Alex de Minaur goes back-to-back at UTS Grand Final

A big crowd at London's Copper Box lapped up the fast-paced UTS action, with matches played over four quarters and players only having one serve per point.

The two players with the highest ATP Ranking competing in the end-of-season event highlighted their class by reaching the final and it was De Minaur who prevailed, as he won a whopping $640,000 for his three days work.

That is a little less than he collected at last month's ATP Finals ($727,500), but more than he collected for his run to the US Open quarter-finals in September, where he left New York with $660,000.

De Minaur is preparing for his wedding to British tennis player Katie Boulter next year, so their fund of that special event has been boosted healthily in recent weeks.

"It's amazing to win here again," said De Minaur. "London is a special place for me and it's my home now, so it's always great to play at this event and even better to win again.

"I've had some tough matches here this week and play Casper in the final was always going to be difficult so it's amazing to come through.

"There is no rest for me now. I might take Monday off, but then it's back on court practicing for the new season."

When asked about his love of UTS tennis, De Minaur confirmed the all-action event suits his game.

"I've played a few of the UTS events now and I've enjoyed it. Having only one serve is an interesting mindset change and I enjoy trying to adapt to it," he added.

"I find the noise and chaos of UTS a little easier to deal with when I know it's coming and that's the case in UTS. When everything is quiet, you hear every noise, but it's never quiet at UTS and it showed me that I can play like that.

"You get used to the fact that the crowd are going nuts, screaming and the music is playing and it means you have to find a different way to focus in on playing points."

Ruud made a strong start in the final, but as soon as de Minaur got comfortable with his shots after the first quarter, there was not much Ruud could do.

"He played better, much better," Ruud said. "It just creates a lot of problems for me in my game. He plays so flat, so low, so deep. It suits these conditions. Amazing. It's not the first time he's winning this tournament for a reason."

The Norwegian had a great event, reaching the final for the first time thanks to a thrilling sudden death win against Andrey Rublev from Russia (3-2 : 9-17, 15-11, 7-17, 17-11, 2-0).

"I'm getting more and more experienced, so that obviously helps," Ruud said. "I didn't use the bonus card very well in this Final Four, but I feel like I know when it's a good time to use it. And if I come to the sudden death, I have at least played a few times before. So I know the kind of pressure and the feeling."

"We can say that Alex de Minaur is the best player ever in this format, for now," Patrick Mouratoglou, UTS founder, said. "His achievements show it. He's always super competitive."

Mouratoglou reflected on a hugely successful year for UTS Tour, which saw the format make its debut in Latin America and in Asia as well as events in Nimes and now London. "The stadiums are full everywhere we go. We had some incredible highlights this year with nearly 12,000 seats full in an historic stadium in Nimes; the videos went viral all over the world."

"There is much more to come. The average age of the fans we have is way lower than traditional tennis fans; we dropped 20 years. Bringing new fans for tennis and younger fans was a goal, and that's great because we will keep them for a long time."

UTS mastermind Patrick Mouratoglou has already booked in two events for 2026 and given the success of his third successive end-of-season showpiece in London, we can expect to see more of the enjoyable mayhem created by this competition back in England's capital next December.

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