The Scandinavian pair of Holger Rune and Casper Ruud have been confirmed among the entrants in the first stage of the UTS Tour in 2024, which will be played in Norway's capital city, Oslo.
Rune and Ruud will be joined by World No. 5 Andrey Rublev (winner of UTS Frankfurt), Gael Monfils, Alexander Bublik, and Dominic Thiem, who is returning to the tournament for the first time since appearing in the inaugural event back in 2020.
The first pitstop of the 2024 Ultimate Tennis Showdown Tour will take place at the Telenor Arena in Oslo from February 9 to 11. For Ruud "The Iceman", a former Top 10 player who has headlined three Grand Slam finals in his career so far, it will be the first time he will perform in front of his home crowd and in his home city in a competitive tennis tournament.
Ruud got his first taste of the UTS Tour in Frankfurt (second leg of 2023), where he was knocked out of the group. But he is still going to play the Grand Final in London next month after becoming the first player to receive a wild card for the showpiece event.
Rune "The Viking", meanwhile, was a second wild card entrant for the Grand Final. He is set to make his debut in the tournament co-founded by one of his former coaches - Patrick Mouratoglou. He's also now learned that he has been invited to the UTS Tour's first confirmed event of 2024.
There is still one more leg for the 2023 season to play before the Grand Final, which will happen in Seoul, South Korea, scheduled to take place between November 30 to December 3 at the Korea International Exhibition Center.
Monfils will battle Reilly Opelka, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Soonwoo Kwon in Group A. The Frenchman has already qualified for London and might want to go easy on his opponents here, having amassed sufficient points across the two UTS events this year. Bublik, for his part, will face Richard Gasquet, Yoshihito Nishioka, and Milos Raonic in a very competitive group.
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