UTS

UTS: Tennis gladiators to enter Roman amphitheatre

Apr 03, 2025

The UTS global tennis tour will bring history and innovation together this Friday 4th and Saturday 5th April at Bastide Médical UTS Nîmes, where some of the world’s best male players will compete on clay in the ground-breaking UTS format at the iconic Arènes de Nîmes, a Roman amphitheatre built in 100AD.

The Arènes de Nîmes is one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world and will be hosting the UTS Tour for the first time. Over 20,000 spectators have already purchased their place to witness the action with Saturday 5th a 12,500 sell-out and 7,500 tickets already sold and more selling fast for Friday 4th.

A stellar line-up featuring World No.6 Casper Ruud, World No.9 Andrey Rublev, World No.10 Alex De Minaur, Ben Shelton, Ugo Humbert, Tomas Machac, Alexei Popyrin and French superstar Gäel Monfils will be following in the footsteps of Roman gladiators as they compete for a $1 million prizemoney pot. The winner of Bastide Médical UTS Nîmes will take home a $301,000.

Casper Ruud who has already practiced in the Arènes de Nîmes said: “It’s an incredible stadium, very, very beautiful city, can’t wait for the atmosphere this weekend.”

Source: UTS

The line-up includes the past five winners of UTS events (Machac UTS Guadalajara, De Minaur UTS Grand Final London, Shelton UTS Frankfurt, Monfils UTS New York, Rublev UTS Oslo).

Arènes de Nîmes joins iconic venues and cities including Forest Hills in New York City, London, Los Angeles, Oslo, Frankfurt and Guadalajara which have played host to ground-breaking UTS events around the world since the Tour went global in 2023.

The 2025 UTS Tour season will climax with the league’s best players going head-to-head in December’s UTS Grand Final at a location yet to be announced. London has successfully hosted the UTS Grand Final for the last two years.

UTS was created by worldwide tennis coach Patrick Mouratolglou and promises tennis like never before. It is a fast, innovative, family-friendly format designed to entertain, engage and encourage eye-catching tennis. Players compete in eight-minute quarters which can end in thrilling sudden death points. They are only allowed one serve and can also play UTS bonus cards at pivotal moments of the match. Fans can move around the arena throughout while a DJ and LED graphics pump up the atmosphere with music, light and sound effects as well as live mid-match player interviews between the quarters.