Challengers Ending Explained: Who Won The Final Match

Summary

• Challengers features an intense ending with Art and Patrick facing off in a tennis match while Tashi watches, determining their lives.
• Reviews for Challengers were positive, with the film’s conclusion highlighting the scintillating drama brought by Zendaya and the cast.
• The ambiguity of the ending, where Art hits the final shot but doesn’t win, leaves audiences pondering the complex relationships explored in the film.

Challengers features an intense ending, with Art and Patrick going toe-to-toe in an engrossing tennis match while Tashi watches from the sidelines. Everything is riding on the former friends’ match, which will determine several elements of their lives simultaneously. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Challengers’ cast includes Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor, who bring their characters’ scintillating drama to the forefront. Challengers’ reviews were positive, and the film’s conclusion lends itself to the praise it received. The finale goes all-in after it’s revealed Tashi asked Patrick to lose the game on purpose.

Patrick is initially hesitant but agrees after he and Tashi sleep together in Challengers. Earlier, Patrick asked Tashi to leave Art to be his tennis coach, building on the rift that had been building between the two former friends for years. Tashi refuses but tells Art she will leave him if he doesn’t win the match. Nearing the game’s conclusion, Patrick signals to Art that he and Tashi slept together, fueling the fire. Art hits a shot but goes over the net, making physical contact with Patrick and hugging him, and the 2024 romantic sports drama fades to black.

Who Wins Art & Patrick’s Final Tennis Match In Challengers

The Final Winner Is Ambiguous

Initially, it seemed like perhaps Art won the final match in Challengers, but the match’s winner is unclear considering the way Guadagnino concluded the film. Audiences witnessed Art making the film’s final shot, but Challengers’ final match doesn’t have a winner according to umpire David Hanzes. The match wasn’t over despite the ending. Art had already hit the ball before making physical contact with Patrick, but one rule states, per Hanzes, that one “cannot go over into the other player’s side while the point is still in play. And you can’t touch your opponent.”

[
Challengers
‘] ending is less about the tennis match itself and more of an emotional climax for the story and the relationships at its center.

By the end of Challengers, Art actually lost the point, so he wasn’t the winner. Since the game was still in play, anything could have happened to catapult either of the friends towards winning. Whether Art won, or if they both forfeited the match, will always be a question, though Challengers’ ending does suggest that Art and Patrick have at least rekindled their friendship and let bygones be bygones. Ultimately, the film’s ending is less about the tennis match itself and more of an emotional climax for the story and the relationships at its center.

What Challengers’ Writer Has Said About Who Wins The Final Match

Challengers’ screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes believes the film ended on a perfect note, with no one claiming a tennis victory over the other. In an interview, Kuritzkes explained that who won the match in Challengers was “totally irrelevant” to the film as a whole. Kuritzkes understood the Challengers ending was more about the characters and what they wanted to say to each other through tennis, and less about the sport itself. Here’s more on what he had to say:

There’s so many things that they want to say to each other, there’s so many things they want to understand about each other, or recognize about each other — that they can only really get to when they’re playing. [Tashi just wanted] some good f—— tennis. I think, by the end, for me, they’re playing all of a sudden.

Why Art & Patrick Hug After Challengers’ Final Tennis Match

The Players Seem To Reconcile

Art and Patrick were deeply invested in the final tennis match — each for their own reasons. Patrick wanted to have Tashi on his side, since he’d asked her to be his tennis coach, and she’d asked him to lose on purpose, and Art wanted to gain back his confidence, to win the match to please Tashi as he headed into the US Open before formally retiring. But Art and Patrick had not been close for years after they stopped speaking to each other following Tashi’s tennis injury in one of the best movies of 2024.

But the fact that Patrick revealed a secret to Art, as though they were old friends again, and they knew they were both drawn into Tashi’s gravitational pull, brought out their old feelings of camaraderie. Their real life-inspired Challengers match likely reminded them of when they used to play tennis together before meeting Tashi. But Patrick’s honesty regarding his relationship with Tashi allowed Art to pull back and realize what he’d lost when it came to his relationship with Patrick. Art probably realized he could beat Patrick and reconcile with him at the same time.

Now that he had confirmation regarding what was going on between Patrick and Tashi, Art’s passion for winning — rather than his previous exhaustion with the sport — reignited. It was like he and Patrick were back to being teenagers vying for Tashi’s attention while also competing against each other. After so many years of distance and turmoil, it’s likely Art and Patrick wanted to move past the grudge standing between them. The combination of tennis, Tashi’s presence, and the intensity of the match’s stakes pushed all that to the forefront, washing the anger away in Challengers.

Why Tashi Yells “Come On!” At The End Of Challengers

Tashi Showed Her Deep Passion For Tennis

Tashi Duncan has always had a deep appreciation and love for tennis. She’s invested so much of herself into the sport that she likely feels incomplete without it. In the first match, Art and Patrick watch as Tashi yells “come on!” and she does the same during the final point in Art and Patrick’s Challengers match. Tashi shouts this when she’s really into the tennis match being played. After all, she was previously deprived of watching some good tennis.

Prior to the moment, Art and Patrick hadn’t been playing in a way that was challenging or even entertaining to Tashi. But by Challengers’ end, Tashi was truly invested in the match, and her yelling “come on!” showcased her attachment to the game and how good it could be when both players were genuinely giving it their all. Art and Patrick were finally giving her what she wanted: An amazing, high-stakes match, one that reignited her own love of tennis.

Challengers’ Signature Racket Move: How Art Learns Tashi & Patrick Slept Together

Art Might Want To Leave Tashi Instead Of The Other Way Around

Art is no victim in the relationship between himself, Tashi, and Patrick. After all, Art questioning the depth of Patrick and Tashi’s relationship in college didn’t help matters, and he did it for selfish reasons. But after feeling like strings were being pulled, Patrick decided to tell Art — in the same way he revealed it in college — that he and Tashi slept together. To be sure, Patrick wasn’t doing it because he felt bad about what happened, or that he was genuinely looking out for Art (he would’ve told him about their tryst in Atlanta, too, otherwise).

Patrick believed the information would anger Art and push him over the edge in the great 2024 drama movie. It’s possible Patrick was trying to win the game, after all, to convince Tashi that she should coach him instead of her husband. Either way, Art learning that Tashi cheated on him changes things. With Tashi having told Art she’d leave him if he didn’t win, Art could be the one to walk away from their relationship now that he knows the truth. It’s also possible Art will stay regardless, especially considering he reconciled with Patrick.

Why Tashi Wanted Art To Win The Challengers Match So Badly

It Wasn’t Only About Boosting Art’s Tennis Career

Tashi has spent the entirety of her relationship with Art being his tennis coach, boosting his career and confidence, giving him what she thought he needed to stay on top and relevant. It’s clear by Challenger’s big ad that the pair are a tennis power couple. But Tashi didn’t only want Art to win so that he could regain his confidence headed into the US Open; she wanted Art to win because it would be an embarrassment to her if he didn’t.

If Art wasn’t the best at tennis, that affected Tashi’s status and ranking as well. She pushed him so they could both look good.

Tashi was a tennis prodigy, and she was, in some ways, living vicariously through Art’s tennis career in Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 Oscar contender. Tashi was deeply devoted to tennis — more than anything else in her life. If Art wasn’t the best at tennis, that affected Tashi’s status and ranking as well. She pushed him so they could both look good. For Tashi, Art not being up to par at tennis made her feel less affectionate towards him.

Tennis was her passion, and Tashi treated it as more of a partner than she treated Art, whose importance in her life was largely dependent on his tennis career. It’s why Tashi asked Patrick to lose on purpose; she wanted to ensure Art had a chance of winning the US Open, and maybe even continuing his tennis career instead of retiring. That’s how important the sport was to her. If Art no longer wanted tennis, then Tashi no longer wanted him in Challengers.

Who Tashi Ends Up With At The End Of Challengers

Patrick & Art Might Ice Out Tashi

With Art and Patrick seemingly on the road to reconciliation after hugging it out at the end of their match, Challengers’ ending paves the way for a change in the trio’s dynamic and future. While Art and Patrick could ice out Tashi after the match, which would come primarily from Art because of Tashi’s infidelity, it’s unlikely they will. They need her more than she needs them — at least when it comes to tennis. So, Challengers‘ complicated love triangle likely continues after the ending.

Rather, it’s possible Art and Patrick will return to being friends, and Art can finally retire from tennis knowing Tashi can coach Patrick instead. The trio may finally let go of the past and move forward without playing physical and mind games with each other. Tashi could still leave Art to work with Patrick, but it might be a clean break for her and Art considering she was honest with him about her waning interest. Art could retire in peace without having to worry about tennis anymore. Conversely, it’s possible the match simply reignited his competitive streak.

Challengers Does Not Have A Post-Credits Scene

Though there are a myriad of paths the characters could take after the film ends, Challengers doesn’t have a post-credits scene that teases what comes next. For a film like this one, not having a post-credits scene makes sense. Plus, it leaves audiences to ponder what might become of the trio and whether their complicated, toxic entanglement might end, be strengthened, or simply morph into something else entirely after the conclusion of the tennis movie.

What Luca Guadagnino & The Cast Have Said About Challengers’ Ending

The Cast Has Their Own Interpretation Of The Ending

Challengers’ love triangle certainly played into the film’s ending, which could be a game-changer for all three characters. Considering the ambiguity of Challengers’ ending, everyone likely walks away from it feeling something different about what exactly transpired — be that in the debate over who will win the match, whether Art and Patrick have truly reconciled, or how their future will look like with Tashi. Speaking with EW, Josh O’Connor believes Challengers’ ending is all about the trio finding each other.

At the end of the film, they have found each other. They’ve been all searching for a way and getting it terribly wrong, searching for a way to satisfy that need, that hunger for each other. And they’re all trying to find their way in different ways.

Meanwhile, Mike Faist finds it exciting that the ending pulls out so many different emotions from audience members, regardless of what they are or what their interpretation is of the match and its wildest moments. Here’s what he had to say about Challengers’ ending:

That’s the thing: everyone’s right and everyone’s wrong. The exciting thing about this film is that people are going to have an opinion, and a very visceral one…. People are leaving the theater engaged still with the material itself, and that’s in itself the joy for me.

Director Luca Guadagnino also has his own opinion about Challengers’ ending, which is a part of what makes the film itself so engaging. Everyone can walk out of it feeling something different about the ending and where the characters end up. For Guadagnino, Challengers’ final moments are multilayered and filled with meaning for the characters.

They are acting out for 13 years the possibility of going back to that hotel room to find again that beautiful moment of burgeoning desires and innocence. And finally, with the rivalry at that heightened level, the triangle finally found itself sitting in the same place, but now on the court.

The Real Meaning Of Challengers’ Ending

The Film Is A Meditation On Relationships In The Sports World

Guadagnino’s film meditates on friendships and romantic relationships when mixed with the sports world. In Challengers, the characters take tennis very seriously, but by the end it’s clear to see that the competition and the games played off the court have irrevocably altered Tashi, Art, and Patrick’s dynamic — mostly for the worse.

Challengers also asks the audience to wonder about the strength of relationships in such an intense environment, as they’re so easily influenced and changed throughout the film. Challengers wades into class, competition, opportunity, and status, while the end suggests the intense passion for tennis outweighs them all and is worth risking relationships for.

How Roger Federer Inspired The Challengers Movie

Art & Tashi Were Loosely Based On Roger & Mirka Federer

Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes told GQ about how professional tennis player Roger Federer and his wife, Mirka Federer, partially inspired him to pen the 2024 Zendaya movie. Kuritzkes explained how he watched Federer face off against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2019 and noticed that the camera kept cutting to Mirka in the stands. The screenwriter said:

“[Mirka] looked so stressed out, every point. I was watching her and just thinking, ‘Why are you so stressed out? You guys have all the money in the world. You’ve won 20 grand slams. What’s so stressful to you? It has to be something else.'”

Afterward, Kuritzkes did some research and discovered that Mirka was a rising tennis star in her youth. However, similar to Zendaya’s character in Challengers, a foot injury forced Mirka into early retirement. Kuritzkes remarked, “[Mirka] kind of became [Federer’s] manager, and sort of managed his life. He credits her a lot for [his success].” So, it’s easy to see the comparisons between Roger and Mirka Federer’s tennis journey and Tashi and Art’s story in Challengers.

How The Challengers Ending Was Received

Critics Praised The Movie While Audiences Were Divided

The reviews for Challengers were mostly positive, with the movie certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an 88% approval rating and a 73% audience score. Despite the positive audience score, there were plenty of bad viewer reviews on RT, with many not understanding the ending, feeling it was too slow, and mostly expecting it to be something it wasn’t because of the marketing.

However, critics were mostly favorable to the film, and many credited it with what really sent the movie to new heights. Time Magazine critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote, “Challengers goes by in a flash. Its ending is an erotic thunderclap. By the time it’s over, you don’t know what smacked you, but it felt like love.” Even in his critical review, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote:

“The ostensible heat of “Challengers” hits its point only twice, in a recurring nonsexual gesture—a little maneuver, with racquet and ball, performed by Patrick on the court, that is understood to signify that he and Tashi have had sex. It’s the movie’s one true inspiration, and it gets its dramatic power from where it shows up in the story: at a point where narrative gamesmanship has been set aside and the story is moving chronologically at last.”

However, the biggest praise comes from Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times, who called Challengers one of the best tennis movies of all time. He looked at the ending, with the final resolution between Art and Patrick, and sees two men who have loved each other longer than they loved Tashi. With that final hug, Roeper writes, “Challengers fills every inch of its 131-minute running time with memorable sights and sounds. It’s outrageous and beautiful and brutal and exhilarating.”

Source: GQ