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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Majendie

DJs, one serve and a smaller net... tennis's answer to T20 launches in London

Tennis is coming to London this weekend, but it is far from the more tranquil environs of Wimbledon.

Instead, ExCeL will for the next three days play host to the season finale of UTS (Ultimate Tennis Showdown), branded tennis's answer to T20 cricket by its founder.

Britain's Jack Draper will do battle with some of the other rising stars of the men's game such as Holger Rune and Casper Ruud in an entirely different format, the trio playing with the nicknames The Power, The Viking and The Iceman respectively.

The brainchild of Patrick Mouratoglou, who has coached Rune, Serena Williams and Simona Halep during his career, said: "UTS is a new way to showcase tennis, to reach a new audience, bring new fans and younger fans but that doesn't mean traditional fans are excluded."

Each match is played over four eight-minute quarters. The first to clinch three of those quarters is the winner or else a fifth sudden-death quarter is played — the first to win two points in that secures victory and £100,000.

Players of the UTS talk to media during previews to the UTS Grand Final at ExCel London (Getty Images)

There is only one first serve, the net is narrowed to encourage more shot making, a DJ is playing music throughout and players are encouraged to interact with fans, both good and bad.

As Mouratoglou puts it: "Players are allowed to show all kinds of emotions. The code of conduct is very light. The point is for the players to feel free to showcase their personality fully, not just positively but frustrations, too."

The Frenchman points out the average age of spectators at the main ATP Tour, who he hopes will become involved in UTS in the future, is 61 compared to 40 at UTS.

He added: "Tennis will potentially have problems in the future as the fanbase is aging. When your environment changes, you adapt or you die."

UTS court (UTS)

As well as the young guns, UTS also includes some of the sport's older yet more colourful characters such as Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire. And talks have been held to lure Andy Murray to the format.

In front of UK audiences, Mouratoglou sees Draper as a coup. He said: "Jack is the future of British tennis and future of men's tennis in general. To have him playing in London is a perfect story."

Ahead of what is his UTS debut, Draper said: "Tennis is very structured in the way it does things and UTS seems very different to that. I've watched a lot of videos and it always seems like a lot of fun.

"It's also in London, on my doorstep, so the chance to play an event in your home country is always amazing."

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