What is the United Cup? Everything you need to know about tennis’ only mixed team tournament

The United Cup will be replacing the ATP Cup and will see 18 national teams go head-to-head in what is the only mixed event in tennis.

Find out more about the tournament, the format, which countries are playing and who the top players are.

When and where is the United Cup taking place?

The tournament will take place across three Australian cities – Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.

The 11-day long event will begin on Thursday 29 December and wrap up on Sunday 8 January, acting as the perfect warm up for the 2023 Australian Open.

What is the format?

To qualify for the tournament, countries must be in either the top six WTA ranking, top five ATP ranking or the top five combined ranking nations in the world.

Countries will be split into six pools of three teams, where each team will play four singles matches (two men’s and two women’s) and one mixed doubles rubber match in the round-robin stage.

There will be two groups competing in each city, with the winners of each group going toe to toe to become the city champions and advance to the final four in Sydney. The fourth spot will be taken by the next best-performing team from the group-stages.

The remaining four nations will battle it out in Sydney to be crowned the inaugural United Cup champions.

Which countries and players have been selected for the United Cup?

So far, 16 nations have already qualified for the United Cup, with the final two being admitted to the competition on 21 November.

Team Greece, led by world No.3 Stefanos Tsitsipas and sixth-ranked Maria Sakkari will enter as the top seeds, whilst world No.1 Iga Swiatek will team up with world No.11 Hubert Hurkacz to lead second-seeded Poland.

United States will enter the tournament as third seeds and feature a star-studded field, including world No.3 Jessica Pegula, world No.9 Taylor Fritz, 11th-ranked Madison Keys and world No.19 Frances Tiafoe.

22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal will join world No.13 Paula Badosa to represent Spain, while the Great Britain line up will comprise of world No.13 Cam Norrie, Dan Evans, Billie Jean King Cup semi-finalist Harriet Dart and Katie Swan.

Find out who has been included in the British team

Perth

Brisbane

Sydney

What is the prize money for winning the United Cup?

The total prize money for the 2023 United Cup is $15 million USD, with up to 500 Pepperstone ATP Rankings and 500 WTA Ranking points up for grabs.