Mouratoglou on UTS second stage in 2023 : “We had incredible fight by the players and super entertainment, that’s what we wanted”
Patrick Mouratoglou, founder of UTS, highlights that the show of UTS is now mature and how competitive the players are on the court.
Gaël Monfils and Patrick Mouratoglou, UTS Frankfurt | © Tennis Majors / UTS
The organizers of UTS Seoul have announced the postponement of UTS Seoul. The next UTS event will therefore be the Grand Final, in London, from December 15 to 17, 2023, at ExCel London.
After a thrilling weekend of tennis concluded at UTS Frankfurt by Builder.ai on Sunday evening, we spoke with UTS and Tennis Majors co-founder Patrick Mouratoglou about 2023’s second edition of UTS. Though the legendary coach was feeling exhausted after another long week of burning the candle at both ends, Mouratoglou was also energised by the impact his event had in Frankfurt, and the many smiles that he saw on the faces of fans and players alike.
We talked to the Frenchman about the state of UTS, what it was like to go from outdoor tennis in California to indoor tennis in Europe, the overall fan experience, and his vision for the next event in Seoul in December.
What are your main takeaways from the second edition of UTS in 2023?
Patrick Mouratoglou : My first takeaway is that the format works really well. Now we’ve experienced many matches, several events, and it’s just great. I think the crowd loves it, that’s quite obvious. The atmosphere is incredible and very different from the usual atmosphere at a tennis match. That’s really the way we want it and I think that – I don’t think, I know – the players also love it. I will never say that it’s perfect because nothing is, and we have a list like this of things we can improve. But we know that it’s the right format.
What do the players tell you exactly about why they love UTS?
Patrick Mouratoglou : First of all, the players are trying to figure out how to win. They are so much into how to play this different tennis because it’s really different. The first matches, it’s always difficult (Ruud and Rublev lost, editor’s note). It’s always difficult for everyone, but even more for the ones who have never played [UTS before]. You see a huge difference between the first matches and the last ones. So they need to figure out all the details of how to win it, how to be more efficient. They’re talking about this a lot.
They say that they’re dead physically, which is interesting because it lasts 45 minutes, maximum. But some told me, ‘I lost, but I couldn’t play one more match. I was completely done,’ which I think, again, is interesting.
The players need to work, work, work, work, work with very little recovery. They are completely dead after the match.
Patrick Mouratoglou
I knew the rhythm would be very intense because there is not too much time between the points and there is no first serve, so there’s almost no free points. So you need to work, work, work, work, work with very little recovery. I see their faces after the match. They are completely dead, and they say it.
They love the atmosphere, for sure. They told me before, it’s so exciting to play with a crowd like that and so, so overexcited. That’s what they love the most.
Did you have any comments on being disturbed by the music during the point?
Patrick Mouratoglou : Never. I didn’t have one comment about anything being annoying. They play with the music. They have no problem. They play with people walking, moving around, with people talking – no problem.
What was your view on the level of tennis played?
Patrick Mouratoglou : What was very interesting is that in Los Angeles, last July, we had an immense majority of matches that ended up with a sudden death. And here I think two: I mean, it’s nothing. I think the level was great, but I think it went so much better towards the end of the tournament because again, the players were starting to really feel that format and they were playing their best and it was so great to see that entertainment and battle can work together.
You can have two players fighting like crazy on a court and hugging before entering the court because they’re all friends and fight like crazy, but also dance, and it’s because they really wanted to win so badly, and it was very obvious. So we had the combination of the two that we are looking forward to having: the incredible fight of the players to win and a super entertainment at the same time, an event. If it’s too much fight and not enough entertainment, that is classical tennis: we are exactly in the middle of that.
Did you see any difference there between Los Angeles and Frankfurt ?
Patrick Mouratoglou : It’s interesting to see that it’s a completely different crowd. Everything is different and it works exactly the same way. And the crowd here, people told me, ‘You’ll see it’s going to be difficult with them, they are not fun.’ But they were great.
I would say that the fact that it was indoor in Frankfurt is a plus because the sound gets bigger. So when people are shouting, you hear it much more. But on the other hand, it’s less fun than to be in L.A. outside. It’s mostly about the crowd. Again, I think, first of all, everybody told us, ‘No chance you’re going to fill out the stadium in L.A.,’ and L.A. was sold out. Then here people told us, ‘No chance you’re going to fill it up in Frankfurt, and you’ll see the German crowd is very calm, they’re not going to be loud.’ I think it goes the opposite. We were sold out (on Saturday and Sunday, editor’s note), and it was the opposite.
Tell us the story behind the scenes about Medvedev's withdrawal and Grigor Dimitrov coming very late and still going deep into the tournament.
Patrick Mouratoglou : I got a call from Daniil, I think on Tuesday, telling me he was extremely sorry, but he didn’t feel like he would be able to play. He was supposed to, but he feels completely empty and he cannot even think about having a racquet in his hand, he needs to put the racquet on the side and completely rest. He actually pulled out even of the tournament that is after UTS, even later.
So then we thought, ‘Well, five days or four days before the start of the event, three days, it’s a joke to find someone.’ And we were lucky that an incredible player, Grigor, said yes. And he came like this [he snaps his fingers]. He changed his plans and he came, which was so nice of him, and he ended up being very close to winning it. He was in the final and he played such great tennis, so amazing.
What’s your takeaway on the fan experience?
Patrick Mouratoglou : I think the fan experience is really, really good. People are clapping, shouting, dancing, waving. They are into it fully. And you hear it. When you hear their voice, you know, they are totally into it. We can be more interactive with them. There are a lot of things we can progress and we want them to be part of the show, but this we will do with the app and with the digital tools that we are building at the moment.
What do you know about the demographics of the fans?
Patrick Mouratoglou : Not too much for the moment. When you have a line-up like that… The players that came in here are incredible players. It’s a city that doesn’t have an ATP tournament or a WTA. So for them, it’s an opportunity to see those stars. We know that a lot of people don’t know UTS yet, so they don’t know that they’re coming to UTS, but they know they want to see those guys playing and then they discover UTS and they come and they say, ‘Wow, that’s incredible. What is this?’
One day UTS will be bigger than the names of the players and people will come to UTS for the brand. Today they come to see the stars that happen to play a format called UTS
Patrick Mouratoglou
One day UTS will be bigger than the names of the players and people will come to UTS for the brand. Today they come to see the stars that happen to play a format called UTS that they don’t know about.
It’s making a lot of noise because it’s really special and the players are participating a lot into spreading all the information and the fun about UTS.
What are your expectations before the Seoul stage ?
Patrick Mouratoglou : For the moment I’m just expecting to fill up the stadiums, bring the best players possible, and the most exciting ones, and just run the show, and we’ll see. The first 24 hours we sold 5,000 tickets. So that’s a good sign that the public there in Seoul is is very excited.
Your best moments in the Frankfurt edition?
The best moment, for sure, the match Gael against Andrey. The whole match was crazy. The crazy shot of Gael, the personality of Gael, and the coach of Benoit (Paire) who did an incredible show are probably my favourite moments.
