Stunning prize money revealed for the last big European event of the tennis season
A stunning prize money pot has been revealed for the final big event of the tennis year in Europe, with next week’s UTS Grand Final in London offering up a stunning $1,865,000 in prize money.
The ATP Tour season may have drawn to a close with the final Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner clash of 2025 at the ATP Finals in Turin, but we are now entering the exhibition season, where the game’s elite players top up their bank balances with some lucrative appearances that guarantee them big cash windfalls.
Alcaraz is set to play a couple of exhibition matches in America next month and in London, the finale of the UTS season will see the return of Great Britain’s Jack Draper for the first time since he was forced to pull out of the US Open.
Draper won the UTS Grand Final in London back in 2023 and collected what was the biggest prize money cheque of his career, with more big money on offer in an event conceived by coaching Patrick Mouratoglou.
Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Tomas Machac, Francisco Cerundolo, David Goffin and Andrian Mannarino will join Draper in a star-studded event that will see tennis played to very different rules.
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UTS, or Ultimate Tennis Showdown, has unique rules to create a fast-paced, interactive tennis format.
Key differences from traditional tennis include matches played in four 8-minute quarters, a “Sudden Death” tiebreaker when the score is 2-2, and one serve per point. Coaching from the sidelines is unlimited, and players can use “bonus cards” that offer unique advantages like scoring three points on a single winner.
Mourtatoglou spoke to Tennis365 about his event earlier this year, as he insisted it was designed to complement traditional tennis rather than offer an alternative.
“Fans can love classical tennis and they can also love UTS,” Mouratoglou told Tennis365 in an exclusive interview.
“The goal of UTS is mostly to bring new fans to tennis and younger fans, but of course, any tennis fan is more than welcome.
“I don’t even understand how traditional tennis events can complain about having competition from UTS. You know, in every single field in the world, there is competition.
“It’s normal and it’s sane. What is not sane is to have no competition. When there is competition, it lifts everyone up. It pushes everyone to do better, to improve. So that’s a great thing.
“Is it a lot of tournaments altogether, yes, it is for sure it is. Do the players have to make choices? Yes, they do, but give them the right to make choices with the things that they feel is the best for them.
“If someone plays UTS, a player, he loves it, he thinks it improves his game because it’s played differently and it pushes them to also develop other things.
“So I think everybody’s winning there and again, I don’t see any problem with competition. I think if in the world, if there was, there would be no competition, it would be a disaster.”
I remember my first speech to the investors. Of course, the idea was to represent a very modern way to play tennis, to bring younger fans to this sport, but I was picturing incredible venues, because it adds so much when you enter this stage and your heart is beating before everything starts. So, yes, it was part of the idea, but when we go to Hong Kong in an incredibly modern place, it’s the same. We want to do things that are different and modern things for people.”
The three-day UTS Grand Final gets underway at London’s Copper Box on December 5 and with tickets for all sessions nearly sold out, it confirms the public demand for this brash and engaging brand of tennis is growing.
