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“It’s Different” – Benoit Paire Opens up on Experience at Innovative UTS League

Published 07/05/2020, 10:35 AM EDT

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Benoit Paire is currently participating in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown(UTS). A unique league created by super coach Patrick Mouratoglou to change the way we see tennis. Paire has had a topsy turvy tournament. He is 9th in the standing and has won just two matches.

The more you know about UTS, the more you realize how exciting it is. UTS isn’t very different from normal tennis but it makes subtle changes to it. The first one is the duration because like football there is a time limit. A UTS match is forty minutes long with 4 quarters each of ten minutes. The player with the most points after 10 minutes wins the quarter so the players won’t be wasting any time and hence the overall experience is fast.

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UTS also some crunch tense moments as well. If the points at the end of the quarter are the same, then there is a single point tie-breaker to decide the quarter. Such sudden death scenarios are very tense and tough moments for the fans and they will surely love it. Similarly, if the quarter score ends at 2-2 then there is a tiebreaker set where the first player to win two consecutive points wins the match. These changes make it very appealing to the younger audience.

Paire played his 7th match yesterday but narrowly lost out to his countrymen Elliot Benchetrit. It was a closely fought match which ended 3-2. The score read 19-11 13-14 13-10 10-16 2-0.

After his match, the Frenchmen sat down for a press conference and discussed UTS and the situation around the US Open.

Are your reactions on the court buzzing, are you having fun in this UTS format?

“It changes, it’s different, you have to have a particular style of play, being concentrated in every way, it’s not my habit! I quickly get left behind with the bonuses and especially in the first four-stroke that I have not yet won, sometimes that is four points apart.”

And everything is fine with the UTS referees?

“It feels good to be able to be natural. We realize that people like it. I talk to the referee, people appreciate it. It helps me, I can free myself at the level of the referee and I prefer to tell him what I think and once the match is over we don’t talk about it anymore. Knowing that people do like that when they play tennis in everyday life, a match at 30 or 30/2 they are the first to speak, throw the racket.”

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We learned that Frances Tiafoe was positive for Covid-19 on the sidelines of the Atlanta show despite a very strict health protocol. This shows that it will be complex in the United States during the US Open. Do you plan to go to New York?

“Today I say no. When I see the current conditions on-site, what to do to participate, I prefer to wait for tournaments in Europe like Madrid and Rome quietly. A month ago I would have said ‘it’s better, bars reopen, restaurants reopen’, but this is a bit of a disaster. Now there are risks in going there. Even if we go there, there are risks because there are many cases on the spot.”

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Do you think there are too many risks?

“To go there is to take the risk of being contaminated. Even if I am the first I want to play tennis, to travel because it is our daily life. If it is to go there with risks and observe a quarantine on the return, it seems complicated because if we play the US Open, we have to sacrifice Madrid and Rome. You have to find flights to get there and to get in too. Even if there is a financial constraint with the interruption of the season and the need to play, at one point I prefer not to play and stay alive and healthy.”

Quotes Credits: RMC Sport

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Note: All quotes gave been translated from French using Google Translation

Watch UTS live – https://watch.utslive.tv

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Written by:

Bhavishya Mittal

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Bhavishya Mittal is a tennis author for EssentiallySports, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Manipal University. A former sports editor for The Manipal Journal, Bhavishya has also worked for The New Indian Express. He has a keen eye for many sports but he is a particularly ardent follower of tennis, with a zest to create riveting articles on the ever-evolving sport.
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