Columnist image

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

| Archive

Travelling on the tennis tour the past few years, Patrick Mouratoglou has grown weary of hearing the same old complaint.

"The fans I meet always tell me it was better before," said Mouratoglou, the long-time coach of Serena Williams. "I always ask them why and they say, 'Because we had better personalities before,' which I don't believe. We do have great personalities now, but the only difference is they don't express themselves as much."

With the tours on hiatus ​due to the COVID-19 pandemic at least through July, Mouratoglou is launching a new league known as Ultimate Tennis Showdown. The event starts on Saturday and features 10 players.

The players taking part are Stefanos Tsitsipas (6), Matteo Berrettini (8), David Goffin (10), Benoit Paire (22), Richard Gasquet (50), Lucas Pouille (58), Alexei Popyrin (103) and Dustin Brown (239). One more player, who is ranked in the top 10, is still to be named.

While he was originally scheduled to be in the field, UTS announced on Wednesday that Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime could not compete due to injury and would be replaced by Feliciano Lopez (56). In an Instagram post, Auger-Aliassime said the issue is "nothing serious, but better safe than sorry."

The players will all face each other in a round robin with matches taking place over the next five weekends. The top six players will then make the knockout stage on July 12 with the top two getting a bye to the semifinals. Mouratoglou will unveil the new rules the competition will be using in a Zoom news conference on Thursday.

All of the matches will take place on hard courts at Mouratoglou's academy in Nice, France. Each match will offer prize money with the winner getting 70 per cent of the take.

"The audience of tennis is getting older and older, which shows tennis doesn't renew its fan base,"  Mouratoglou said. "The fan base of tennis was created in the ‘70s and ‘80s when John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg were playing and since then the base is getting older and older. I think it's quite worrying for the whole industry that we're not able to bring new fans to tennis."

Mouratoglou spoke with TSN this week via Zoom and explained why he wanted Auger-Aliassime involved in UTS and how the new league will draw out more personality from players. He also shared some insight on how Williams is handling this lengthy pause in play.

The following is an edited transcript of the interview.

How will Ultimate Tennis Showdown allow players to show their personality? 

"We'll have a lighter code of conduct, because the one in place in tennis is so restrictive that you have no space for liberty at all. There has to be guidelines, of course, there has to be limits, but within those limits there has to be a space in which people can express themselves and show emotion, because that's why people are watching tennis and watching sports, they want to feel emotions."

How far can guys go?

"First of all, we'll make sure they don't do any dangerous behaviour. They must be respectful to the chair umpire, but they can complain and argue, there is a margin there. They can speak to the opponent. If they want to tell the opponent that his forehand is bad, it's psychological, but it plays a role in tennis. This is fine as long as there are no [bad] insults. They can break their racquet. Who does that hurt?

"I want to have characters who have emotions, share emotions and have a personality. It's like ​a movie. In a movie if everyone is perfect and polite and nobody's doing anything wrong then there's no story and I want stories. I don't want to build stories out of nothing, but I want to give players a space where they can express who they are, and people have the choice to like or dislike what they do."

And in-match coaching will be allowed?

"Of course. It's great on two levels. First, the interaction between the coach and player gives the opportunity for people to understand better the tactical and technical things. People want to know what's behind the scenes, and this is behind the scenes. Second, the coaching moments, as we've seen with the WTA [where in-match coaching is allowed], provides a lot of emotion. It's always better to know players and people in moments of emotion. So, on two levels it's interesting and we'll promote the coaches as much as possible. In all the other sports coaching is part of the show and tennis is an exception and I don't think it should be."

What are you doing to speed up the pace of play?

"That's another issue. Tennis matches are a marathon and people don't consume videos and sports the same way that they were doing 40 years ago. This has completely changed, and the tennis format has not. We'll have a shorter format. I don't want to reveal everything, because we want to create surprises, but definitely it's going to much shorter and more dynamic. We don't want people waiting too much. If you look at a tennis match,​ there's much more time when there's nothing happening then time with action. I would like to correct that."

Why did you want 19-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime involved?

"Because he's amazing. Because I love him. Everyone loves him. He's a great guy in every aspect. First, an incredible player with such a bright future so that's exciting. He's so athletic and he has incredible potential and talent. Second, his personality is something everybody loves. He's such genuine person and very mature for his age. It feels like he's already been on tour for five years and is 25 or 26 having won three grand slams the way he speaks. He's a great guy. It's important to have different personalities and people who are easy to identify with and I think Felix is really easy to identify with. He's a good guy. There will be some bad guys too and you need that to have a good story."

What measures are being taken to ensure the safety of players and people at the Academy?

"We received official authorization from the French government to hold this event and there's a lot of guidelines we have to respect ... all the players are tested, and they don't share the balls. During the match both players will have their own balls, so there are rules like that. We've made sure the risks are the lowest possible for everyone. The south of France is one of the first places to open up here, because there's just a few cases so everything is reopening, the hotels, restaurants, everything. There are almost no cases here, which is a positive thing."

Will UTS continue even after the tours resume? 

"Yes, of course. The ATP and WTA will be different. We plan to play every weekend. This is UTS1 which will last five weekends in a row and then right after that there will be UTS2 for four weekends and UTS3 for four other weekends and we'll continue the whole year like that. So, that's the plan. We'll see how it goes and how it works with the ATP and WTA. First, we don't even know when the next ATP and WTA tournaments will take place and what the tour will look like after the COVID-19 crisis, because a lot of things will have to change. Also, we are waiting for UTS1 to take place and to see if people like it. If they love it then we'll sit down with the ATP and WTA and I'm sure they'll be happy to find a space for us, because if we can bring new fans to our sport that's great for everyone. I'm not trying to be against anybody, that's not the idea at all. The idea is to increase the fan base of tennis and make it younger, so we have a brighter future."

Do you think the US Open and French Open will be held?

"There's a lot of uncertainty. It depends on the governments and if they authorize people to travel and if they authorize crowds. If not, it will be difficult to hold tournaments. And the governments don't know themselves, because things are changing and maybe there will be a second wave. We don't know what will happen, basically.

"The second issue is the top players. If they agree to play then the US Open and French Open will take place, but if they decide not to play then a lot of players will follow their lead. And, at the moment, from what I hear, it doesn't sound like they want to play. So, nobody knows and that's what's difficult for players except for the 10 playing UTS, because they have goals and matches and they're preparing. We can see that, because some of them are practising here at the Academy and from the moment they knew they'd have competition, I mean, they switched on. It's so difficult for pros who are used to having short-term goals all the time to find the motivation when they don't even know if they'll play a match this year or not. That's why, also, it's important to create a league and showdowns like what we're doing."

What is your advice to Serena Williams during this lengthy break?

"It's a good period for her to rest and she took a lot of rest, which she needed. She was a bit injured; she had a knee problem and she recovered really well and that's great. And now keep her fitness at a good level, play a bit of tennis and once she has a goal and knows exactly when she'll start, I know that, mentally, the machine will be 100 per cent on and when she's on, things go fast. I think she's doing the right thing."​