Patrick Mouratoglou says tournament directors are ‘completely wrong’ after complaints he’s received recently

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Patrick Mouratoglou has been a huge name in tennis for over two decades, most notably coaching Serena Williams to ten Grand Slam titles.

Mouratoglou has coached a whole host of tennis stars including Williams, Simona Halep, Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Grigor Dimitrov.

His latest client is Naomi Osaka who started working with Mouratoglou earlier this year, after splitting with her former coach Wim Fisette.

The Frenchman founded the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in 1996 and has helped a number of young up-and-coming stars take their first steps on the ATP Tour.

The Mouratoglou Tennis Academy isn’t his only venture, however, with his latest move causing a stir in the tennis world.

Patrick Mouratoglou says tournament directors are ‘completely wrong’ after Ultimate Tennis Showdown complaints

Mouratoglou founded the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in 2020, an exhibition tournament designed to ‘reinvent’ tennis.

UTS fits into the tennis calendar on off weeks or weeks where smaller ATP 250 tournaments are played, but as the season continues to get busier, some tournament directors have complained of UTS’ presence.

Mouratoglou spoke to tennishead about the complaints he has had.

“A few tournament directors have complained,” he said.

“I think they’re completely wrong.

“That’s my point of view because you cannot complain that there is competition, you know, in which field in this world is there no competition?”

Mouratoglou went on to say that he wants to impact the sport in a positive way, and would be more than happy to partner with the ATP Tour.

“My goal is not to hurt tennis, my goal is to add something to tennis,” he said.

“Do I want to be a partner with ATP, I would love it. I mean, I opened the door from day one. I want the ATP to be part of it.

The 54-year-old believes that the UTS format will help tennis evolve and keep the younger audience engaged.

“We know that tennis the way it is now is not going to be the future of tennis,” he said.

““All the figures show it, it’s not me saying that.

“For the new generation [of tennis fans], it’s not going to work. I mean, all the figures show it, and it’s not a surprise, because they would not watch something that is very long, that’s very slow.”

How does Ultimate Tennis Showdown work and can it compete with the ATP Tour?

The UTS format is very different to anything you will see on the ATP Tour.

Rather than dividing matches into sets, UTS splits matches into timed quarters, with the player winning the most quarters taking home the victory.

Further unique rules include the ability to show ‘cards’ which hold different abilities such as taking away the opponents second serve.

Several top ATP stars have competed in UTS since its conception four years ago, with Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Nick Kyrgios, and Taylor Fritz amongst the participants.

The most recent UTS event was won by American youngster Ben Shelton in Frankfurt.

Whether the event can compete with the ATP Tour remains to be seen, although such a different format might be tough for fans to adjust to.

Even the smallest adjustments can go down poorly with tennis fans, highlighted recently by the backlash to the new off-court coaching rule being approved.

The final UTS event of the year, the London Grand Final, is set to begin on December 6.