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Believe it or not, both the WTA and ATP 2023 seasons will start on December 29th – 2022. As we all know, these tours don’t tend to have too much downtime. And this time around, the 2023 season is starting before we’ve even celebrated the turn of the New Year! Of course, the tournament that is kicking things off here is the United Cup. This is a brand new tournament that the minds at the WTA and ATP have decided to create, and when you see how it works, things look pretty exciting.
I’ll be giving you the specifics of the United Cup as we work through some key information presented here. But first, let me give you the scoop on what the tournament is. The United Cup is the first team event that operates with both male and female members on the same team. It’s an international team event, meaning that the individuals in each respective national team must be from that country.
Not only that, it’s the very first mixed-gender event where there are official points up for grabs on both the ATP and WTA Tours – 500 as a maximum, as it happens. Anyway, there are a few more things to note about this event, as detailed below.
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United Cup Latest Results
Contents
As the tournament progresses the features become more exciting and evenly matched. Some top players lost and were backed up by lower-ranked teammates. Here are some of the surprises from the latest results of the United Cup.
Greece 1 – 4Italy
Ironically, the team that qualified for the semi-finals as the best loser after losing 3-2 to Poland, managed to qualify for the finals after defeating the Greek team 4-1. The first surprise of this feature was the defeat of Maria Sakkari, who had been together with Stefano Tsitsipas the main representatives of Greece. Trevisan surprised the Greek tennis player who after losing the first set tried to come back without success.
Subsequently, Sakellaridis’ defeat against Musetti, left Italy just one step away from being a finalist. The next day, Tsitsipas defeated Berretini in three sets to generate hope for a possible comeback of the Greek team, but the illusion was short-lived because in the next match, Bronzetti only needed two sets to beat Grammatikopoulou. In the doubles duel, Italy also won in a match that was decided in a super tie break.
- Sakkari vs M. Trevisan 3-6 7-6 5-7
- Sakellaridis vs L. Musetti 1-6 1-6
- Titsipas vs M. Berrettini 4-6 7-6 6-4
V, Grammatikopoulou vs L. Bronzetti 2-6 3-6
Grammatikopoulou/Tsitsipas vs Rosatello/Vavassori 3-6 6-4 5-10
Poland 0 – 5 USA
The chances of the Polish team advancing to the United Cup Finals were high, as a hypothetical victory of Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz in singles and mixed doubles was more than enough to overcome the American representatives. The favouritism of the two Polish players was not enough, in fact, the defeat of Swiatek and Zuk on day 9 diminished the chances of the Polish team, as it would be very difficult to overcome the result.
The USA team had their best performance so far, winning all five matches, winning all four singles matches in straight sets, and only losing one set in the mixed doubles. What looked like an early final turned out to be an easy task for the American team, who will now be the favourites to win the United Cup Finals.
Swiatek vs J. Pegula 2-6 2-6
Zuk vs F. Tiafoe 3-6 3-6
Hurkacz vs T. Fritz 6-7 6-7
Linette vs M. Keys 4-6 2-6
Rosolska/Kubot vs Pegula/Fritz 7-6 4-6 6-10
Standings
Group A: 1. Greece (2 pts) – 2. Bulgaria (1 pts) – 3. Belgium (0 pts)
Group B: 1. Poland (2 pts) – 2. Switzerland (1 pts) – 3. Kazakhstan (0 pts)
Group C: 1. USA (2 pts) – 2. Czech Republic (1 pts) – 3. Germany (0 pts)
Group D: 1. Great Britain (2 pts) – 2. Australia (1 pts) – 3. Spain (0 pts)
Group E: 1. Italy (2 pts) – 2. Brazil (1 pts) – 3. Norway (0 pts)
Group F: 1. Croatia (2 pts) – 2. Francia (1 pt) – 3. Argentina (0 pts)
Draw
18 teams were chosen based on the nationalities of the top-ranked ATP, WTA, and mixed doubles players. Three cities (Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane) will host two groups each. The two winners from each city will play each other to determine the semi-finalists.
Phase Group
Perth
Group A: Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria.
Group F: France, Croatia, Argentina.
Brisbane
Group B: Poland, Switzerland, Kazakhstan.
Group E: Italy, Brazil, Norway.
Sidney
Group C: USA, Germany, Czech Republic.
Group D: Spain, Australia, Great Britain.
Quarter Finals
Group A Winner vs Group F Winner
Group B Winner vs Group E Winner
Group C Winner vs Group D Winner
Semifinal
Semifinalist 1 vs Semifinalist 2
Semifinalist 3 vs Semifinalist 4 (Best Quarter Final Loser)
Final
Finalist 1 vs Finalist 2
2023 United Cup – What are the newest ATP and WTA tournaments?
This event might be labelled as the 2023 United Cup, but it does begin in December 2022, just to clarify. With that said, there are some key things to highlight about this event that I’d like to cover right now. So let me get things started.
Tournament Dates
This tournament is much longer than you might think. The games begin on December 29th, 2022, and the finals of the tournament are played on January 8th, 2023. Now, there is plenty of tennis to be played between those dates too. And many top-level players are involved since this would serve as an appropriate and enjoyable warm-up for the 2023 Australian Open.
General Format
Given that this is the first edition of the United Cup, the general format is completely new to everyone involved. Once again, I’d like to give you the overview so you know what’s coming. Starting with the entrants – there are 18 national teams entered for the 2023 United Cup. These are split into six round-robin groups according to the host city. Each host city has two groups playing off during the round-robin stage, and this is the case for Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane.
The respective winners of these two groups from the individual cities will play off for a spot in the semi-finals. However, it’s the next ‘best performing’ team that will take the 4th semi-final place. Of course, the teams then play the semi-finals and ultimately the final to decide a winner. As for the format of each match, there will be two women’s and two men’s singles matches played, followed by a mixed double match.
The team that has the most rubbers from these matches when all have been played is then the winner.
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