Ultimate Tennis Showdown Grand Final Sees First Three-Time Champion
The Ultimate Tennis Showdown, a growing, competitive exhibition tennis league designed to tackle the beliefs of tennis’ waning popularity and capture new fans, has concluded after two intense days of competition in London. Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev, Ugo Humbert, and Casper Ruud are just some of the top-ranked names that participated in the final London leg. This includes a total of eight athletes battling each other, first from the round robin group stages, then two Semifinal stages, and then the final soon after. The tournament strays from traditional avenues in several ways, which don’t make the exhausting timeline any easier, given how packed the competitive schedule is in a given year.
Each match is time-limited, consisting of four eight-minute quarters, where the winner of each quarter is determined by who has the most points at the end of each; and those points are counted individually. Serves are changed every two points, like in a tiebreak, and each player is only allowed one serve, along with the fact that the no let rule is in play. The first to win three quarters wins the match, unless it’s tied at two quarters. If that comes to pass, the match goes to sudden death, where the player who wins two points consecutively claims victory. Between points, there are a stifling 15 seconds before play must begin again, before a warning and then a penalty, leaving little room for recovery. Quite rich, considering that in the regular season and tour, more and more complaints arise over shortening shot clocks.
Atop this new format, jarring live music, constantly flashing lights, and no rules to enforce crowd quiet, the crowd is actually encouraged to heckle and cheer during active points. Players are also not given a warm-up before play. For something that’s supposed to attract new fans and followers to the sport, it comes close to not resembling it at all. Nevertheless, Norwegian 12th-ranked Ruud and Australian seventh-ranked de Minaur made it through the madness to the finals against each other.
How de Minaur Kept Ruud at Bay
Both players seemed unbothered by all the overstimulations, the Australian especially, having played the tournament in every previous iteration. While Ruud did exceptionally well with his service accuracy, a necessity, seeing second chances aren’t given, it was a tall order for him to defeat the player known as ‘The Demon’ on tour. The Australian is a runner, an effective one, and his endurance is unbelievable; the 15-second shot clock didn’t start sapping at his energy stores until far later on. Not quite the same for Ruud, who, though he won the very first quarter, it was a struggle, close in score. His unclean strokes and misfirings contributed to that, but he managed to grab it. It was far too early for him to start out shaky, but then again, with no warmup and playing on an odd-looking court missing doubles lines, to blame him heavily if his calibration is off would be cruel. Additionally, de Minaur embraces every bit of this high-paced environment; his shots and reactions to pounce on his opponent’s shots were snap quick. Afforded not just because of his fast-twitch reaction time, but because he practically stood on the baseline; running to any and every angle on the court, and dictating the pace of the match with ease, unbalancing Ruud.
Ruud’s Endurance and Decline
Unfortunately for the 12th-ranked Norwegian, this tournament is almost a new style of tennis entirely, and ‘The Demon’ might just be one of the experts at it. As Ruud’s energy visibly sapped, even with his ever-consistent game approach, the Australian still had energy to drag him about the court. Strategies like playing safe and deep rally balls helped him none, as de Minaur was always impressively able to open his wing to crack wide winners without warning. High-bouncing shots to buy time or recover were correctly punished. Ruud couldn’t hit the insane and disarming angles his rival kept belting out with impunity; the best and most he did well was serve with 100 percent accuracy. A truly impressive feat with only one on the line, and increasing exhaustion. His shots, however, suffered; his feet grew heavier, and rallies grew shorter, both from his increasing unforced errors long, and because he couldn’t chase where de Minaur sent him. To that end, and with doing all he possibly could, all that anyone could suggest to him, even, Ruud fell, and de Minaur won his third UTS Grand Final 11-15, 15-10, 15-11, 16-7 and a prize purse of $640,000.
