This tournament, which will open the season on clay, will be held on April 4 and 5. Given the success of the event, 1,000 additional places are on sale this Wednesday, November 20.
Ugo Humbert, Gaël Monfils, Andrey Rublev and Casper Rudd had already given their agreement to come and fight in the Nîmes arena on April 4 and 5, as part of the first Bastide Médical UTS tournament. There are now two new prestigious names added to the table of this event which will see a total of eight renowned days compete to try to win the bet (300,000 dollars are promised to the winner, with a total prize of a million dollars).
Two world top 15s
Taylor Fritz, nicknamed “The Hotshot”, who will finish the 2024 season in fourth place in the world after reaching the final of the US Open and the ATP Finals, has reached the UTS final twice in two appearances (UTS 4 in 2021 on clay, UTS Los Angeles in 2023 on hard) and promises to be a specialist in this innovative format.
Holger Rune, “The Viking”, was still world No. 4 last year. Ranked 13th in the world, just ahead of French number 1 Ugo Humbert, he loves playing in France, as he proved in Paris in 2022 by becoming, at the Bercy tournament, the only player to have won a Masters 1,000 in dominating five Top 10 players (including Alcaraz and Djokovic).
The American and the Dane will therefore come to battle in the Gard next April. The final two players who will complete the competition field will be announced by the end of the year. As a reminder, the UTS offers an innovative format (quarter-time matches, a single service ball, 15 seconds between points, authorization given to the public to express themselves whenever they want, etc.) with, over two days , quarter-finals (April 4), semi-finals and final (April 5), with ranking matches counting for the annual UTS Race rankings, qualifying for the end-of-year Grand Final. All ticket holders are also guaranteed to see all the players on the field play each day of the competition.
1,000 additional places on sale
“As I indicated when we announced the event at the town hall of Nîmes last October, a UTS tournament is capable of offering the public a highly prestigious field, indicates Patrick Mouratoglou, the coach and entrepreneur who founded the UTS circuit. We select players on their level of play, and on their ability to put on a show, both through their tennis and their engagement with the public. The presence of Fritz and Rune confirms, once again, that our project arouses considerable interest in the world of tennis.”
Proof of this is that given the success of the event, with 12,000 places sold in a few hours, the organization has come up with logistical solutions to offer 500 new places per day, on sale from this Wednesday, November 20.
