Ultimate Tennis Showdown 2 set to launch with men’s and women’s events
The Ultimate Tennis Showdown is getting a sequel in the form of a men’s and women’s event, taking place from July 25th to August 2nd.
The Ultimate tennis Showdown has been the highlight of tennis throughout the stoppage of play. After the wariness of the event’s new rules and formats went away, all that was left was brilliant tennis played by some of the ATP’s best.
Stefanos Tsitsipas had an incredible UTS debut; he finished 10-2 with only one loss in the group stage before being defeated in the UTS title match to Matteo Berrettini in sudden death. Keep in mind, Tsitsipas had championship point in that sudden death but couldn’t close it out. It speaks volumes to the nature of the tournament: every single point counts and the player needs to take advantage of every opportunity they are given.
Because of its major success, creator Patrick Mouratoglou has announced that a second iteration of the tournament, dubbed ‘Ultimate Tennis Showdown 2’ will go live during two different weeks.
Two is better than one. For UTS2, not only will there be a 10-player men’s field, but there will also be a four-player women’s field. The men’s field begins July 25th and ends August 2nd. The women’s field will only take place during the second weekend (August 1-2).
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Who’s in the field?
The men’s field will feature 6 players from UTS 1 and 4 new faces. Richard Gasquet, Feliciano Lopez, Alexei Popyrin, Corentin Moutet, Benoit Paire, and Dustin Brown are the players taking a second shot at the UTS crown. Gasquet came the closest at taking the title out of this group; he lost to champion Matteo Berrettini in the semifinals, 3-2.
Only two of the four new faces have been confirmed for UTS 2. All four of the first-timers are ATP Top 20 players. So far, Grigor Dimitrov and Fernando Verdasco are the two players set to join the event.
For the women’s field, only four players will compete given that they’ll only compete for one weekend. World #30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, #39 Ons Jabeur, #59 Alize Cornet, and 13-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova (winner of the U14 Les Petits As championship).
The format for the men’s event will be slightly different than UTS1. The field will be split into two groups. The winner of each group will automatically qualify for the semifinals and the final two semifinalists will get a fast track to the semifinals based on their group stage records. The Final Four will be played on August 2nd.
The women’s event is going to be a much simpler process; the semifinals will be played August 1st and the finals will take place the following day.
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The UTS will be broadcasting the two events online at watch.utslive.tv. A full preview of the event will come out here on Lob and Smash prior to the Saturday start date.