United Cup Kicks Off 2025 Tennis Season Down Under

United Cup
United Cup (photo: Tennis Australia/Stefan Gosatti)

WASHINGTON, December 26, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

The 2025 United Cup, featuring a host of top-ranked players from both the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour in a mixed teams format, begins Friday Down Under in Perth and Saturday in Sydney, Australia. The outdoor hard-court event, established in 2023, continues through January 5. It will take place at the RAC Arena in Perth and the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre.

Defending champion Team Germany returns to try to make it two titles in a row and will be led by World No. 2 Alexander Zverev. The Germans, placed in Group E, begin defense of their 2024 title against Brazil in Perth on Sunday. Zverev is expected to face No. 109 Thiago Monteiro, while No. 80 Laura Siegemund of Germany will oppose No. 17 Beatriz Haddad Maia.

The United States, which won the 2023 United Cup title, has a couple of Top-5 marquee players in World No. 4 Taylor Fritz and World No. 3 Coco Gauff. The Americans will see action for the first time on Sunday in Perth during a Group A tussle against Canada, which features No. 29 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 31 Leylah Fernandez.

With 18 teams placed into six groups of three, the group stages will feature round-robin ties, in which each team plays the other two teams in their group. Each tie will consist of an ATP singles match, a WTA singles match and a mixed doubles match.

Among other big names competing Down Under to start the new tennis season include: Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz from Poland; Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari of Greece; Casper Ruud of Norway, Jasmine Paolini of Italy, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, and Alex de Minaur from host Australia. Two players who were originally slated to compete, Jack Draper of Great Britain (hip injury) and Zheng Qinwen of China (fatigue) have withdrawn.

Carreño Busta happy to be back in Perth

Opening play in Perth Friday will be Kazakhstan versus Spain, followed by China versus Brazil. Play in Sydney gets underway on Saturday with France versus Switzerland followed by host Australia versus Argentina. (Perth is CET +7 hours; Sydney is CET + 10 hours).

During a pre-tournament news conference on Thursday in Perth, Spain’s top men’s singles player in the United Cup, Pablo Carreño Busta, is happy to be back in Australia. “The pre-season was short. We finish the season late, and we start very, very soon,” he said. Carreño Busta opens against No. 78 Alexander Shevchenko.

“But we are happy to be here again in Perth. It’s my second time here. It’s a pleasure to play the United Cup representing Spain for the start of the season.

“I think that we have a nice team. I will try to do our best to give some show and we’ll see.”

The 196th-ranked Carreño Busta played just 16 tour-level matches (8-8) after missing much of the 2024 season due to long-term injury. He looks forward to the opportunity of playing at least two matches – hopefully more. One of them will be against World No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, as Greece is also part of Group C in Perth.

“I think that physically I’m 100 percent again, after a long injury. At the end of the last year, I couldn’t play giving my best physically. So, now I need just to play more matches – get the rhythm, get the confidence – is more important.

“It’s important to play these matches at 100 percent, enjoying the moment. Of course, [I want to] take advantage of this opportunity.”

The women’s singles match in the Kazakhstan-Spain tie will feature World No. 6 Elena Rybakina against No. 54 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. The mixed doubles will pair Shevchenko and Rybakina against Sergio Martos Gornes and Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers.

Rybakina, Shevchenko look forward to facing good players

Rybakina said she thought a change in scenery to start the beginning of a new season would do her some good. “Team event also I think it’s quite fun. Still, you can play against a lot of good players. I thought it’s not a bad idea to change a little bit. Yeah, just looking forward to start. Hopefully we can win.”

Shevchenko, for one, looks forward to the two guaranteed matches he will get in the next few days, against Carreño Busta and Tsitsipas. “Yeah, obviously I’m going to have two really tough opponents,” he said during his team’s pre-tournament news conference on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s great to have some matches before the Australian Open. Let’s see. Maybe, I can get even more than two (smiling). Let’s hope about that.

“I think we have a great chance. It’s going to be a great preparation for me to start here.”

Friday’s United Cup schedule

By the numbers

This year’s United Cup will offer a minimum of $11.17 million (U.S. Dollars) in total prize money and participation fees, with a minimum of $5.585 million (U.S. Dollars) each for ATP and WTA players, respectively. The total prize money will be divided into three different categories: participation fee, per team wins and prize money.

“Quotable …”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s really fun to be in the team. For me it’s first time playing United Cup. I’m looking forward. We have good team. A lot of fun.”

– World No. 6 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, on the importance of coming together as a team.

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