United Cup: It could be a little more glamorous
With Bulgaria and Kazakhstan, the field for the United Cup, which will be held in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane from December 29, 2022, is complete. The nations that are not included are also striking: Serbia and Canada in the lead.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Nov 27, 2022, 09:13 pm
The first final in the ATP Cup in early 2020 not only brought great tennis, but also a fantastic atmosphere in the stands. Spain competed against Serbia in Sydney, Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in two sets in the top individual. The competition seemed to have a great future, in those days all the top players were actually at the start. Moreover, Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine.
Now the ATP Cup is history again, Canada will be the last winner of this event, in between Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev won the 2021 title. The United Cup is supposed to open the tennis season from the end of December, an event in the tradition of the Hopman Cup, just with 18 teams and a dubious semi-final mode (the beaten quarter-finalist with the best record still gets into the semi-finals).
First of all, the good news: Rafael Nadal will also be at the start of the United Cup, as will Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev. On the women's side, season dominator Iga Swiatek raised her hand, as did Belinda Bencic, the Swiss Olympic champion, who last won the Billie Jean King Cup with her team in Glasgow.
Djokovic, Auger-Aliassime are missing
It is remarkable, however, who will not start: The Russians and Belarusians are excluded, that's no surprise. But Serbia voluntarily renounced. Which can perhaps be explained by the fact that Novak Djokovic didn't know at the closing date whether he was even allowed to enter Australia. Now this seems to have been clarified - but Bulgaria (with top man Grigor Dimitrov) and Kazakhstan (without Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina) were the successors.
The absence of Canada raises even more question marks. This team is not only top-ranked for the men, but also for the women with Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez two athletes would have started who have already shown that they are among the absolute world leaders on hard court. But good: Félix Auger-Aliassime needs a break with his 87 matches that he has played in singles this season alone, while Denis Shapovalov has already taken a short vacation.
This is how the groups in the United Cup look like:
| Group A (Perth) | GRE | BEL | BUL |
| Group B (Brisbane) | POLE | SUI | KAZ |
| Group C (Sydney) | United States | ENG | CZE |
| Group D (Sydney) | ESP | OUT | GBR |
| Group E (Brisbane) | IT | BRA | NOR |
| Group F (Perth) | FRA | CRO | ARG |