Mouratoglou hopes for weekly UTS editions
The co-creator of the innovative tennis tournament is looking to the future ahead of UTS3 in collaboration with the European Open in Antwerp.
Patrick Mouratoglou – France
Ultimate Tennis Showdown co-creator Patrick Mouratoglou is hoping that the format will roll out to become a weekly fixture on the tour calendar.
Announcing a third edition of the quickfire, fan-friendly format in conjunction with the European Open in Antwerp, he told The French Insider host Jenny Drummond that one of the options for the future is to continue to work with tournaments.
“One of the options is to play every weekend at the tournament location prior to the ATP or WTA event, and we can possibly move from tournament to tournament, and have every weekend a UTS event,” he said.
UTS3 is scheduled for October 16 to October 18, prior to the start of the Antwerp main draw. This time round it will feature fewer players than previous instalments, to ensure that all the matches across the three days are available for broadcast – there will be six competitors in a round-robin table, culminating in a final on the Sunday.
‘Excited’
“I am extremely excited for two reasons,” Mouratoglou revealed. “First, we’re definitely looking forward to continuing this amazing journey with the next UTS. Second because it’s a new kind of UTS – not that the format is going to change, it’s not going to change, but we’re going to do it with an ATP tournament at an ATP tournament location, which is completely new. We’re very excited about that.
“We’ve been in touch with many tournaments since we started UTS – ATP and WTA – who are interested in having us in the weekend prior to the main event, thinking it will add a lot of fun to the event and bring new people, new fans, and more interest to the tournament. We’re excited to live that with them for the first time.
“We hope it’s going to be a success and something we’re able to do much more in the future – UTS at the Mouratoglou Academy and UTS at the ATP and WTA tournament locations.”
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