Who is playing and format explained as Ultimate Tennis Showdown heads to Oslo in continuation of Patrick Mouratoglou led concept

Much to the dismay of the Open 13 Provence tournament director, the Patrick Mouratoglou led concept of Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) heads to Oslo between February 9-11 for the latest round of the tennis league to begin 2024. Described as tennis like never before, the Telenor Arena is the site of the first stop.

From a different format and rules down to nicknames for players which are slightly amusing, the Ultimate Tennis Showdown was initially conceived during COVID-19 with many expecting the exhibition tour to fade away. Three events were held in 2020 and it returned in 2021. But after a two-year absence, it returned in July 2023. A string of three events in United States, Germany and South Korea with a Grand Final in London completed the tour.

Jack Draper also known as The Power defeated Holger Rune who is known as The Viking in the Grand Final. It uses a modified scoring format with matches divided into timed quarters. Among the different quirks that UTS has includes power-up cards that can affect the amount of points a player can accrue in a quarter.

Players only have one serve per point, where lets are played and KO Mode where if a player is leading by 10 points in a quarter, it is declared over. There is also a 15-second shot clock for serves and the ability to take a coaching timeout once per set as well as the cards such as taking away an opponents second serve.

As alluded to the Open 13 Provence tournament director didn't take too lightly to Mouratoglou putting his interests supposedly above tennis with many top names playing this weekend.

Casper Ruud also known as The Iceman leads Group A. Holger Rune is also involved in the first group. He has already seen off Thieminho Dominic Thiem with proceedings completed by The Bublik Enemy Alexander Bublik. 

Group B is led by Andrey Rublev (Rublo) alongside Alex de Minaur (The Demon), Gael Monfils (La Monf) and Benoit Paire (The Rebel). The top two from both groups go through to the semi-finals and it will be played out from there.

There is prize money on offer with a total breakdown of $1,665,000. There are 15 matches in total with each match seeing the purse sit at $111,000. The winner gets 70% and loser gets 30%. For the final only, winner takes all with 100% of the $111,000. Maximum gained is $421,800 for three Round Robin wins and two victories in the final four.