UTS reveals format and player nicknames
Patrick Mouratoglou's creation is coming to life this weekend. The Ultimate Tennis Showdown will begin on Saturday at his academy in France. The six-week long tournament featuresΒ David Goffin, Matteo Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Richard Gasquet, Feliciano Lopez, Lucas Pouille, Alexei Popyrin, Dustin Brown, Benoit Paire and Dominic Thiem.
Since Thiem is in Belgrade for the Adria Tour, he will join next weekend and is replaced temporarily by French 21-year-old Elliot Benchetrit. The UTS season takes place across six weeks with matches each weekend from June 13-July 12.
The tournament will be a shock to traditional tennis fans asΒ Mouratoglou has turned the normal formatΒ on its head.
TheΒ basics are:
The promise of change and fun is already being delivered as each player has received a nickname. Please welcome the field:
Tsitsipas = "The Greek God"
Berrettini = "The Hammer"
Goffin = "The Wall"
Paire = "The Rebel"
Lopez = "The Torero"
Pouille = "The French Flair"
Brown = "The Artist"
Popyrin = "The Sniper"
Gasquet = "The Virtuoso"
Thiem = "Domi"
In a press conference, Mourataglou saidΒ βtennis is in a danger zoneβΒ with theΒ average fan being 61 years old and βincreasing with each year.β He thinks the gameΒ βdesperately needs to reinvent itself" and said, "someone has to do it."
