Patrick Mouratoglou is one of the smartest and most innovative figures in tennis and he decided to try to give something else to our beloved sport. The Frenchman has always stated that tennis needs to be changed as it is becoming too boring. Following the etiquette is one of the key issues to “correct” according to Patrick that has always stated that Serena Williams’ famous outburst in the 2018 US Open final was good for the sport. In addition, tennis matches are too long and the attention span of youngsters is not so long anymore.
Patrick owns a well-run Academy in the South of France where this weekend it will host a series of tennis matches that will belong to the so-called “Ultimate Tennis Showdown.”
Mouratoglou wants to propose a format that is more appealing for the young generation as he arguably states that the average age of fans in tennis is 61. Therefore, more emotions and the fastest match will be the key.
The format: tennis like basketball?
The Ultimate Tennis Showdown has an interesting rooster with 10 top players fighting over 5 weekends on a “mega” round-robin. Technology will be extremely present, but unfortunately, fans will not be allowed on the premises because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The scoring system was announced only on Tuesday. The tennis community was eager to understand the match format. There was a hope that the scoring system would not be too different from the traditional one. Formats like the fast 4 with no-ads games take away the beauty of the sport to make it sometimes difficult to follow.
Unfortunately, the UTS went really too far and a completely new scoring system was announced. Therefore, each match will not last more than 1 hour with four 12-minutes periods and a 2 minutes break in between. In addition, coaches can call timeouts like basketball.
UTS not an exhibition, but…
Patrick is understandably trying to say that the UTS is not an exhibition as there will be proper prize money and ranking. Elevating a new event from being a “non-exhibition” for something official has always been an aspiration for founders of new tournaments that are not sanctioned by official bodies. Roger Federer has been fighting this battle for years to elevated the Laver Cup to an official event. The IPTL failed to achieve the same status. Probably the UTS is too detached by the traditional tennis and when the tours will be back it will be already a thing of the past.
Nice to see people trying some new, but this seems to be too much. Time will tell. For now, social media doesn’t seem so enthusiastic. Still, let’s give it a chance.
I’m not sure quite where to start with this utter nonsense. You would think that tennis is in dire straits judging by the recent words of Patrick Mouratoglou, all for the purpose of promoting his exhibition. https://t.co/V9HEd2MRNr
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) June 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/lauraptr__/status/1270683058757386240?s=20
I think by second look that is has lots to do with Mouratoglou's purposes. Maybe it's just about more exhibitions, try-outs, whatever. One might call is distractions, call it money, but please not an age-problem because that's not the core. So it is a push, yes.
— wieeinverkehrsunfall (@1verkehrsunfall) June 10, 2020
Patrick Mouratoglou announces he's going to bring down the average age of a tennis fan by driving away those who currently watch it.
— Kamakshi Tandon (@Kamakshi_Tandon) June 9, 2020
Federer sees what Mouratoglou wants to do to tennis and takes the rest of the year off…I mean who can blame him…get well soon @rogerfederer
— jimmy soixante-dix (@hotdog6969) June 10, 2020
Mouratoglou should do whatever he wants. Just don't call it “tennis” anymore.
— Del🇪🇺 (@Stroppa_Del) June 10, 2020
