Patrick Mouratoglou has been launching the so-called Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) with the idea to modernize tennis. The Frenchman managed to sign big names such as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem, and David Goffin just to name a few.
Besides announcing a new behavioral code that will encourage players to express their emotions (and break a lot of rackets), Patrick launched a brave match format, probably too brave.
Tennis like basketball?
Each match will have 4 quarters of 10 minutes. Players serve twice alternatively and who wins more points at the end of the quarter wins the quarter. A rally goes on if the clock runs out during the rally. If the quarter ends up in a tie, then a decisive point will be played. The 4th quarter will be played even if a player conquers the first 3 quarters.
In addition, if there is a tie after 4 quarters, a 5th quarter will be played with a “sudden death format” which means that the player that wins 2 points in a row wins the match.
We promised we would experiment with a new format…
Here's how the #UTShowdown matches will be played 👇 pic.twitter.com/kJ4E04VpCw
— UTS Tour (@uts_tour_) June 11, 2020
What happens if a match is tied at two quarters apiece 👇 pic.twitter.com/z1ta3meX2b
— UTS Tour (@uts_tour_) June 11, 2020
Comments on Social Media have been quite harsh. They went from the unfortunately common insults to calling this a joke. However, credit has to be given to Mouratoglou to give it a try, and let’s what is going to be.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTrBmnHrXK/?hl=en
