{"id":328984,"date":"2025-12-05T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328984\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:00:09","slug":"players-ready-for-intense-uts-london-grand-final-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328984\/","title":{"rendered":"Players ready for \u201cintense\u201d UTS London Grand Final showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casper Ruud<\/a>, Tomas Machac<\/a> and Francisco Cerundolo<\/a> all lifted trophies earlier this year, while defending champion Alex de Minaur<\/a> returns to the scene of his 2024 triumph. Throw in two-time winner Andrey Rublev<\/a> and you have a field in London where nobody can afford a slow start.<\/p>\n

Eight players will compete at the Victorian Plumbing UTS London Grand Final<\/a> across two round-robin groups from Friday to Saturday, with the top two from each advancing to Sunday\u2019s semi-finals and final. Up to $922,000 awaits an unbeaten champion from a total prize pot of $1.87 million.<\/p>\n

The players have been talking \u2014 and they\u2019re expecting fireworks.<\/p>\n

Cerundolo\u2019s perfect record on the line<\/p>\n

Cerundolo has never lost a UTS match. The Argentine claimed the Chubb UTS Hong Kong with Humansa<\/a> title in November and believes he\u2019s better prepared this time around.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think now I\u2019m more prepared than the other tournament because I know the rules, I know how to manage myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His opening clash against Ruud on Friday night promises to be a baseline war \u2013 the pair have met nine times on Tour but never at UTS.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a grind for sure. We both like to play with forehands, to play long rallies, to try to be aggressive,\u201d Cerundolo said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a fun match to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also learned the hard way about clock management: \u201cAt the beginning when I was losing, I was trying to play fast, but then I was playing without thinking and nonsense. So it wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruud: From sceptic to convert<\/p>\n

Ruud won in Nimes earlier this year and arrives in London off the back of a title in Stockholm late in the 2025 ATP season. But the Norwegian admits he wasn\u2019t always sold on the UTS format.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I saw it during COVID, I thought it was complete chaos,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when I tried to play it myself, it was really fun. It\u2019s so intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ruud explains, the intensity comes from the clock. With just five seconds between points and eight-minute quarters, there\u2019s no time to reset mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your opponent\u2019s serving, he can serve only after five seconds and you have to be there already,\u201d Ruud explained. \u201cI\u2019ve had a few points where I\u2019ve tried to stress my opponent, but I got too stressed myself, so I missed the serve. It\u2019s quite tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also keen to settle a score with David Goffin<\/a>, who beat him in a sudden death set in the Guadalajara semi-finals: \u201cI will try to seek my revenge here.\u201d The pair meet early on Saturday afternoon, in the second match of the day.<\/p>\n

Mannarino embracing underdog role<\/p>\n

Adrian Mannarino<\/a> finds himself in a Group A loaded with big hitters, but the 36-year-old is embracing his outsider status.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be the outsider in every match so I\u2019ll just try to make the best of it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have much to lose but you\u2019re not supposed to win. It\u2019s good because you get on the court with no pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Frenchman has become a student of the format, and believes it rewards honest tennis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt UTS if you\u2019re not playing well, every rally you have to earn it. You can\u2019t fake your level because you can\u2019t win points with your serve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just lose your concentration for a little bit, the points are going so fast you can easily lose five, six points in a row and then the quarter is almost over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humbert steps in fit and ready<\/p>\n

Ugo Humbert<\/a> replaced the injured Jack Draper earlier this week and arrives fully fit after a back issue that has lingered in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel 100%,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Frenchman knows bonus cards can swing a match in an instant, and he\u2019ll be targeting these as he looks to get out of Group B.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo or three points are really important. If I play well, these points are going to be on my side, but sometimes it\u2019s not going to be on my side every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Group stage action begins on Friday at 6pm, with semi-finals and final on Sunday from 2:30pm. The event will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Tennis in the UK and Ireland \u2014 a first for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Casper Ruud, Tomas Machac and Francisco Cerundolo all lifted trophies earlier this year, while defending champion Alex de…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-328984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}