The hall announcer gives everything. “Frankfurt, it’s louder,” he shouts again and again, while the “Laola” he’s demanding spills a little timidly over the stands of the ball sports hall. “Quiet please, you won’t hear us,” he had promised the audience a few minutes earlier. “Our motto is: Make some noise!”
Now he keeps his word and encourages the fans to make noise. The traditional but somewhat outdated sport of tennis wants to present itself in a hip new guise this weekend. A fiery atmosphere is part of it – even if you have to help it occasionally.
Rules on the pitch are new
Ultimate Tennis Showdown, or UTS for short, is the name of the format in which eight top international players played a kind of show tournament in Frankfurt last weekend. It was developed by French star coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ coach for many years, who wanted to use it to inspire a younger audience for tennis.
A lot of things are new, primarily the rules on the pitch. Instead of sets with service games, UTS plays four quarters of ten minutes each in tiebreak mode. There is no second serve, no replay on the net roller and bonus cards that can triple the value of rallies.
There is no shortage of pithy sayings to accompany the spectacle. “Tennis like never before,” says banners in and around the hall. Tennis like never before. “It starts now”, the revolution begins. As a tennis fan you want to be there, right? At the start on Friday there were around 3,500 spectators in the ball sports hall, Saturday was sold out with 5,000 and on Sunday there were also more than 4,000 spectators who wanted to get their own idea of how Mouratoglou and his team imagine the future of tennis .
However, there are still a number of places available when Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Argentina’s Diego Schwarzman begin their semi-final match early on Sunday afternoon. But that doesn’t matter. There is no waiting, that is one of the most important rules at UTS. Not on the spectators, not until the stands have calmed down, not even on the fact that the laser show or the music has ended. The players only have 15 seconds before they have to serve. And when the bass is still thundering and the lights are flashing, the food is still being served.
There is lightning and thunder almost constantly at the UTS. The tennis event is a mixture of circus, sporting event and nightclub party. It fits into the picture that on this warm, humid September Sunday it is as scorching hot in the ball sports hall as it is usually in the disco. The players and fans alike are sweating freely. The music is booming from the speakers. After every match. After every sentence. After every rally.
“What does the ball tell you?”
The fifth between Schwarzman and Dimitrov is the first spectacular one. “Madre mia,” the hall announcer promptly screams after the Argentine has powerfully sent a backhand down the line. The duel also offers several long rallies. The players are interviewed between each quarter, although the gain in knowledge for the audience is limited. “If you play as well as I do right now, the ball tells you what to do,” says Dimitrow as he has just scored a few spectacular points in a row. “What is the ball telling you at the moment?” asks the moderator. “Where to run and how to hit,” Dimitrov replies.
Pirmin Clossé, London Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Pirmin Clossé, Frankfurt Published/Updated: , Thomas Klemm, New York Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4
The audience’s favorite on Sunday is the Frenchman Benoit Paire anyway. Although he clearly loses his semi-final against the Russian top 10 player Andrei Rublew, he undoubtedly delivers the best show of the day. After a lost quarter, he lounges on the sofa that stands on the sidelines instead of a players’ bench and lets his coach fan him with a towel. He teases his opponent with sayings and entertains the audience with tricks and jokes. The atmosphere is dazzling – without any shouting hall announcers.
