Kyrgios and Fritz headlining the UTS comeback
After almost 3 years, the "Ultimate Tennis Showdown" initiated by Patrick Mouratoglou returns. At the opening event from July 21 to 23 in Los Angeles, Nick Kyrgios and Taylor Fritz, among others, will demonstrate their entertainer qualities in a special format.
by Dietmar Kaspar
last edit: May 03, 2023, 10:01 am
Debut during the Corona lockdown
The first edition of the UTS event was held at the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy site on the French Riviera in 2020 when the tour was completely on hold due to the Corona lockdown. So it was not surprising that stars like Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Matteo Berrettini willingly accepted the innovative format. With only one serve, shorter sentences and a time limit of 15 seconds between points, the execution of the matches was accelerated and the on-court coaching and the longer leash in the behavior of the players provided new types of entertainment.
Return of Los Angeles as a tournament location
This year's edition will also serve outside of Europe. The first event will be held in Los Angeles, which has disappeared from the tennis map since the last ATP 250 tournament was held in 2012 and will provide a suitable test run for tennis competitions at the Dignity Health Sport Park at the Summer Olympics 2028 sees. In addition to Kyrgios and Fritz, Diego Schwartzman is already part of the game, and five more players will be announced in the coming weeks.
More tournaments will follow
In addition to the kick-off event in the US, there will be another event in Europe from September 15th to 17th and in Asia from December 1st to 3rd. The respective winners of the three events will qualify for the UTS Grand Final, which will be held from December 7th to 10th at a location to be announced.