Patrick Mouratoglou accused of ‘promoting his own interests’ – ‘That offends me’
Patrick Mouratoglou has come under fire for his Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) competition with one tournament director “offended” by the timing of his latest event.
UTS’ next big tournament takes place in Oslo, Norway, from February 9-11 and some of the biggest names in tennis will once again be involved as they have four top-20 players in the line-up.
Home hero Casper Ruud (No 12) is the leading act while the likes of Andrey Rublev (world No 5), Holger Rune (No 7) Alex de Minaur (No 11), Alexander Bublik (No 23), Gael Monfils (a former world No 6) and Benoit Paire (a former world No 18) have also signed up.
The move has not gone down well with Jean-Francois Caujolle, the tournament director of this week’s Open 13, as those players have opted to skip ATP Tour action for an exhibition event.
No ATP Ranking points are on offer at UTS tournaments with those players missing from this week’s ATP 250 events in Marseille, Dallas and Cordoba.
In an interview with L’Equipe, Caujolle slammed renowned coach and UTS boss Mouratoglou, saying: “There is a UTS stage in Oslo, with certain players who could have come to the Open 13. And that offends me, yes.
“What is the interest of the promoter Mouratoglou? For me, he does not doesn’t promote tennis. He promotes his own interests, that’s all.”
But what exactly is UTS?
Well, according to their official website it “is the world’s newest, most exciting, innovative tennis league, playing an entirely reinvented game format. The year-round league was founded by Patrick Mouratoglou”.
The website adds that: “UTS aims to appeal to a younger, more engaged new generation of fans to grow its fanbase community.”
UTS’s ultimate goal is also to “build a long-term, international league of showdown series events that will offer an alternative to traditional tours. Eventually, events will take place all over the world. UTS is not designed to be a one-time hit; If UTS is a movie, we mean to make it a saga. Or think of it as Netflix’s next binge-worthy TV show.”
And while the timing of the latest edition is a sticking point, Mouratoglou’s UTS is starting to gain traction as last year’s Grand Final was a sellout event at the ExCel Arena in London in December with Great Britain’s Jack Draper beating Rune in the final to earn a winner’s cheque of $546,800.
Mouratoglou was delighted with the progress of the event as he declared: “We’ve had great feedback from business, from TV, from media and I’m so happy with that. That’s what we do this for, to show tennis in a different way and hopefully bring a lot of new fans on board.”
READ MORE: Patrick Mouratoglou gives a big hint where UTS Grand Final will be staged in 2024
