Professional tennis is back in Los Angeles with fast-paced new rules, rowdy fans

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown is coming to Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson for three days starting Friday. With matches divided into four eight-minute periods, with loose rules of conduct and interaction between players and fans, the series aims to engage audiences accustomed to being entertained with quick, action-packed snacks.

Creator Patrick Mouratoglou, a Frenchman who coached Serena Williams for a decade, is not trying to replace classic tennis, the men’s and women’s professional tours. He wants to shake off stuffy traditions and create a disruptive tour that really aims to seduce a new generation. This means turning passive spectators into active participants.

“Tennis is one of the few sports in the world where you pay a ticket and you’re told to be quiet, which is a bit strange,” he said. Fans are here to enjoy, scream, cry, laugh, make noise if they want. That’s how it is in the NBA, football, most sports, and I think tennis players are just used to it. And if they get used to this, they’ll be totally fine, and I think they’ll be even more excited to play.

Wimbledon isn’t, and that’s fine. There’s room for innovation and variation, especially with World Team Tennis on hiatus for the second summer in a row. A spokesman for the United States Tennis Assn. said the organization supports events that help grow tennis in the United States

Taylor Fritz shares a moment with fans.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

The Hot Shot, aka Southern California native Taylor Fritz, is a series strategy that caters to young and possibly first-time fans.

It’s a great event for people who might not be into tennis because the rules are completely new. So someone who’s not a tennis fan would kind of be in the same boat as someone who is a tennis fan, said Fritz, the No. 9 American man in the world.

The average age demographic of tennis fans is much older, so I think it’s definitely good to try new things to fit in and make it more exciting.

This is the starting point for UTS, which first appeared in 2020, but was stopped by the pandemic. In this fifth event, the players will perform in front of more than a handful of spectators for the first time.

Round Robin matches are played on Friday and Saturday, semi-finals and final Sunday. The total prize pool is $1.665 million. Each match has a purse of $111,000, with the winner receiving 70% and the loser receiving 30%. The final is winner takes all.

It’s a men’s race, although Mouratoglou hopes to organize a women’s series. Players are limited to one serve per point to encourage rallies, and players wear headsets so they can talk to their coaches. They are encouraged to talk to fans and each other.

The field is strong, in nicknames and rankings.

In addition to Fritz, participants include Frances Tiafoe (Big Foe), who entered the top 10 for the first time in June at No. 10. Ben Shelton, the 2022 NCAA champion in Florida and No. 39 in the world, is The Mountain. Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, ranked 27th in the world, is Bublik Enemy. Unfortunately, king Nick Kyrgios pulled out with a wrist injury, but he will coach Tiafoe.

Bublik Enemy may not have gone mainstream, but Bublik appreciates the inspiration behind it.

Such Nicknames and a big show is nice. The biggest people in different sports have nicknames, but we don’t, he said. Maybe if we start there, we can slowly develop something bigger and it will be very, very good for the game.

Alexander Bublik, who says he likes nicknames in tennis, prepares for a comeback.

(Courtesy of TopSeed Sports Management)

Bublik, who recently reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon, said he is enjoying the 2021 UTS event at the Mouratoglous academy in the south of France, but prefers fans to be quiet during points to allow the players to focus. Still, he finds the UTS format attractive.

I definitely think we need these types of events, he said. I think it’s way too early to say if it’s going to change anything or bring new fans into the orbit, but I think if we move forward and go in the direction we’re going, I think UTS can be a very, very big asset to professional tennis.

UTS is a welcome return to high-level professional tennis. The LA Open has been gone for over a decade; The Womens Tennis Assn. the event, previously held in Manhattan Beach and Carson, was last held in 2009. The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is a marquee event, but is played about 120 miles from Los Angeles.

“One of the reasons we chose LA is because LA hasn’t had a professional event in a long time and it’s such an incredible city, a huge city with a great tennis culture, and we thought that was missing,” Mouratoglou said. I think it is very important for the young generation to watch tennis live. It is a great inspiration. It’s one thing to watch behind the screen. Another thing is to live the experience, the show, live.

Fritz agreed. I hope it’s not a one-off tennis in LA, he said. I’m excited that hopefully it will do really well and get people excited.

UTS is planning three more events in this year’s series. One is in Frankfurt, Germany; Mouratoglou said he was finalizing the details of the Asian events and the Middle East Grand Final. How things go for Carson this weekend will affect the rest of the series, as this will be the first test of his fan engagement ideas in front of a large crowd.

Ticket sales and media coverage are not the only factors when Mouratoglou assesses the success of the formats this weekend. When planning the course of the series, he takes into account the reactions of the fans and the comments of the players.

If the atmosphere is really hot and people are happy, excited, even if it’s too much, I like too much more than not enough. In the future, it’s good to be able to control it, Mouratoglou said. I hope the feedback from the players is that they say: That was crazy and I want to go back.