The Ultimate Tennis Showdown is coming to California! One of the most experimental brands in tennis, founded by super coach Patrick Mouratoglou and known for its willingness to appeal to a younger audience, will visit a hotbed of American tennis in Southern California on July 21-23. 

The event will take place at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, on the Campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in a 7,200 seat tennis stadium. The site is also home to the 27,000 seat soccer stadium that is used by the L.A. Galaxy.

The Dignity Health Sports Park will also serve as a host to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. 

The USTA’s regional west coast training center is also located at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson. Designated as an “Official U.S. Olympic Training Site,” the USTA Training Center – West features 15 hard courts and four Har-Tru clay courts. 

Southern California has a rich tennis history dating all the way back to the early 1900s, with legends such as Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, Billie Jean King and Tracy Austin all hailing from the region. More recently, Pete Sampras, the Williams Sisters and the Bryan Brothers came out of Southern California to reach the top of the sport. 

Just about 130 miles east is Indian Wells, the home of Southern California’s prize attraction at the moment – the BNP Paribas Open, also known by many simply as the “fifth Slam.” 

UTS will mark a return of professional tennis to the greater Los Angeles area. The city hosted an ATP event from 1968 to 2012, that was most recently played on the campus of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Previous winners of the event include Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Juan Martin del Potro. The Los Angeles Open was last played in 2012. 

UTS was founded by Patrick Mouratoglou in 2020. The former coach of Serena Williams and owner of the Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in the South of France had a strong desire to revolutionize the sport so that it would become more appealing to younger audiences. 

Hosting two events at the Mouratoglou Academy during the pandemic in 2022, Mouratoglou sought to change the rules of the sport to give players the opportunity to express themselves as players and personalities more readily. He introduced on court coaching, and added a clock to speed up the pace of play. Players compete in four ten-minute quarters and try to earn the most points to win a quarter. 

Across the first four editions of UTS, some of the biggest stars in the sport raised the iconic thunderbolt trophy. Matteo Berrettini won the inaugural edition, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in a battle of future Grand Slam finalists, while Alexander Zverev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, each Grand Slam finalists as well, won the second edition. Australia’s Alex de Minaur won the third edition, while France’s Corentin Moutet won the fourth staging, which was also the first edition to be held on clay. 

This year’s edition promises to be another star-studded event. Players love Southern California and the fans love their tennis. It should be a perfect match.