Big-serving American Ben Shelton will play in the UTS Frankfurt event in October.

The left-hander – “The Mountain” – will be competing in the innovative, fast-paced format for a second time, having made the final four in UTS Los Angeles last year.

Shelton is the seventh man to sign up for the October 17-20 event, to be held at the Süwag Energie Arena, joining Frances Tiafoe – “Big Foe”, Gael Monfils – “La Monf”, Dominic Thiem – “Dominator”, Lorenzo Musetti – “The Illusionist”, Alex de Minaur – “The Demon” and Jan-Lennard Struff – “The Thunder” in the eight-man field.

The winner will qualify automatically for the UTS Grand Final in London in December.

“I played UTS Los Angeles last year and had a blast!” Shelton said. “Format is exciting – it can only bring new fans. Thrilled to be back and can’t wait to play in front of Frankfurt crowd. See you in October guys.

“I decided to say yes to play in the UTS in 2023 because I think it’s a great new avenue to grow our sport, I think that’s a type of tennis that’s gonna be very different and exciting and I think that it will really help grow the sport and grow the groups that are tennis fans,” Shelton said.

“For me, UTS transforms tennis from an individual sport into a ‘group’ sport. You have the coach on the court, you interact with the audience, there can be music during the points… Normally, you don’t see that in our sport. I really loved it.”