The Ulitmate Tennis Showdown (UTS) tournaments are gathering real momentum and Ben Shelton is the latest star name to claim a huge cash windfall after in his big win in Frankfurt last weekend.

The debate over a crowded tennis schedule has been one of the biggest talking points of the year, yet the rise in high-profile tennis events away from the ATP Tour has increased.

The biggest names in the men’s game played for record-break prize money cheques in last week’s Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia, with that event coming soon after another hugely successful Laver Cup weekend in Berlin.

One of the big success stories of the tennis calendar over the last couple of years has been the UTS roadshow devised by leading coach Patrick Mouratoglou, with huge crowds gathering for events staged around the world.

Sell-out crowds for last year’s UTS Grand Final in London have been backed up by packed crowds at this year’s events, with Frankfurt adding to the latest success story as Ben Shelton emerged as the champion.

Shelton’s total prize money of $377,400 from his UTS win in Frankfurt made it his most successful tournament of the year, with the high-octane vibe around this brand of tennis perfect for the big hitting American.

Ugo Humbert, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Lorenzo Musetti all won $266,400 from their matches at UTS Frankfurt, while Jan-Lennard Struff and Denis Shapovalov took home $144,300 and Gael Monfils and Dominic Thiem left with $99,900 despite losing their three matches.

They are financial figures that highlight why so many players are eager to sign up for the UTS experience, which sees matches played over four quarters of eight minutes each.

Live coaching is allowed and live-streamed to the fans and mid-match interviews are designed to get inside of the players’ minds.

An emphasis on strategy with the introduction of UTS cards that allow players to win three points at once and there is suspense until the last point with decisive points and sudden deaths.

In essence, UTS is a brand of tennis that will appeal to a younger audience and that is so badly needed, with traditional tennis crowds tending to be older and reluctant to embrace the kind of change UTS promotes.

Mouratoglou spoke to Tennis365 in an exclusive interview, as he explained his vision for UTS and how it can go to the next level.

“I had very high expectations at the start, so I can’t say this has gone even better than we expected, but there is no doubt it is going in the right direction,” Mouratoglou told Tennis365.

“When we first spoke about UTS, it was at a time when we couldn’t have any crowds during Civic, but everything changed when we could have the crowd involved.

“It is amazing to see how much the fans get into it and UTS comes alive when you have a crowd interacting with the players during the events. They get crazy. I don’t feel like I’m at a tennis match and that’s exactly what I wanted when this idea started.

“You can get some amazing moments in a Grand Slam when they are playing a deciding tie-break and the crowd are going crazy, but you get more of that with UTS. Almost in every match.

“We wanted a different type of experience for fans watching UTS, a stronger experience. Traditional tennis will always be there in the sport, but this can be something different.

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“This is not about competing with the Grand Slams, that was never our goal,” continued Mouratoglou.

“The Grand Slams are history, they are the big events in tennis every year. They have something we will never have, but we have something different to them.

“What we proposed with UTS was a completely different experience for tennis and to involve the younger generation.

“If your son or daughter goes home and says it was better than classical tennis, that’s exactly what we want. It reaches out to a different audience.

“A lot of tennis fans can love UTS, but the more traditional and conservative fans are the ones that are going to be the most difficult to convert.

“What we can do is attract a new audience, maybe a younger audience, and that is what we have seen with UTS crowds.

“We a really targeting fans who are under 40 and when they experience UTS for the first time, they really love it. They don’t follow tennis all year long, but we want to get them interested in our sport and if they like UTS, then they will hopefully like tennis as well.

“One issue is the tennis calendar is so intense. Finding the best weeks for UTS is tough because you want to have the best players, but you also need to find a week that can work for them.

“We had UTS New York the week before the US Open and that was great because all the players are there, but it is hard to exist next to a Grand Slam as that will get all the attention.”

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