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When you really think about it, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is right: Tennis is a relationship, in more ways than one. It's a game where competitors can go "somewhere really beautiful together," as Tashi describes a particular match to her duo of male suitors early on in Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers." It's a series of traded volleys that take a variety of forms, from seduction to vitriol, passion to hatred. Every point on the court causes anxious reverberations in one's mind; an unsettling doubt creeps in about the next serve, the next return swing, and the consequences of every ensuing move. It's all about manipulation. A little bit of backspin can change the course of the match. (Are we still talking about tennis?)

At least that's the case when it comes to "Challengers"' central trio, Tashi being the mutual object of affection for Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). Former doubles partners turned ex-best friends thanks in large part, if not solely, to Tashi's bottomless bag of mind games, Guadagnino's sweaty, sexy thriller-adjacent drama charts the evolution of this love triangle from the tennis tournaments of his characters' youths to the penthouses and SUV back seats of their collective present. For as long as these three paramours are on the same playing field, they'll forever be in one another's orbit.

In different ways for each, that's a complicated notion. When Patrick and Art first encounter Tashi, it's at a post-tournament Adidas party celebrating her latest in a long line of trophies. Guadagnino's camera lingers as the boys ogle, initially, at various advertisements placing an emphasis on her power in this game they both love, and later, at her sensually dancing with friends as "It's getting hot in here..." blares over the speakers. From there, they form a mutual, if unspoken, understanding that, though both want her for themselves, they'll be in constant competition with one another for her attention and affection. They go about winning it in different ways: Patrick is the brasher of the two, an entitled rich kid with swagger to spare, who "would let her f*ck [him] with a racket", while Art feeds off of Patrick's smug flirtatious efforts like any good doubles partner should. One player always serves, and the other may or may not return the opponent's volley. Nothing is guaranteed in this game; it's all about what direction the ball travels in.

Tashi, however, plays by her own rules - fitting for a phenom who, in Art's words, makes their shared sport look "like a completely different game." When we arrive at the long-teased moment in which Tashi invites both boys to simultaneously put the moves on her, moments after having told the duo that they look like brothers and learning that one taught the other how to masturbate - while thinking about the same girl, no less - she coerces the two into making out with one another as she leans back and watches with a smile. Abruptly, she bids the both a good night, and promises the winner of their head-to-head singles match the next day her number. Ultimately, though, she just wants to watch "some good f*cking tennis", the same thing she previously called a relationship before she tricked the two into frenching each other, and long before she dated both of them, suffered a career-ending injury of her own, married Art, and ultimately tore he and Patrick apart.

That dissolution, along with a throbbing techno-infused score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that unmistakably gives off "The Social Network" vibes, gives "Challengers" its heartbeat, and places it in a new echelon for Guadagnino, particularly from a directorial standpoint. Reteaming with "Call Me By Your Name" and "Suspiria" cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Guadagnino's lens goes on a journey of its own: at one pivotal point, we're witnessing a tennis match from beneath the court, from the respective chests of said match's opponents, and from the perspective of the ball itself, all within a matter of moments. It's jarring, sure, but exhilarating, much like the film's time-jumping structure, fitting for a story about love and tennis, where feelings and objects are lobbed back and forth with intention, never on a whim.

And while his narratives have never shied away from the significance of sensuality in his work, Guadagnino employs direct symbolism - Patrick and Art catching up over churros is as much of a sex scene as anything else that appears in the film - just as much as he relies on "Challengers"' never ending deception, fueling the tension that drives its central relationship beyond the wildest dreams of previous entanglements Guadagnino has put to screen. Perhaps there is some connective thematic tissue between this project and 2015's "A Bigger Splash," and there are even some psychosexual tendencies that point to "Suspiria," save for that film's Argento-inspired bloodlust. But what Justin Kuritzkes' script prioritizes is an entrancing desire that Guadagnino's other projects haven't lacked in, per se, but haven't forefronted with quite as much intensity as what is on display here. The juice oozing from "Call Me By Your Name"'s infamous peach seems tame compared to the seemingly endless drops of sweat that fall off O'Connor and Faist's bodies in "Challengers'" central present-day match.

Without O'Connor and Faist turning in a potent concoction of ferocity and jealousy that drives their characters closer to insanity with every set, we might not be nearly as convinced that Tashi could find redemptive qualities within either - something these dueling foils are all too eager to get her to recognize in the other. (It's all very "pick me!", with a dash of endearment.) But Zendaya plays Tashi as calculated to a fault, something she fittingly never seems to commit on the tennis court. She uses Patrick and Art as gasoline to stoke fires within one another, fires that she lit and knows she can put out with something as simple as a passing glance or remark. "Decimate that little bitch," Tashi tells Art as he heads into a match, but as we learn more about Tashi's psyche, it's clear she's threatening him with decimation, something he gets off on. She's fully aware of what she's doing, and knows that the men only ever know what they're doing when it comes to each other. All they represent for Tashi are varying sensations - one fire, the other, ice - while to the men, Tashi is a distant star, forever out of their reach, even if they are capable of getting her into bed. It'll be to no one's surprise that Zendaya not only walks away with the movie, but turns in a career-best performance in doing so.

If tennis is, indeed, a relationship, then Guadagnino and Kuritzkes believe it manifests itself in toxicity. It's not about fans, groupies, peers, or students, but about being number one: scoring the most points, serving an ace, having the advantage. Love - or is it tennis? - is a series of games within sets within a match, all with victory by way of domination as the ultimate prize. If this describes your romantic life, I suggest you run. For a theatrical drama with sex and power on its mind, though, it's a scintillating ride that, in the end, doesn't care who wins, loses, or gets hurt. As long as what was played was some good f*cking tennis.