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With the main tours suspended due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Mouratoglou launched the Ultimate Tennis
Showdown at his Nice academy last month, attracting top-10
players including Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo
Berrettini and David Goffin.
The competition features a shorter, more dynamic format, which
resembles a tie-breaker in the traditional game, and is played
in four 10-minute quarters.
Mouratoglou declined to share the number of subscribers on his
live-streaming platform but said the signs were promising.
"What I can say is that 50% of our fans were not regular tennis
fans, people who were not following tennis before UTS," he told
Reuters by video call from France ahead of the final weekend of
the second edition of the UTS.
"This was our first goal. And the second goal was to reach out
to a younger audience, and the average age of the UTS fan was
30. So that's extremely satisfying."
Mouratoglou said there had been a positive response to the
format.
"I'm not saying it's perfect, because it's not," he added. "It
can be improved and we've got to work hard to improve it, but
for a first edition, and now second, it's very nice."
Four women, including Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ons Jabeur,
will feature for the first time at the weekend, while Alexander
Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime are the top draws on the men's
side.
Mouratoglou said he hoped to work with the ATP and WTA to keep
the UTS concept alive when the professional tours resume after
the coronavirus shutdown.
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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