Tennis Australia, ATP & WTA launch new mixed team event, the ‘United Cup’, to kick off tennis season

The tournament will feature mixed teams from 18 countries, offer $15 million in prize money and ranking points for the players

Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic with the 2019 Hopman Cup trophy Image Credit: Imago / Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

October 27, 2022

Tennis Australia, the men’s ATP Tour and the women’s WTA Tour have combined to announce the launch of the United Cup, a new annual team event that will kick off the tennis season in 2023.

The tournament will feature mixed teams from 18 countries and will be held in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney from December 29, 2022 to January 8, 2023.

The competition, which replaces the men’s only ATP Cup on the tennis calendar, will boast a prize money purse of $15 million and offer a maximum of 500 ATP and 500 WTA ranking points.

Below is some of the information that is available this far about the event and its format.

The first 12 countries will qualify based on the six highest-ranked men and six highest-ranked women entered as per the world rankings.
The remaining six teams will qualify according to the best combined ranking of the highest-ranked man and woman from each country.
Host nation Australia is guaranteed entry, either based on ranking or as a wildcard.
Each team will include up to four men and up to four women.
Each city will host two groups of three countries, competing in a round robin format.
Each tie will comprise two men’s and two women’s singles matches and one mixed doubles match.
Group winners in each city will play off for one of three Final Four (semi-final) spots
The three City Champions will advance to the semi-finals of the tournament along with the next best performing team from the play-offs.

The draw for the tournament will be held on December 10, where the 18 teams will be confirmed. Tickets will go on sale on November 11.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said that the tournament will bring together the men’s and women’s game.

“The United Cup presents a unique opportunity to unite both the men’s and women’s tour in a brand new way that has never been seen before,” Tiley said.

“We have the opportunity here in Australia to leverage tennis’s unique position to allow the world’s top men and women to compete side by side and represent their country at the highest level. We couldn’t be more delighted to see how this event unfolds in January across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.”