The No. 1 seed USA, led by Coco Goff and Taylor Fritz, has been drawn into the same group as Canada for the United Cup mixed team competition in Australia. The matches will be in Perth, and the third edition of the tournament will be held from December 27 to January 5. Felix Auger-Aliasim and Leila Fernandez are on the Maple Leafs team.
Reigning trophy holders Germany, led by world No. 3 Alexander Zverev, will face Brazil and China - with Olympic champion Qinyuan Zheng playing for the Asians.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Greece will also be in Perth for meetings with Kazakhstan and Spain - for the Spaniards, the second rocket in the world Carlos Alcaraz will not participate. Alcaraz has not yet confirmed where he will warm up for the opening Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open.
Five-time Slam champion Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz will once again represent Poland in a bid to avenge their loss to Germany in the final earlier in the year. In Sydney, the Poles will have the Czech Republic and Casper Ruud's Norway as rivals.
Like Alcaraz, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner will not be at the tournament for Italy, who have to play France and Switzerland in the group stage. Great Britain will face Australia, who will be able to rely on Alex de Minaur, in the other group in Sydney.
Seven of the women's top 10 and six of the men's top 12 will compete in the United Cup. Each team, which consists of three men and three women, goes through a round-robin format – matches consist of one men's and one women's singles clash, as well as a mixed doubles encounter. The group winners in each city progress to the quarter-finals along with the best runner-up team. The semi-finals and final are in Sydney. The prize fund is 10 million dollars, and points for the world rankings will also be awarded.
United Cup draw:
Perth
Group A: USA, Canada, to be decided
Group C: Greece, Kazakhstan, Spain
Group E: China, Germany, Brazil
Sydney
Group C: Poland, Czech Republic, Norway
Group D: Italy, France, Switzerland
Group F: Great Britain, Australia, to be decided. | BGNES
