Ultimate Tennis Showdown: Now women are getting involved too
The "Ultimate Tennis Showdown" in Patrick Mouratoglou's academy goes into the next round: Ten men will start the matches again this coming weekend. A week later, the women are allowed to go.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jul 22, 2020, 08:52 am
Patrick Mouratoglou had announced it: The "Ultimate Tennis Showdown" shouldn't be a flash in the pan, but should give the professionals the opportunity to collect match practice and a little prize money in the non-competition time. Well: For men, this competition-free period has been extended by at least a week after the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Washington was canceled. Before August 21, there was no big tennis, at most one or two challenger events. However, the women want to get started again in Palermo on August 3. And three established players plus a youth hope are allowed to play at UTS the weekend before.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the current number 30 in the world, followed by Ons Jabeur (number 39) and French veteran Alizé Cornet (number 59). The field is complemented by young hope Brenda Fruhvirtova, who won the renowned youth tournament "Les Petit As".
The men will start the second round this weekend - without the winner of the premiere edition Matteo Berrettini . There will be a field of ten again, with Richard Gasquet, Benoit Paire, Correntin Moutet, Dustin Brown, Alexei Popyrin and Feliciano Lopez. Grigor Dimitrov , who came back after the Adriatic tour after his positive opinion on COVID-19, and Fernando Verdasco will be new in the field. Two other top 20 players are due to be announced soon.
The mode has been chosen a bit more compact this time: While in round one the winner was still determined on a total of ten game days, two groups of four are now to determine a semi-finalist. The other two participants in the preliminary round will be presented with a walk-through. The semi-finals and the final will be played on August 2nd.