Nick Kyrgios is preparing for his return to tennis later this month as he is set to take his place in a star-studded field at the UTS event in New York.
The UTS New York will take place over several days from August 22 to 23 in the legendary Forest Hills Stadium, which has hosted the US Open tennis tournament for 60 years.
With the event taking place in the same city as the last major tournament of the year, tournament director and coaching guru Patrick Mouratoglou has assembled a stellar field to bring his cheeky style of tennis to the Big Apple.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will play against Alexander Bublik on the first day of play, while Alex de Minaur will face Denis Shapovalov in what is expected to be a spectacular encounter.
Andrey Rublev and Gael Monfils will also face each other in what is expected to be an emotional match between two players who rarely hold back on the pitch.
But it is Kyrgios’s expected performance that will pique tennis fans’ curiosity, as he has been drawn to face Casper Ruud on the first day of UTS New York.
Although it is not an ATP Tour event, it could be Kyrgios’ first public appearance in a tennis competition since his first-round loss on grass in Stuttgart last year.
He has missed all of 2024 due to injury and hinted that he could be close to retiring from tennis at the age of 29, but it seems one of the sport’s biggest names is about to take his first tentative steps back onto the court.
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Kyrgios has indicated he will play some doubles tournaments to test his fitness before considering a full return to the tour, but the high-energy style of tennis at the UTS event seems perfectly suited to a first comeback tournament.
Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) is the world’s newest, most exciting and innovative tennis league with a completely reinvented game format.
The year-round league was founded by Patrick Mouratoglou, who previously coached WTA legend Serena Williams and a number of the game’s biggest names.
Mouratoglou spoke to Tennis365 last year about his vision for UTS and the quality of players he attracts to the event confirms that it has the potential to be a big part of the sport.
“If we look at the demographics, the average age of our fans is 40, which is 21 years younger than the average tennis fan,” Mouratoglou told Tennis365.
“Half of our fans are not tennis fans, which shows that we have brought new people to tennis through UTS and that is the goal.
“The aim is clearly to attract new fans to the sport. This is clearly an incredible sport, but we are presenting it in a way that is more modern and better fits the criteria of what the new generation in general sees.
“It’s the same fan base as in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s me! I was ten then and now I’m 53 and that’s the fan base of tennis.
“If we don’t renew the fan base and bring in new people, it will disappear. That’s a fact. All the studies that have been done show the same thing.”
“Everyone knows that, but it’s difficult to make drastic changes because all the traditional fans would be upset. That’s why I did UTS.”
UTS Explainer:
- The timer stops during the 3-minute changeover at the end of each quarter.
- The first player to win 3 QTs wins the game. If both players are tied with 2 QTs each, the 5th QT is played in Sudden Death format*
- Sudden death is a dramatic cliffhanger where the first player to win two points in a row wins the match. Every point from the second point onwards is a match point in sudden death.
- During the quarter, each player serves two points: Player A serves for two points, then Player B serves for two points, then Player A serves again for two points.
- In an important change designed to reduce downtime and allow for more rallies, UTS players are only allowed one serve per point: a missed serve results in the loss of the point.
- Finally, the “no let” rule applies to serving.
