With all the talks about Saudi taking over the tennis world with its $2 billion offer, there is one person who wants to galvanize the sport in the United States of America. Alex Popyrin, a man who does not live in the United States, has taken it upon himself to make this happen. Alex Popyrin is a Russian-Australian businessman who started as an executive at an investment at an internet service provider. Starting there, he soon became an investment banker and finally set up a store called Store Smart on eBay.
Alex Popyrin is more popularly known as the father of Australian tennis professional Alexei Popyrin, the winner of the 2021 Singapore Open and the 2023 Croatia Open Umag, in the tennis circles. With his business acumen and passion for tennis, Alex Popyrin and veteran tennis coach from France, Patrick Mouratoglou started an individual tennis league in 2020 called the Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
Popyrin and Mouratoglou were concerned about the decline in the fandom of tennis, especially outside of the four Grand Slams. Gen Z likes to rely more on highlights and not invest in the full live game. Therefore, to make tennis more exciting and more appealing to the newer generation of fans, both Popyrin and Mouratoglou came up with this approach during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020.
Popyrin also gave wings to his son Alexei’s tennis dreams. Although business kept him very busy and transferred him and his family around the world, he made sure his son got the best tennis coaching required from a tender age. Owing to his father’s commitments, Alexei Popyrin moved to Nice, Spain, Marbella, Dubai, etc, and kept training wherever he went from age 8. In 2017, he joined the Mouratoglou Academy, run by his father’s friend and co-founder of UTS. Later on, Xavier Malisse became Popyrin’s coach.
More about the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, founded by Alex Popyrin and Patrick Mouratoglou
The games are shorter; it lets go of the traditional system of sets, and the matches are divided into timed quarters. In this fast-paced world, the founders of UTS believe this will be the solution to bring the excitement back into the sport. A 15-second shot clock for serves is there, and players can take a coaching timeout once per set.
Another thing available is ‘cards’. What it does is it takes away the opponent’s second serve, for example, which affects the game.
Music plays throughout the games, the vibe is light, cool, and friendly and everything about it speaks Gen Z. It also takes away the usual humdrum of tension, intensity, and nervous moments in big, important matches. The tournament doesn’t last for too many days, and therefore, no one gets overtired or fatigued.
The tournament that began in 2020 saw Matteo Berrettini, Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur, Corentin Moutet, Yu Wibing, Andrey Rublev, and Jack Draper as its winners in its respective editions. Now, the mercurial tennis star from Australia, Nick Kyrgios has confirmed his presence again in the tournament for the 2024 edition.
The UTS this year will take place in New York in August, and this could be big for the tournament’s growth. With Kyrgios, Holger Rune, and Alex de Minaur now ready to play it more often, it could give this tournament a tremendous boost. It also attracted controversy with Gael Monfils being disqualified in February this year.
With more tournaments in America, the USTA (United States Tennis Association) could also benefit largely from it.
