The final big tennis event of 2023 is taking place in London this week – here is all you need to know

Kevin Palmer 13 Dec 2023 4:54 PM

UTS Grand Final is coming to London

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) Grand Final is coming to London this week and it promises to serve up a thrilling conclusion to the tennis year.

It may seem like tennis is in hibernation until the Australian Open kicks-starts 2024 in exhilarating fashion next month, but there is still a big show to look forward to this year as the lucrative UTS Grand Final about to kick-off.

WHAT IS UTS?

Each match consists of four quarters of 8 minutes + the time of a hypothetical Sudden Death.
The timer stops during the 3-minute changeover at the end of each quarter.
The first player to win 3 QTS wins the match. If both players are tied at 2 QTs apiece, the 5th QT is played in a ‘Sudden Death’ format.
The ‘Sudden Death’ is a dramatic cliffhanger where the first player to win two consecutive points wins the match. Every point from the second point onwards is a match point during the Sudden Death.
There is no warm-up: Players enter the court and the match starts straight away.
During the quarter, Players serve two points each: player A serves for two points, then player B serves for two points, then player A serves for two points again.
As a major change designed to reduce downtime and create more rallies, UTS players are allowed one-serve only per point: missing the serve results in losing the point.
To make the matchups even more exciting, bonus cards are in play. Each player can decide to use this bonus card once per quarter, during the regular time only. The “Next point counts x3” effect applies only to the player who uses the card. And only for the very next point.

WHO IS TAKING PART?

Denmark’s Holger Rune is a star attraction at the UTS Grand Final in London after he was given a wildcard for the event.

Great Britain’s Jack Draper has also been given a wildcard for the shoot-out in front of his home fans and they will be joined by Russia’s Andrey Rublev, France’s Gael Monfils and Norway’s Casper Ruud and the unpredictable Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan. France’s always entertaining Benoit Paire and Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman are also in the field.

WHAT ABOUT THE PRIZE MONEY?

There is a $111,000 purse per match for each match and total prize money of $1,665,000.

For each match, the winner gets 70% of the money defeated players get 30%.

In the final on Sunday, there is a winner takes all $111,000 up for grabs.

There is also a bonus scheme in place, with Monfils playing for big money in London this week.

As Monfils has played in 4 UTS events this year, he will get an extra $500,000 if he wins all five matches in London this week, so his total winnings could be $922,000

Rublev is playing in his second UTS event of 2023, so he will get $250,000 if he wins all his matches.

As Draper and Rune are playing in their first UTS events of the year, they will get a $125,000 bonus for winning all five matches.