Second Serve is a 1986 American made-for-television biographical film starring Vanessa Redgrave as retired eye surgeon, professional tennis player, and transgender woman Renée Richards.
The film is based on her 1983 autobiography Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story[1] that was written with John Ames.
After playing in a local tennis tournament in La Jolla, Renée is outed as transgender by a television reporter.
[2] While finding the script wanting for its tendency to reduce complexities to cliches, O'Connor also found that Second Serve "does manage, despite oversimplifications and evasions, to stick to the point.
"[2] New York magazine concurred in this assessment, with reviewer John Leonard calling the film "calm and matter-of-fact, and perhaps too tidy".