Patrick Mouratoglou is a very successful coach, as well as an entrepreneur and a tennis analyst on TV – about to turn 51 (on June 8), his résumé wouldn’t need any more boosting.
However, in the last year the coach of Serena Williams has also become a tournament director for his brainchild, the Ultimate Tennis Showdown. The fourth edition took place on May 24-25 at his own Mouratoglou Academy, a gargantuan sports complex in Biot, France: the winner was Corentin Moutet, who prevailed over a stacked competitive field while managing to master the innovative rules that characterise this exhibition – the French coach is experimenting ways to make the game more intense and captivating. During the event, Mouratoglou spoke to Ubitennis about the purpose of the UTS and much else.
Patrick, are you satisfied with the fourth edition of the UTS?
I am very happy about it. We have introduced several innovations from last year. The public feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and that’s the most important thing, certainly more important than how I feel about it. Our format tries to engage with the younger generations, and especially with those kids who aren’t tennis fans yet. We have invited people who aren’t that much into the game, and they have spent the whole day here, asking for more. So the response has been good, both from the public and from the players – it’s essential for them to be having fun for the show to be captivating. They are very determined to win, and can get very annoyed when they lose. Some of them struggle with the new rules, but they still want to win. This is what I want to see, their passion for tennis.
Let’s recap some of the new rules: no second serve, coaching is allowed, and the sets have a time limit. To what extent are you trying to change the game?
I would say that the UTS is like a laboratory. A billion people watch tennis, and most of them are not very young. With the UTS we are trying to speak to these young people, and we are trying to come up with an ideal format for that. This is why we are tinkering with the rules in each edition: we will respond to the feedback we receive until we’ll have reached the ideal solution. We really want to engage with young people and non-tennis fans. Kids watch Netflix and play videogames, but they don’t follow tennis – we want to offer them a game that can lure them in.
You have also introduced a card system, like special moves that a player can use, for instance, to double the value of a point or to force the opponent to come to the net behind his serve…
If you are a coach, you work by creating different game situations: for instance, if I want to work on baseline play, I will ask the player to only hit second serves. If I want them to be more aggressive, I will ask them to pretend that the next point is worth double. That’s the point, our format wants to be a training mode for the players and the coaches. The card system, in our opinion, is also a way to make the game more interesting, because it adds a new strategic variant. In general, our objective is to make the game more dynamic by cutting on dead-air moments, which are the ones that could bore the newcomers.
Okay, let’s talk about the players you work with. Coco Gauff just dominated in Parma, and is doing very well in Paris. Do you think she’s able to handle the pressure?
Nobody is more used to dealing with the pressure than Coco. She won the Orange Bowl at 12, she played a Junior Slam final at the US Open at 13 and a half, the youngest ever to do it, and at 15 she qualified for Wimbledon and beat Venus Williams. The spotlight was always on her, and yet she managed to get some good results. She’s not completely unfazed by the pressure, obviously, but she can handle it, even though it’s not always easy. She already has a good baggage of experience.
Tsitsipas is having an amazing season, and is trying to win his first Major at the French Open – can he do it?
He always plays to win, that’s his thing, he has a very strong self-belief. In Paris, he will play to win the tournament, and I think he can. Nadal is the favourite, as usual, but this year the gap might be closing a little, and the difference between him and the other contenders will diminish as time passes. Djokovic can beat him on the clay too, Rublev beat him in Monte Carlo, and Stefanos had a match point against him in the Barcelona final. Rafa is clearly the greatest of all time on the clay, and he’s still the best, especially with the three-out-of-five format. I am curious, however, to see if he could still handle two five-setters in a row, and I believe he could find himself in that situation, because there are many who could push him.
Let’s switch to Serena Williams: how is she doing?
Had you asked me a couple weeks ago, I would have probably said, “not great.” But she’s doing a lot better now! She lost early in the two events she played in Italy, in Rome and Parma, something she’s not used to – that’s proof that she wasn’t ready to compete at the highest level. However, I think she understood it herself, and after Parma we’ve worked very hard, and now she’s improving a little bit every single day.
Interview by Gianluca Sartori; translated by Tommaso Villa
EDITORS NOTE: Original interview was published on ubitennis.com and conducted prior to the start of the 2021 French Open.