ATP and WTA, the men’s and women’s tennis tours, are jointly launching a new tennis venture with Tennis Australia this coming January called the United Cup.
The tournament will kick off the new tennis calendar where mixed teams from 18 different countries will go head-to-head in three Australian cities.
The inaugural edition will take place from 29th December to 8th of January 2023 with Brisbane, Perth and Sydney set to host the matches.
To entice the biggest names in tennis, the tournament will offer a mouthwatering $15 million USD prize money as well as 500 ranking points for both men and women.
The first 12 countries will qualify via the six highest-ranked No. 1 players that enter, both on the ATP and WTA Tour. The remaining six countries will qualify according to the best-combined ranking of their respective No. 1 men’s and women’s players.
Meanwhile, each city will host two groups of three countries, competing in a round-robin format, with ties comprising two ATP and two WTA singles matches, and one mixed doubles match.
Each City Final winner will advance to the United Cup Final Four in Sydney (6-8 January), with the next best-performing team from the group stages completing the quartet.
The United Cup will replace the short-lived men’s team event called the ATP Cup as WTA and ATP look to take advantage of tennis’ biggest name descending upon Australia for the first major of the year.
After failing with the ATP Cup, Tennis Australia has turned to both Tours to bolster its chances of attracting larger crowds. Whether it succeeds or not, remains to be seen.
