United We Start: What to watch for at the season-opening United Cup

📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!

United we start.

For the fourth year, tennis kicks off its 11-month schedule with the United Cup in Australia. The event began, in 2023, as a hopeful model of gender unity, in a sport that hasn’t had a ton of it over the decades. Since then, it has established itself as a table-setting tournament that balances camaraderie with competition and showcases both tours in one place.

It’s still a hopeful way to begin. While United Cup may not inspire the intensity of Davis Cup or BJK Cup, or radiate the star power of Laver Cup, it’s the only place where we see the men and women teaming up and hanging out on the sidelines, and then playing together for their countries, and for ranking points. From here, the tours mostly go their separate ways.

As in seasons past, the 2026 edition will be an advertisement of the sport’s depth, rather than its leading lights. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as usual, will begin their seasons at the Australian Open; Novak Djokovic starts at the 250 in Adelaide; and Aryna Sabalenka will be in Brisbane.

Read More: Will the U.S. repeat at the 2026 United Cup? Czechia, Italy or Japan may have something to say

What United Cup gives us instead is an early look at the next tier of contenders, from energizing newcomers like Victoria Mboko, Jakub Mensik, and Flavio Cobolli, to established Top Tenners like Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, and Alex de Minaur. There are high-profile names, too, particularly on the women’s side, including major champs Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Emma Raducanu.

With the draw made, and play set to run from Jan. 2 to 11 in Perth and Sydney, here are team matches and individual players to watch for.

What are the matches to look forward to?

Like team events across all sports, United Cup begins with group play, before moving on to knockout rounds for the eight surviving nations. Here are a few potential highlights from the six three-team groups.

Group A

USA, Spain, Argentina

The U.S. is the defending champion, and has the strongest one-two punch in Fritz and Gauff. But their match against Spain should be a battle. Fritz will face Jaume Munar, a competitor in the dogged Spanish tradition who had his best season in 2025. Gauff, meanwhile, will play another hard-charging, gradually-improving player in 40th-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. This will be their first meeting.

Group B

Canada, Belgium, China

Canada comes into 2026 hot, with a team led by Felix Auger Aliassime, who leapt from No. 29 to No. 5 last year, and Mboko, who leapt to Cinderella stardom with her title run in Montreal.

I’m looking forward to seeing them play Belgium, which will have two low-key warriors, Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens, in the singles positions.

Group C

Italy, France, Switzerland

Italy vs. Switzerland will feature a battle of the generations on the men’s side, between Flavio Cobolli, 23, and Stan Wawrinka, 40. More interesting, perhaps, will be the women’s contest, between No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and No. 11 Belinda Bencic.

Group D

Australia, Czechia, Norway

The men’s matches in this group, between De Minaur, Mensik, and Casper Ruud, should be top-flight. And the Australian team always draws a crowd.

Group E

Great Britain, Greece, Japan

Here the women’s singles players—Raducanu, Maria Sakkari, Osaka—stand out.

Group F

Germany, Poland, Netherlands

Poland has been the runner-up each of the last two years. With Swiatek on board, they’ll be in contention again. Win or lose, it will be nice to welcome back her teammate, Hubert Hurkacz, who hasn’t been seen since he wrecked his right knee at Wimbledon. His match against Germany’s Alexander Zverev will be a highlight.

Read More: Swiatek, Gauff, Osaka, Auger-Aliassime, Zverev among 2026 United Cup entrants

Who are the players to watch?

Success in United Cup doesn’t necessarily beget more of the same. Last year Gauff and Fritz went 11-1 combined and swept Poland in the final, only to suffer upset losses at the Australian Open.

That said, while this is a team event, there are plenty of intriguing individual storylines that will get underway over the course of its nine days. Here are a few.

Coco Gauff: How is her serve journey coming?

In August, Gauff hired a serve specialist, Gavin MacMillan, to fix her wayward delivery. The early results were encouraging: She won the title in Wuhan and made the semis in Beijing. Now we’ll see what the stroke looks like after an off-season of work.

Taylor Fritz: At 28, is he still climbing, or has he peaked?

Fritz’s road to the elite has been long and hard-earned, but with Alcaraz and Sinner ensconced at the top, he doesn’t seem any closer to a Slam title. We’ll see this year if he has any more gears to shift into.

Flavio Cobolli: Can he join Sinner in the Top 10?

The 23-year-old Italian had a breakout 2025, anchored by a world-class forehand. Now he’ll try to avoid a sophomore slump, and keep climbing through the rarer air of the Top 15.

Belinda Bencic: What does she do for an encore to her comeback season?

Judging by her strong 2025 results, you would hardly have guessed that Bencic had just had her first child. Now, at 28, can she fulfill the Slam-winning potential she showed as a teen?

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari: What’s left for the Greeks?

Tsitsipas and Sakkari have both been ranked as high as No. 3, and are both now out of the Top 30. Can either put a halt to their parallel slide?

Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu: New coaches will try to return them to past glory

These two former major champs showed promise with new mentors—Osaka with Tomasz Witkorowski, Raducanu with Francisco Roig—in the latter half of 2025.

📲🖥️ Bookmark for 2026: Stream the United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!