United Cup 2026 Tennis Tournament: Know Format, Schedule, Groups and Players

The United Cup is planned to kick off the 2026 tennis and WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. The fourth edition of Tennis Australia’s international hard-court event will be contested in Perth and Sydney from January 2 to 11.

Eighteen national teams, each with up to three women and three men, will compete in a group stage before moving on to a knockout format. Matches in Perth will be held at the RAC Arena, while Sydney will be played at the Ken Rosewell Arena.

Here’s what you should know about the United Cup:

What is the United Cup’s format?

In the group stage, the 18 teams were divided into six groups of three, with a round-robin style. Groups A, C, and E will play in Perth, while groups B, D, and F will compete in Sydney. The three group winners and the best runner-up from each city will proceed to the quarterfinals.

Perth will host two quarterfinals on Jan. 7, with the winners heading to Sydney for the semifinals and final. Teams relocating from Perth will have a travel and relaxation day from January 8 to 9. The Sydney quarterfinals are set for January 8-9, with the semifinals on January 10 and the final on January 11.

Each session consists of a men’s singles match, a women’s singles match, and a mixed doubles match. Singles matches feature each country’s top-ranked players and are best of three tiebreak sets.

Mixed-doubles matches can include any combination of players and two tiebreak sets, followed by a 10-point match tiebreak if necessary.

What are the groups, and who is in each team?

The complete player list and rankings for each qualified team may be found here. Italicized players are the current best women’s singles player in their country and are scheduled to represent their team in women’s singles matches.

The top six seeds were assigned to Groups A-F, with countries ranked 7-12 and 13-18 selected at random into one of the six groups.

Perth

Group A
United States (1) — Coco Gauff , Varvara Lepchenko , Nicole Melichar-Martinez
Spain — Jessica Bouzas Maneiro , Andrea Lazaro Garcia , Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers
Argentina — Solana Sierra , Maria Lourdes Carle, Nicole Fossa Huergo

Group C
Italy (3) — Jasmine Paolini , Nuria Brancaccio , Sara Errani
France — Leolia Jeanjean , Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah , Elixane Lechemia
Switzerland — Belinda Bencic , Naima Karamoko

Group E
Great Britain (5) — Emma Raducanu , Olivia Nicholls, Katie Swan
Greece — Maria Sakkari , Despina Papamichail , Sapfo Sakellaridi
Japan — Naomi Osaka , Nao Hibino

Sydney

Group B
Canada (2) — Victoria Mboko , Kayla Cross , Gabriela Dabrowski
Belgium — Elise Mertens , Greet Minnen , Lara Salden
China — Zhu Lin, Xiaodi You

Group D
Australia (4) — Maya Joint , Maddison Inglis , Storm Hunter
Czechia — Barbora Krejcikova , Linda Fruhvirtova , Miriam Skoch
Norway — Malene Helgo, Astrid Brune Olsen, Ulrikke Eikeri

Group F
Germany (6) — Eva Lys , Laura Siegemund , Mina Hodzic
Poland — Iga Swiatek , Katarzyna Kawa , Katarzyna Piter
Netherlands — Suzan Lamens , Eva Vedder , Demi Schuurs

What’s the daily schedule?

Most days will have both a day session and a night session. In Perth, the day session starts at 10 a.m. and the night session at 5 p.m. In Sydney, the day session starts at 10:30 a.m. and the night session at 5:30 p.m.

Each session starts with two singles matches and ends with mixed doubles. The complete schedule, which includes all singles matches, can be seen here.

Time zones and conversion
Perth — Australian Western Standard Time (GMT +8, EST +13)
Sydney – Australian Eastern Daylight Time (GMT +11, EST +16)

10 a.m. in Perth — 2 a.m. GMT | 9 p.m. EST (the day prior)
5 p.m. in Perth — 9 a.m. GMT | 4 a.m. EST
10:30 a.m. in Sydney — 11:30 p.m. GMT (the day prior) | 6:30 p.m. EST (the day prior)
5:30 p.m. in Sydney — 6:30 a.m. GMT | 1:30 a.m. EST

Day-by-day schedule (All times local)

Jan. 2
10 a.m. — Spain vs. Argentina (Perth, Group A)
5 p.m. — Greece vs. Japan (Perth, Group E)

Jan. 3
10 a.m. — France vs. Switzerland (Perth, Group C)
10:30 a.m. — Belgium vs. China (Sydney, Group B)
5 p.m. — United States vs. Argentina (Perth, Group A)
5:30 p.m. — Australia vs. Norway (Sydney, Group D)

Jan. 4
10 a.m. — Great Britain vs. Japan (Perth, Group E)
10:30 a.m. — Germany vs. Netherlands (Sydney, Group F)
5 p.m. — Italy vs. Switzerland (Perth, Group C)
5:30 p.m. — Canada vs. China (Sydney, Group B)

Jan. 5
10 a.m. —  United States vs. Spain (Perth, Group A)
10:30 a.m. — Czechia vs. Norway (Sydney, Group D)
5 p.m. — Great Britain vs. Greece (Perth, Group E)
5:30 p.m. — Germany vs. Poland (Sydney, Group F)

Jan. 6
10 a.m. —  Italy vs. France (Perth, Group C)
10:30 a.m. — Canada vs. Belgium (Sydney, Group B)
5:30 p.m. — Australia vs. Czechia (Sydney, Group D)

Jan. 7 (Perth quarterfinals)
10 a.m. — Quarterfinal 1: Winner Group A vs. Best Runner-Up
10:30 a.m. — Poland vs. Netherlands (Sydney, Group F)
5 p.m. — Quarterfinal 2: Winner Group C vs. Winner Group E

Jan. 8 (Sydney quarterfinals)
5:30 p.m. — Quarterfinal 3: Winner Group B vs. Best Runner-Up
Winners of Perth quarterfinals have a travel day, Jan. 8.

Jan. 9 (Sydney quarterfinals)
5:30 p.m. — Quarterfinal 4: Winner Group D vs. Winner Group F
Winners of Perth quarterfinals have a travel day, Jan. 9.

Jan. 10 (Sydney)
10:30 a.m. — Semifinal 1: Winner QF 2 vs. Winner QF 3
5:30 p.m. — Semifinal 2: Winner QF 1 vs. Winner QF 4

Jan. 11 (Sydney)
5:30 p.m. — Final

How many ranking points and prize money are at stake?

The United Cup is listed as a WTA 500 event. Ranking points are given for singles based on the number of matches won, not mixed doubles. Prize money is offered for individual match wins in both singles and mixed doubles, as well as for the entire team.

Singles match wins and ranking points
0 match-wins: 1 point
1 match-win: 32 points
1 match-win*: 60 points
2 match-wins: 90 points
2 match-wins*:  108 points
3 match-wins: 150 points
4 match-wins: 325 points
5 match-wins: 500 points

*If one win occurs in quarterfinal, semifinal or final

Prize money is available for singles, mixed doubles and team wins, based on what stage the win occurs.

Prize money (per player, per win) – Singles | Mixed Doubles | Team 
Group stage win: $45,000 | $8,500 | $6,000
Quarterfinal win: $82,000 | $15,400 | $9,500
Semifinal win: $155,900 | $29,200 | $16,100
Final win: $296,200 | $55,800 | $27,300

Who is the defending champion?

Last year, the Americans, headed by Gauff and Taylor Fritz, beat Canada and Croatia in the group stage and China, Czechia, and Poland in the knockout stage. Gauff defeated Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-4 in the final, maintaining her undefeated streak in singles. The United States is looking for its third title in the event’s four-year history.

What are the best group stage singles matches to watch?

Emma Raducanu (GBR) against. Naomi Osaka (JPN)—Group E, Jan. 4, Perth day session.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, and Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, will meet for only the second time in their careers. Raducanu won 6-4, 6-2 in Washington, D.C. this past summer.

Osaka surged back into the top 20, highlighted by a semifinal run at the US Open in September. Both players will be making their United Cup debuts, while Osaka’s will be her country’s debut in the tournament.

Jasmine Paolini (ITA) versus. Belinda Bencic (SUI)—Group C, January 4, Perth night session

The women’s singles match in Group C will be headlined by a duel of two top-12 players. With the head-to-head deadlocked at two wins apiece, Paolini and Bencic hope to start 2026 on a high note after successful 2025 campaigns.

This season, after returning from maternity leave, Bencic won WTA 500 titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo, while Paolini won her country’s signature event, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Paolini won both matches in 2025, including a 6-1, 6-1 victory in the United Cup last January.

Victoria Mboko (CAN) vs. Elise Mertens (BEL) — Group B, January 6, Sydney day session

Rising star Victoria Mboko had one of the strongest stories in 2025, rising from outside the top 300 to her current and career-high rating of No.18. She will play experienced and 10-time WTA singles champion Mertens for the first time.

Mboko’s significant moment in 2025 occurred at her country’s premier tournament, the National Bank Open, when she defeated Osaka in the final. Mertens is entering 2026 after winning the WTA Finals Riyadh doubles championship with Veronika Kudermetova.

Maya Joint (AUS) vs. Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)—Group D, Jan. 6, Sydney night session

Joint’s rise has been remarkable, with her starting outside the top 100 before 2025 and now at No. 32. She won her first WTA Tour-level titles in Rabat and Eastbourne, climbing her way to the Australian No. 1.

She will face Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam champion, for the first time. Krejcikova, ranked No. 65, battled with injuries in the first half of 2025, but finished the season with quarterfinal runs at the US Open and Seoul.