A host of stars revealed their reasons for playing the
Ultimate Tennis Showdown event. In the recent past, a number of current players, including women’s world number two Poland’s Iga Swiatek and men’s world number three Carlos Alcaraz, have complained about a tough schedule.
Recently, former world number one Billie Jean King criticised
players for complaining about busy tennis schedules but still taking time to
play in exhibition events such as the Ultimate Tennis Showdown. “They get a
month off and they go play exhibitions,” she said back then while speaking to BBC
Sport. “I go really? You guys said you needed the rest. Don't tell me you think
the season is too long. I know if there's enough money you go and you play.
It's a really tough argument for me to listen to the players.”
In a report published by the Daily Express, a host of tennis stars explained their reasons for participating in the event. Some claimed that the primary reason remains monetary benefit, whereas others claimed that such events give players a perfect opportunity to prepare for the tough season ahead.
“Here, the intensity is really high, and you play really seriously,” said the world number eight,
Andrey Rublev. “In a normal endurance
recovery that I’m doing when I’m in pre-season, there is no fire because you
just do a workout and that’s it. Here you do an endurance workout and you are
full of emotions, you are full of adrenaline because you are competing and it’s
even tougher than a normal endurance workout so it gives you a little
preparation and improvement.”
“It gives me a nice little fine-tuning moment in the middle
of the pre-season,” said the reigning world number nine Australia’s Alex de
Minaur. “Even though I am playing these matches, there’s still a lot of the
work that goes on behind the scenes, a lot of hours spent in the gym and on the
practice court. Because ultimately this is still our pre-season and we want to
make sure the body is in the right stage come the start of the season.”
“It helps make a living. It’s honestly that simple,” said De
Minaur’s fellow countryman Kokkinakis. “This is one of the perks of playing for
sure. But there’s a lot more to it than just the financial side here. It’s very
exciting, it’s very fun, the crowd gets into it. These events are great and
they do set you up for the Grand Slams and things like that. There’s definitely
a lot of things that you can take from UTS to the tour.”