De Minaur Admits Money Significant Motivation Behind UTS Participation
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Alex de Minaur is one of the players who will compete at the 2024 Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) Grand Final, and he admitted that prize money serves as great motivation.
In recent years, tennis seemingly got into a never-ending cycle and a debate about the schedule and money distributed to players. On the one hand, it's true that the tennis calendar is among the longest of all sports, and at the same time, it's true that tennis players earn among the least of all athletes based on the percentage of overall revenue.
Therefore, it's not surprising that many of tennis players try to increase their profits by competing in exhibition tournaments, which then often opens another debate.
While they complain about the length of the calendar, they voluntarily extend it by playing more tournaments, but with the abovementioned factors, the players probably can't be blamed.
One of those exhibition tournaments is also the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, which holds multiple events throughout the year, and now, during the off-season, the Grand Final, as they call it, of the 2024 UTS will be held in London.
Eight players will compete, and they were divided into two groups, with Andrey Rublev, Ugo Humbert, Gael Monfils, and Thanasi Kokkinakis in one group. In the other group, Alex de Minaur leads the way with Alexander Bublik, Holger Rune, and Jan-Lennard Struff, who replaced injured Denis Shapovalov, joining him in the group.
Ahead of his participation in the tournament, the Australian tennis player spoke to Tennis365, discussing the benefits of competing at the UTS, one of which was getting used to the noise from the crowd, which many players find distracting during regular tournaments.
"It’s exciting and something different and it gives you a different view of how to play points. I’ve played a couple of the UTS events now and I’ve enjoyed it. Having only one serve is an interesting mindset change and I enjoy trying to adapt to it."
"I find the noise and chaos of UTS a little easier to deal with when I know it’s coming and that’s the case in UTS. When everything is quiet, you hear every noise, but it’s never quiet at UTS and it showed me that I can play like that."
"You get used to the fact that the crowd are going nuts, screaming and the music is playing and it means you have to find a different way to focus in on playing points."
De Minaur was honest during the interview, and he admitted that money played a huge role in his decision-making process as well. Players at the UTS Grand Final will split over $2 million.
Considering it's only eight of them competing, this is a significant amount. In comparison, 32 players at many ATP 500 tournaments compete for less than that.
"The money is also good at the UTS events and that makes it super competitive. We are all out there trying to win and that big pay cheque at the end of the week is driving everyone on. It gets the best out of the players."
At the same time, De Minaur also think that playing at an exhibition event with different rules might help him to improve his game overall.
"Playing an event like this is a good way to break up the season and have a lot of fun at the same time. When you are out there, you do feel the pressure of the moment and it tests you."
"You have to try and improve on aspects of your game and it can help when you play other matches on the regular tour."
The UTS Grand Final starts on December 6th, 2024, and De Minaur will be on the court once during the first day of play, taking on Rune. On Day 2, he will return two times, taking on Struff and then Bublik in an attempt to finish in the Top 2 in his group and seal the semi-final spot.
