s Academy Awards snub

For tennis fans, though, that’s just par for the course: Even the most highly acclaimed films where tennis plays a significant role seem to get regularly overlooked by awards committees. The biggest one in recent years, King Richard (2021), finally broke the joyless streak when Will Smith won an Oscar for his performance as Serena and Venus Williams’ father and coach.

In this Baseline series, our editors break down what makes a ‘good’ tennis movie by dissecting some of the sport’s cult classics through the lens of a fan—last up is the 2021 docudrama King Richard.

King Richard (2021)

• Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
• Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton

Synopsis: Based on the true story of the Williams family, patriarch Richard Williams is determined to turn daughters Venus and Serena into tennis stars. From growing up poor in Compton, California, Williams and wife Oracene overcome numerous obstacles to cultivate their daughters’ talents while keeping their family together, culminating with Venus’ 1994 professional debut.

Rating the tennis: 5/5

• Dramatic umpire confrontation: No

Venus (played by Saniyya Sidney) only plays two official matches throughout the film, but impresses throughout with uncannily familiar technique. The effort is all the more remarkable considering Sidney is left-handed but learned to play tennis right-handed in order to match the five-time Wimbledon champion.

"It was very important for Demi [who played Serena] and I to make sure we did get feedback, because we want to do justice by their story and we want to do justice by the girls," Sidney told Teen Vogue.

The time spent training and watching tape of Williams’ matches paid off: Sidney matches Venus’ backhand takeback to a T.

Rating the on-court fashion: 5/5

• Are the outfits believable? Yes

Overseen by costume designer Sharen Davis, King Richard portrays looks pulled from the most iconic images of Richard and the young Williams sisters to recreate the looks seen in the film. In an interview with *Variety*, Davis revealed the key to pulling off the former’s famed red shorts-and-socks combo:

“Those socks I found in downtown Los Angeles,” Davis says. “The shorts were custom-made to his body, and that first pair was longer. Every time we tried a longer pair of pants, it just took away from his character.” What she and Smith realized was that Williams was always coaching tennis, even while working as a security guard. “Will said, ‘Can these be shorter and tighter?’” Davis says. “And that’s how it started — as a joke.”

Rating the soundtrack & score: 4/5

• Exaggerated tennis grunts? No

The grunts fans come to know from Venus and Serena are much subtler in King Richard, allowing them to instead hold space for the swelling soundtrack typical of most dramatic sports movies. Aside from an original song by Beyoncé entitled “Be Alive,” Kris Bowers composed the film’s soundtrack with an emphasis on percussive elements to mirror the sound of a tennis ball. Still, a film set in the heart of the 1990s would have done better to highlight more contemporary music than a handful of Whitney Houston songs and—perhaps most egregiously, given Serena’s love for the band—only one Green Day song.

Critical Reception & Box Office Performance:

• Rotten Tomatoes score: 90/100 (critics), 76/100 (audience)

According to Rotten Tomatoes, "King Richard transcends sport biopic formulas with refreshingly nuanced storytelling – and a towering performance from Will Smith in the title role." With a $50 million production budget, the film grossed $39.4 worldwide with a $5.7 million opening November 21 weekend.

The toughest critic of King Richard may have been Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the former world No. 1 who plays Venus in the film’s climactic scene. Feeling she was unfairly portrayed as an antagonist, Sanchez Vicario disputed the film’s assertion that she took a strategic bathroom break in the middle of their match in Stanford; Venus had been leading by a set and a break at the time.

In an interview with USA Today, Venus insists Sanchez Vicario indeed took a bathroom break, one that ultimately contributed to the then-14-year-old losing her focus and the match.

Accolades, Awards & Nominations:

The film was an awards darling, earning four Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture (Drama). Smith won the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) and later repeated the Best Actor victory at the 96th Academy Awards, where King Richard was also nominated for Best Picture.

Venus and Serena both attended that year’s Oscars, which may be remembered more for Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock after the host made a crass joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

In his acceptance speech, Smith thanked the Williams family for “entrusting me with your story.”

Verdict:

Does it pass the tennis fan test? Yes

The rise of the Williams sisters is arguably the greatest story tennis has ever told, and King Richard does an impeccable job of adapting it for the silver screen. Smith’s Richard Williams is powerful and pairs brilliantly with Ellis’ Oracene, whose is the heart of both film and family.

As I concluded in my 2021 review: “the film is an essential entry into the Williams canon, a starting point for those looking to learn about their legacy long after they’ve left the game, and an overdue element of representation entered into the pop-culture continuum.”

More Tennis on Film

- Rating Match Point, another tennis drama snubbed by The Academy
- Rating Battle of the Sexes, the best tennis movie that no one watched
- Rating Borg vs. McEnroe, an internationally awarded tennis film that doesn’t get enough credit