"Leave them alone, they’re not actors in your silly movie": Fans fume over Ugo Humbert & his girlfriend's life being compared to Zendaya’s Challengers

Ugo Humbert and his girlfriend Tessah Andrianjafitrimo's life being compared to the characters in Zendaya's tennis movie 'Challengers' has left fans fuming.

The highly-awaited 'Challengers' hit the big screens recently and has been garnering acclaim from the critics as well as the audiences. However, an uncanny resemblance between the film's lead characters and Humbert and his partner Tessah was brought up by tennis fans.

In a recent video on TikTok, a fan talked about how Tessah taking up the role of one of the 25-year-old's coaches, since February after suffering an injury, has catapulted his game to greater heights. The Frenchman has won two titles since then and is 6-0 in ATP Finals.

A user on X (formerly Twitter) compared the story of the 'real-life' couple to the 'reel-life' couple of Tashi Duncan and Art Donaldson from the movie 'Challengers', where Tashi too, after suffering an injury, takes up the role of Art's coach and propels him to the top.

This comparison made fans furious as they didn't appreciate the comparison of Ugo Humbert's real life to a fictional tale of tennis. One of the fans stated they should be left alone as they weren't actors in some silly little movie.

"Leave them alone, they're people not fucking actors in your silly little movie"

Another fan mentioned that the couple had turned off their Instagram comments probably because they didn't want any association with the film.

"They’ve turned off all their insta comments so I’m guessing they have no desire to be associated with Challengers… huh"

Here are some other fans' furious reactions to the comparisons.

"These are real people not characters. Ugo is talented and deserves to be left alone. They’ve had to turn their comments off. Disgraceful." said a fan

"I truly feel for every black/racially ambiguous girl in tennis who’s gonna be compared to Tashi Duncan now" another fan said

"Me when I don't follow tennis" a fan mocked

There were also some fans surprised by the resemblance.

"I knew something was fishy the moment i saw the resemblances between ugo and the character that plays art." a fan was surprised

"Is that who the movie is based on omg" said another fan

"their names are also incredibly similar to tashi and art tessa = tashi, and art having the same 3 letter word name as ugo" a fan deciphered

“It was really different from playing because you are on the other side of the court and you have to stay really focused and really calm" - Tessah Andrianjafitrimo on coaching Ugo Humbert

Ugo Humbert

Post Ugo Humbert's triumph at the Marseille Open this year, Tessash opened up about her coaching experience. She spoke about how it was necessary to remain calm as a coach as she couldn't reveal her inner turmoil to him.

"It was tough. It was different for sure. It was really different from playing because you are on the other side of the court and you have to stay really focused and really calm," Tessah said.

"I know how it is when you are on the court and looking at your coach and you just want to see how calm he is. I was really stressed and tight in my mind but I could not show him, so I had to stay really calm, even if I was tight."

She further added how it took her a lot of energy to stay calm and explained the difference between experiencing a match as a player and as a coach.

“It took me so much energy to stay calm. And when you are on the court and stressed you can move and hit harder and use energy, but when you are coaching, you just sit on the court and watch. You can't move or say anything, so it was really stressful and hard."

But Tessash admitted that she loved coaching Ugo Humbert, mainly because he won, but it also helped her look at tennis from a different angle.

"But I loved it. Of course, I loved it because we won but also because you can see the game differently. You can feel the energy much better and how the opponent feels and how your player feels. For me as a player it was really good.”

Ugo Humbert most recently competed at the Madrid Open where he lost to Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round 7-5, 6-4.