Zendaya was driving herself crazy trying to master tennis for Challengers role

Zendaya was driving herself crazy trying to master tennis for Challengers.

The 27-year-old star had just six weeks to convincingly portray sporting prodigy-turned-coach Tashi Donaldson in her latest movie and admitted she was “incredibly nervous” about the role because her skills were so limited.

She told Britain’s Hello! magazine: “I had no idea about tennis. I knew nothing.

“All I really knew of tennis was Venus and Serena [Williams].

“It was terrifying as a challenge to take on because you know you’re supposed to be a great tennis player and I’ve never been a great tennis player.

“I was incredibly nervous just showing up. I was driving myself crazy trying to become a player.

“I remember when I first started hitting the ball, it would go off into the trees. It was never even close to the court. I was like, ‘Damn, I’ve got a long way to go.’

“It’s not a game you can just pick up right away. Unless you’ve been playing it since you were four, it’s just not happening for you.

“So sometimes I would come in and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I got this, okay’, like something clicked. And then you come in the next day and you can’t re-create it. And you’re like, ‘Damn, back to square one’.”

The actress eventually got comfortable by utilising her dance background to view the court moves as choreography she needed to master.

She explained: “I said to myself, ‘I’m a dancer, so let me dance this thing out’, and I began to focus on that.

“That became my entry into looking like a tennis player because I knew I wasn’t going to be one, but I could really fake it.”