The United Cup is an international

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface and ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament featuring mixed-gender teams from 18 countries. The first event was held in December 2022 through January 2023. The tournament is played across three Australian cities over 11 days in the leadup to the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

. It is also the first mixed-gender team event to offer both

ATP rankings The Pepperstone ATP rankings are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all singles and doubles tournaments. The first rankings ...

and

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points to its players: a player will be able to win a maximum of 500 points.

History

On 7 August 2022, Tennis Australia announced that the

ATP Cup The ATP Cup was an international outdoor hard court men's tennis team tournament, which ran from 2020 to 2022.The tournament was played across one or three Australian cities over ten days in the lead up to the Australian Open, and featured teams ...

, which was an international outdoor hard court men's team tournament played in the Australian summer, would be shut down and replaced by a mixed-gender event from 2023. Thus, the first edition of the United Cup directly replaced the ATP Cup (2020–2022) on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

calendar.

Tournament

Format

Every tie in the tournament consists of 2 men's singles matches, 2 women's singles matches, and a mixed doubles match. Each tie is split into two sessions played in different days. In the first day 1 men's singles match and 1 women's singles match take place; in the second day another men's singles match and another women's singles match take place, followed by a mixed doubles match. Each city hosts two groups of three countries in a

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

format on the first week of the tournament. One group in each city plays all its ties in the morning sessions while the other plays in the evening sessions. The group winners in each city play off in a city final for one of three semifinal spots. This city final is played in one day across a morning and an evening session. Of the three losing teams, one with the best record up to that point becomes the fourth semifinalist. There is a travel day allocated before the semifinals and finals take place in Sydney. Semifinal ties take place over 2 days (similarly to the round robin stage). The final takes place on one day. In case the tie's winner is decided after 4 singles matches, the mixed doubles match will not be played.

Qualification

18 countries qualify as follows: * Six countries qualify based on the

ATP ranking The Pepperstone ATP rankings are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all singles and doubles tournaments. The first rankings ...

of their number one ranked singles player. * Six countries qualify based on the

WTA ranking The WTA rankings are the Sports rating system, ratings defined by the Women's Tennis Association, introduced in November 1975. Iga Świątek is the current world No. 1. Ranking method The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumu ...

of their number one ranked singles player. * The final six countries qualify based on the combined ranking of their number one ranked ATP and WTA players. In exchange for being the host nation, Australia is guaranteed one of the spots reserved for teams with the best combined ranking if it fails to qualify on its own. Teams feature three or four players from each tour.

Venues

Brisbane, Perth and Sydney each host two groups of three countries in a round robin format and the host city finals in the first seven days of the tournament. Sydney will host the semifinals and the final on the last four days of the tournament.

Finals

Results by nation

References

External links

Official website
{{Tennis box Tennis tournaments in Australia Hard court tennis tournaments ATP Tour WTA Tour Sports competitions in Brisbane Sports competitions in Perth, Western Australia Sports competitions in Sydney Annual sporting events in Australia International men's tennis team competitions Mixed doubles tennis Recurring sporting events established in 2022 2022 establishments in Australia