Game, Set, Watch: Ten Tennis Movies and Documentaries on Tubi
From Serena and Venus to Federer and Djokovic, your off-court US Open watchlist is officially seeded.
The US Open tennis tournament is in full swing, which means our vocabulary has temporarily become aces, break points, unforced errors, and “HOW did they return that?” New York is once again bringing together the biggest names in tennis, and whether you're studying every draw or mostly tuning in once the matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium gets loud, Grand Slam season has a way of making you want a little more tennis.
Luckily, the match doesn't have to end when you turn off the tournament. Tubi has tennis documentaries and movies that go from Serena and Venus Williams changing the sport to Roger Federer making impossible shots look suspiciously casual, Novak Djokovic’s career on and off the court, Althea Gibson breaking barriers, and a group of recreational players reminding us that not everybody holding a racket is chasing a Grand Slam.
Your US Open between-matches watchlist has officially been served.
Williams Sisters
Before Serena and Venus Williams became two names you could say without the word tennis attached, they were two sisters from Compton entering a sport that wasn't prepared for what they were about to do to it. Williams Sisters traces their rise and the careers that turned one family into a defining force in modern tennis.
The US Open is exactly the time to revisit their story because New York became such an important stage for both sisters. But the real draw of the Serena and Venus Williams documentary is watching how two careers this enormous developed side by side: competitors, doubles partners, sisters, and eventually legends in their own right. Imagine making it to the top of professional tennis only to look across the net and see your sister. Family game night could never.
Novak Djokovic: Refuse to Lose
Few tennis careers understand the phrase “it's not over yet” quite like Novak Djokovic's. Novak Djokovic: Refuse to Lose zeroes in on one of the most controversial stretches of his tennis career, when his vaccination status resulted in a denied Australian visa and a global debate that extended far beyond tennis.
That makes this less of a greatest-hits Novak Djokovic documentary and more of a look at what happens when one of the sport's biggest competitors finds himself fighting somewhere other than the baseline. With Djokovic still part of the tennis conversation, it's a fascinating chapter in a career built around resistance, recovery, and an almost unreasonable refusal to go away.
Roger Federer: A Champion's Journey
Roger Federer had the deeply inconsiderate habit of making elite tennis look easy. The footwork was smooth. The one-handed backhand was prettier than it had any business being. Somehow, even five-set matches could occasionally look like Federer had simply stopped by Centre Court on his way somewhere else.
Roger Federer: A Champion's Journey goes back through Roger Federer's tennis career, following him from teenage prospect to Grand Slam champion and one of the defining players of his generation. If watching the US Open inevitably makes you nostalgic for the Federer era, consider this your excuse to revisit how the man with the headband became the man with the headband.
Andy Murray: Game Set Match
Andy Murray picked an unfortunate time to be extraordinarily good at tennis. His path to the top ran directly through Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, meaning becoming a Grand Slam champion required repeatedly dealing with three people busy rewriting tennis history.
Andy Murray: Game Set Match follows the Scottish star from childhood through Grand Slam victories and Olympic gold, making perseverance the real headline. Murray wasn't the player who made everything look effortless. You saw the frustration, the fight, and exactly how badly he wanted every point. Some champions glide. Murray made you feel every set.
Althea
Before Serena. Before Venus. Before Arthur Ashe Stadium even existed in its current form, tennis legend Althea Gibson was changing who tennis allowed onto its biggest courts.
Althea tells the story of Althea Gibson, the pioneering Black tennis champion who broke the sport's color barrier and became the first Black player to win major singles titles at the U.S. Nationals and Wimbledon. Her story makes this more than another sports biography; it's essential context for the tournament we're watching today. The US Open has changed enormously across generations. Gibson helped change who got the chance to be part of that future.
Unraveling Athena: The Champions of Women's Tennis
What does becoming the best women's tennis player in the world actually require? Instead of asking one champion, Unraveling Athena: The Champions of Women's Tennis essentially assembles the group chat.
The women’s tennis documentary brings together generations of champions, including Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, and Tracy Austin, to trace the path from promising young player to world No. 1. That's the selling point: different eras, personalities, and playing styles, but the same absurdly difficult destination. When you're watching someone survive a tense third set at the US Open, here's the reminder of just how much work happened before they ever walked onto that court.
Naomi Osaka: The Second Set
Naomi Osaka: The Second Set focuses on the four-time Grand Slam champion as she returns to professional tennis just six months after giving birth to her daughter, Shai, navigating motherhood, training, and the pressure of figuring out what this new version of her career is supposed to look like.
What makes this one especially fitting during the US Open is how personal Osaka's relationship with the tournament already is: New York is where she won two of her four Grand Slam titles. But The Second Set isn't interested in pretending a comeback means simply picking up where you left off. Osaka is rebuilding her game while her priorities, body, and relationship with tennis have all changed.
Rafael Nadal: The King of Clay
Some players win on clay. Rafael Nadal turned it into his surface. Rafael Nadal: The King of Clay traces Nadal's rise from young prodigy to global tennis icon, following the relentless ambition, and intensity that made him one of the defining players of his generation.
The title isn't exactly exaggerating. Nadal became so synonymous with clay-court tennis that watching him grind through a point at Roland-Garros could occasionally feel less like competition and more like somebody had accidentally challenged him in his own backyard. For anyone watching today's Grand Slam stars and wondering what total dominance of an era and surface actually looks like, here's your scouting report.
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection
You could make a conventional John McEnroe documentary about the victories, rivalries and, yes, the arguments. John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection has something much stranger and more interesting in mind. Director Julien Faraut uses 16mm footage of McEnroe competing at the 1984 French Open, including his devastating final against Ivan Lendl, to study his movement, technique, temperament, and almost obsessive pursuit of perfection.
McEnroe's temper may be the part casual viewers recognize, but slowing everything down reveals the precision underneath all that volatility. His serve becomes choreography. His movement becomes something to study frame by frame. If the other documentaries on this list tell you how champions became great, this one practically puts McEnroe's tennis under a microscope.
First One In
Okay. Enough Grand Slam champions. Some of us would simply like to get the serve over the net. First One In gives the list its tennis comedy entry, bringing the sport down from the professional tour and into recreational chaos as an unemployed woman gets pulled into a high-stakes match alongside a team of misfit players. The movie understands a different side of tennis culture: club rivalries, questionable confidence, and the belief that your next forehand will absolutely be better than the previous 14.
After nine tennis documentaries about champions and trailblazers, there's something comforting about ending with players who are considerably closer to the rest of us. The US Open has champions covered. First One In has the weekend-warrior draw.