"Patrick Mouratoglou doesn't promote tennis, just his own interests"- Serena Williams' ex-coach slammed by Marseille tournament director over UTS
Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams' former coach, has come under fire from Jean-Francois Caujolle over the timing of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS). According to Caujolle, who is the director of the Marseille-based tournament Open 13, Mouratoglou's UTS has affected players' participation in the ATP 250 event.
The 2024 Open 13 commenced on February 5, with the final to be played on February 11. This year's tournament sees the likes of Hubert Hurkacz, Grigor Dimitrov, and Karen Khachanov vying for the title as the top three seeds. However, there are several notable absentees.
Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev, and Alex de Minaur, among other ATP stars, are not participating in the Open 13. Instead, they are set to feature in Mouratoglou's UTS, which will be played in Oslo, Norway, from February 9 to 11.
According to Caujolle, the players participating in the UTS could have played in the Open 13. The former player expressed his displeasure at the situation in an interview with L'Equipe and directed his anger at Patrick 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 promote tennis. He promotes his own interests, that's all."
Patrick Mouratoglou's UTS divides opinion
The UTS was brought to life by Patrick Mouratoglou in June 2020, and it has been a regular feature of the tennis calendar ever since. However, the competition is not governed by ATP rules; it has a specific format which is radically different from that of conventional tennis.
Time and again, Mouratoglou has defended his decision to create the UTS. In December 2023, he revealed to The Guardian that his objective in creating the UTS was to make tennis popular among younger audiences. According to the renowned coach, the traditional tennis format makes the sport inaccessible to newer generations.
"You have a format that is more than a hundred years old and hasn't evolved. So this creates a big gap between the generation we want to aim at, which is the future, and the formatting itself," he said.
However, despite Patrick Mouratoglou's intentions, the UTS is no stranger to criticism. After the competition was announced in 2020, a prominent tennis journalist working for The Times criticized it, saying:
"June 13th will be remembered as the day tennis was bastardized..."
Still, the UTS has been received positively by some. For instance, in 2023, Frances Tiafoe lauded the competition for allowing more freedom to both players and fans.
"Kinda what we talked about earlier, fanfare, fans being able to move around and be rowdy. Talking during points, music going. When the points are delayed or in between the points, to keep the energy up, and keeping that vibe. Kind of like UTS, with everything they have put into that," Tiafoe said (via Professional Tennis Players' Association).