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Top tennis stars are set to begin their new season in Australia with the inaugural edition of the United Cup, which will be held from December 29, 2022 to January 8, 2023.
Many tennis pros across the women's and men's tours used to kick off their season at the Hopman Cup, a fan favorite mixed-team event. It was canned and replaced by the men's only event, the ATP Cup, in 2020.
The ATP Cup has now made way for the United Cup. Here's all the relevant information regarding the brand new tournament:
What is the United Cup?
The United Cup is a new event, replacing the short-lived ATP Cup. A mixed-gender tournament, it'll witness top stars across the men's and women's tours teaming up to represent their respective countries.
A total of 18 countries have been evenly divided into six groups at the tournament. They will take on each other in a round-robin format.
With six teams across three cities, there will be a city final between the top teams in each city to determine who makes the semifinals. Each tie will have two men's and two women's singles matches, along with a mixed doubles match.
Six countries have qualified based on their number one ATP player's ranking. Similarly, six more nations have made the cut based on the ranking of their No. 1 WTA player. The final six countries have qualified based on the combined rankings of their top-ranked ATP and WTA players.
Venue
The group stages of the United Cup will be held across arenas in three Australian cities - the Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane, the RAC Arena in Perth and the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney. The semifinals and the final are scheduled to take place in Sydney as well.
Players and Teams
Each team consists of at least three players each from the ATP and WTA tours. Group A consists of Greece, which is led by top 10 players Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas, along with Belgium and Bulgaria.
Group B features Poland with World No. 1 Iga Swiatek leading the charge. They've been drawn with Stan Wawrinka and Belinda Bencic's Switzerland, and Kazakhstan.
Group C features three strong teams in the form of the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic. The American team includes Jessica Pegula, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys, among others.
Alexander Zverev will lead the German charge, while two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will spearhead the Czech challenge.
Group D consists of Spain, Australia and Great Britain. Rafael Nadal is representing Spain, while Nick Kyrgios, Alex de Minaur and Ajla Tomljanovic are the leading players from the host country. Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans are the top British players in contention.
Group E has Brazil, Italy and Norway, with the latter being led by World No. 3 Casper Ruud. Group F consists of France, Argentina and Croatia. World No. 4 Caroline Garcia will lead the French contingent, while Borna Coric will anchor the Croatian team.
Schedule
The group stage will commence on December 29, 2022, and will go on until 3 January, 2023. The city final will be held on January 4, followed by a day of rest. The semifinals will be contested on January 6 and 7, with the title round taking place on January 8.
The detailed schedule can be found here.
Prize Money and Ranking Points
There's a total prize money of $15 million on the line, divided equally between ATP and WTA players. The prize money for each player is determined by their participation fee, per team wins and general prize money. The breakdown of participation fees can be found here.
For every team win, each team will get a team bonus which will be available to all members of that team. However, prize money will be available to each player who wins their individual match-up.
A player can earn a maximum of 500 ranking points based on the round and ranking of their opponents. Here's a breakdown of the ranking points offered at the United Cup:
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