Brad Gilbert revealed an interesting fact about coaching Zendaya for Challengers. This famous coach also happens to guide the reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff as well. Delving deeper into his training days with Zendaya, Gilbert highlighted where his two famous pupils align with each other. Not just that, Gilbert takes it a few steps further to mention how working with Zendaya inspired his association with Coco Gauff.

Gilbert told People Magazine about how working with Zendaya “prepared” him for Gauff. In Gilbert’s words- “In some way, I told Z this last night, somehow she prepared me for Coco. That’s my seven degrees of separation,” Gauff’s famous tennis coach previously revealed in a podcast that he trained the Emmy-winning actress for three months in California for the movie.

From showing matches to Zendaya at Pepperdine University to filming the scenes and attending rehearsals in New York and Boston, Gilbert and Zendaya seemed to develop a close bond. This was felt when Zendaya told a reporter about her wish to meet the reigning US Open champion because of Gilbert. Zendaya said- “I love Coco. I haven’t met her yet, but I sure hope so. Brad is her coach, so I’m like, I want to meet her!”

Gilbert’s experience working with Zendaya was great. This veteran coach revealed in a podcast with Andy Roddick that Zendaya and Gauff have many similarities. Gilbert said- “Believe it or not, actors got a lot of the same DNA as tennis players. So I really think that working with Zendaya kind of really maybe, was impetus for good experience for working with Coco. Well take Z, she is driven to be the best she can and a lot of tennis players did.”

Moreover, Gilbert also wished to offer Zendaya a realistic approach to tennis tours and that’s why he did an amazing thing during the shoot.

Brad Gilbert took Zendaya to real tennis matches to expose her to the sport

Gilbert believed that Zendaya needed to know the real tennis world. That is why he accompanied the actress to two college tennis matches. Gilbert said– “When you have a short period of time, it’s like a player getting ready for the Aussie Open, She was really surprised. She didn’t realize there were matches going on and people screaming and the intensity of it, I think what really helped her a lot, we saw two Top 5 girls teams, Pepperdine and UCLA, crosstown rivals. It was a really intense atmosphere, so I think that was a really good experience for her to understand, ‘Ah, this college tennis is not a joke’.”

Brad Gilbert’s involvement in the movie contributed significantly to bringing authenticity to Zendaya’s performance in Challengers. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

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