Serena's coach Patrick Mouratoglou plans global tennis matches

April 20 (UPI) -- Serena Williams' coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has announced a live global tennis competition to launch next month.

Alexei Popryin will face David Goffin in the first match of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown at 8 a.m. EDT on May 16 at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Biot, France. The match will be played without spectators and will air at utslive.tv.

The full player lineup for the competition will be announced at a later date.

Mouratoglou plans to host 10 matches every weekend through May and June, and 50 matches in all.

"The UTS is simply meant to be an alternative to what already exists," Mouratoglou said. "It is a platform created to showcase the incredible talent, athleticism and personalities of the wide range of tennis players.

"It offers a new and innovative approach, targeting a younger tennis audience and proposes a different way to distribute the money among the players."

In addition to Williams and Popryin, Mouratoglou also coaches Cori "Coco" Gauff and Stefanos Tsitsipas. He said he plans to have some of the "world's best professional players" at the tournament.

The WTA and ATP tours have been suspended since March and will not resume play until at least mid-July due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mouratoglou published an open letter on social media on April 7 stating that he has issues with the way prize money is distributed among tennis players. He said the new tournament features a system focusing on the "redistribution of income among the players."

"This system could be particularly beneficial for lower-ranked players," Mouratoglou said.