Abstract
This essay analyses the uses of competitive tennis in literature and the arts. While analyses have mainly focused on the social dimension of tennis, not enough attention has been paid to tennis as a competitive sport. In order to fill this gap, this essay offers an analysis of the competitive dimension of tennis. It looks first at the different social issues that may arise from a consideration of the sport from this angle, in particular race and gender. It then outlines the specificities of competitive tennis. It examines the challenges which tennis as a sport poses to the arts of description, in particular in literature. Finally, it explores the fictional dimension of tennis, and the ways in which this may be articulated in literature and the arts. The essay looks at writers such as Claudia Rankine, David Foster Wallace or Arno Bertina, and at films such as Pat and Mike or Hard, Fast and Beautiful.
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