In less than a week, the inaugural United Cup will kick off the 2023 tennis season.
It is a prestigious mixed-team competition, featuring 18 nations, with group stages played across Australia in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney, the latter hosting the tournament finals on 6-8 January.
In a first-of-its-kind event, players will compete for US$15 million in prize money and national glory, plus the chance to hoist the tournament’s glittering, specially-designed trophy.
Given it’s a new concept, we’ve outlined the reasons you should snap up your tickets to see it all unfold, specific to the cities hosting the world-class action from 29 December.
Brisbane
1. Pat Rafter Arena will host world No.1 Iga Swiatek, the highest-ranked player in the competition who will compete for Team Poland. The 21-year-old dominated the tour in 2022, at one stage building a 37-match winning streak.
UNITED CUP TICKETS: Cheer on Swiatek and Team Poland in Brisbane
2. Several players in action are trending up, including top Norwegian Casper Ruud – who was one match away from becoming world No.1 – and Beatriz Haddad Maia, the Brazilian spearhead who was ranked 88th in January yet is now world No.15. Italian stars Lorenzo Musetti and Martina Trevisan also enjoyed their best-ever seasons in 2022.
3. There will be multiple major winners competing, including Swiatek – who added a second Roland Garros title and first US Open to her collection – and another three-time Grand Slam champion in Stan Wawrinka, who will represent Team Switzerland.
4. There is an extraordinary depth of talent in several team squads; Poland is one of the few nations boasting two top-10 singles players – Hubert Hurkacz, alongside Swiatek – while Wawrinka joins countrywomen Belinda Bencic and Jil Teichmann, who recently led Switzerland to its first Billie Jean King Cup trophy. Team Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, Musetti and Trevisan all won tour-level titles in 2022.
5. Several players are proven when representing their country, including Bencic, a singles gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Wawrinka is also an Olympic gold medallist, while Team Brazil’s Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani combined to win women’s doubles bronze at Tokyo 2020 – Brazil’s first ever tennis medal in Olympic competition. Berrettini, Musetti and Kazakh Alexander Bublik have all excelled in Davis Cup play.
6. The players possess plenty of flair and variety in how they play, from the one-handed backhands of Wawrinka and Musetti, to the brute force of Berrettini’s serve and forehand, Swiatek’s jaw-dropping athleticism, the southpaw style of Haddad Maia and Teichmann, Ruud’s relentlessly heavy topspin, Bencic’s all-court prowess and Bublik’s unorthodox magic.
Perth
7. The United Cup top seeds are at RAC Arena, with Team Greece represented by top-10 stars Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
8. Perth will welcome four top-10 ranked players, the most of any city in the United Cup’s group stage. Fourth-ranked Tsitsipas and world No.6 Sakkari will be joined by No.4 Caroline Garcia – who spearheads the French line-up – and Belgium’s Elise Mertens, currently the doubles world No.5. Former world No.3 Grigor Dimitrov is also heading west.
UNITED CUP TICKETS: Catch top-10 talents in action in Perth
9. Team captains add a layer of intrigue, given Perth is the only city hosting a group featuring three "playing captains". Petros Tsitsipas, the younger brother of Stefanos, is the playing captain for Greece in Group A, while Team Belgium will be led by Kirsten Flipkens and Bulgaria by Dimitrov. The French squad, in Group F, is led by Grand Slam-winning doubles star Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Perth also boasts star power in its non-playing captains, with former world No.1 doubles player and AO 2011 doubles champion Gisela Dulko to captain Argentina while Roland Garros 1997 champion Iva Majoli leads the Croatian contingent.
10. Several players will enjoy a welcome return to the West Australian capital, including Sakkari and Tsitsipas, leading Belgian players David Goffin and Mertens, and Frenchwomen Garcia and Alize Cornet. Three-time major semifinalist Dimitrov returns for the first time in 11 years.
11. There will be exciting Perth debuts for several players at the same time, including Borna Coric (Croatia), Petra Martic (Croatia), Donna Vekic (Croatia) and Flipkens (Belgium), who have all previously achieved top-20 singles rankings.
12. The action at RAC Arena will begin with a bang; the opening day session of the tournament, on Thursday 29 December, could feature an exciting showdown between Tsitsipas and Dimitrov, a pair of former world No.3s with beautiful one-handed backhands.
Sydney
13. The Harbour City hosts Team Australia, with local fans in for a treat as their home team battles for inaugural United Cup glory. The green-and-gold squad includes big names like Nick Kyrgios, Alex de Minaur, Ajla Tomljanovic and Sam Stosur.
UNITED CUP TICKETS: Cheer on Team Australia in Sydney
14. Sydney will also welcome Grand Slam superstars in Spain’s Rafael Nadal – the most accomplished Grand Slam performer in men’s tennis history and the reigning AO champion – and Czech Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon winner. Stosur is a US Open singles champion and will be joined in Sydney by major doubles champions including John Peers and Kyrgios, the AO 2022 men’s doubles winner.
15. The blockbuster Australia v Spain encounter is set for the evening of Monday 2 January, which will feature a tantalising singles clash between rivals Kyrgios and Nadal. Other intriguing match-ups on the Sydney schedule include world No.3 Jessica Pegula v Kvitova (USA v Czech Republic, 30 December) plus Taylor Fritz v Alexander Zverev (USA v Germany, 2 January).
16. Rising stars will be in action, with several players arriving in Sydney after career-best seasons. They include new top-10 star Fritz, fellow American Frances Tiafoe – who stunned Nadal at the US Open en route to his first major semifinal – and Paula Badosa (Spain) and Cameron Norrie (Great Britain), who achieved rankings peaks over the past year.
17. High-profile captains will create a fascinating courtside dynamic, with the Aussie leadership shared between Grand Slam champions Lleyton Hewitt and Stosur. Former world No.4 Tim Henman brings an X-Factor as the captain of Great Britain, while Mischa Zverev leads Germany’s team.
18. Sydney will host the Final Four; following the group stages, other top names will travel from Brisbane and Perth to Sydney for the semifinals. The winners of City Finals, as well as the best-performing country from the three City Finals runners-up, will compete in the knockout semifinals on 6 and 7 January, with the inaugural United Cup champion determined in the final on Sunday 8 January.