The UTS Tour is coming to Rio next July
Patrick Mouratoglou’s fast-format league will descend on the Maracanazinho arena in July, marking a landmark expansion into the continent that has always loved its tennis louder than the rest.
UTS Rio de Janeiro 2026
When Rio de Janeiro hosted the 2016 Olympic Games, the city’s open-air tennis centre became the setting for some of the most emotionally charged matches of that summer. A decade later, tennis is returning to the Cidade Maravilhosa — but in a form its 2016 audiences would barely recognise. The UTS Tour, the breakaway elite league founded by coach Patrick Mouratoglou, has announced it will hold its first-ever South American event at the Maracanazinho indoor arena this July 16, 17 and 18.
The announcement confirms what has been apparent for some time: UTS is no longer an experimental side project but a fully-fledged global circuit. Having already staged events in London, Los Angeles, New York, Guadalajara, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Oslo and Nîmes, the league’s footprint now stretches across five continents. Rio de Janeiro is the latest – and arguably most symbolically significant – addition to that list.
A continent that was always ready
South America’s relationship with tennis is long and passionate. Brazil has produced Grand Slam champions and Davis Cup heroes, and the Rio Open – an ATP 500 event held on the city’s famous clay – regularly draws the kind of fervent, carnival-spirited crowds that players elsewhere can only dream of.
UTS had already dipped its toe into Latin America with the well-received Guadalajara edition in 2025, the latter drawing a packed 7,500-capacity central court. Rio represents a significant step up in scale and prestige, both in terms of the venue and the continent’s most prominent sporting city.
What is the UTS format, and why does it matter?
For the uninitiated, the UTS format is a deliberate rewriting of tennis’s rulebook. Matches are divided into four eight-minute quarters, scored by a running clock rather than games and sets. Players have only one serve per point, and can deploy special “cards” – tactical power-ups that can force sudden-death points or restrict the opponent’s options. If players are level after four quarters, a sudden-death decider is played where the first to win two consecutive points takes the match.
Rio will be the second stop of the 2026 UTS Tour. The season opens next month with the Bastide UTS Nîmes on April 3 and 4 at the Arènes de Nîmes – a Roman amphitheatre dating back 2,000 years that has become one of the most visually arresting sporting backdrops in the world. The Nîmes line-up is already confirmed: Casper Ruud, Karen Khachanov, Andrey Rublev, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Bublik and Ugo Humbert will contest $1 million in prize money in the stone arena. Nîmes sold 6,000 tickets in the first 24 hours when the 2025 edition went on sale; arenas have been filling up faster with each passing season.
The 2026 season so far
The Maracanazinho — literally “Little Maracanã”, in honour of its famous neighbour — is one of Brazil’s most iconic indoor arenas. With a capacity of 11,000, it has hosted everything from volleyball at the 2016 Olympics to major concerts and boxing bouts. Its atmosphere, when full, is famously intense. For a format that runs on crowd energy, it is close to a perfect fit.
The eight-man field for Rio has yet to be announced. Full player announcement for UTS Rio is expected in the coming weeks.
