United Cup 2026: Breaking down the six groups in Sydney and Perth

The United Cup 2026 groups are officially set with the draw held Monday in Australia. The fourth edition of the international hard-court event hosted by Australia will be held from Jan. 2-11 across Perth and Sydney. 

Eighteen national teams comprised of up to three men’s and three women’s players will compete in an international showdown of some of the sport’s biggest names. Before getting into the groups, here’s a reminder of the tournament format.

In the group stage, the 18 teams will be split into six groups of three, round-robin format. Groups A, C and E will compete in Perth from Jan. 2-6, while Groups B, D and F will play in Sydney from Jan. 3-7. The group winners and two best runners-up (one from each city) will advance to the quarterfinals. 

Perth will host its two quarterfinals on Jan. 7, while Sydney has one quarterfinal each on Jan. 8-9. The semifinals and final will be held Jan. 10-11 in Sydney. Winners from the Perth quarterfinals will have a rest and travel day before the semifinals.

Each tie consists of one men’s singles and one women’s singles match featuring the countries’ top singles players, and one mixed doubles match. Singles matches are best of three tiebreak sets, while mixed doubles matches are two tiebreak sets with a deciding 10-point match tiebreak if needed.

Group Breakdown

The full player list and rankings for each qualified team can be found here. Italicized players represent the current top women's singles player for that country and are scheduled to represent their team in the women’s singles matches.

The top six seeds were assigned in order Groups A-F, while countries ranked 7-12 and 13-18 were randomly drawn into one of the six groups.  

Perth (RAC Arena)

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

Gauff has never faced Bouzas Maneiro or Sierra on the WTA Tour. In the 2025 edition, Gauff finished 5-0 in her singles matches, helping secure the title for the United States. 

Expected men's singles matchups: Taylor Fritz (USA) vs. Jaume Munar (ESP); Sebastian Baez (ARG) vs. Fritz; Munar vs. Baez

Group C
•Italy (3) -- Jasmine Paolini, Nuria Brancaccio, Sara Errani
•France -- Lois Boisson, Lealia Jeanjean, Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah
•Switzerland -- Belinda Bencic, Celine Naef, Naima Karamoko

Paolini and Bencic have met four times previously, including twice in the 2025 season. The Italian most recently defeated Bencic 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in Ningbo, and defeated the Swiss 6-1, 6-1 in the Sydney group stage at the 2025 edition.

As for Boisson, the Frenchwoman will face for Paolini and Bencic for the first time in Australia. 

Expected men's singles matchups: Flavio Cobolli (ITA) vs. Arthur Rinderknech (FRA); Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs. Cobolli; vs. Rinderknech vs. Wawrinka

Group E
•Great Britain (5) -- Emma Raducanu, Mingge Xu, Olivia Nicholls
•Greece -- Maria Sakkari, Despina Papamichail, Sapfo Sakellaridi
•Japan -- Naomi Osaka, Nao Hibino

Raducanu boasts a 5-0 combined record against Sakkari and Osaka. The Briton defeated both in her run to the semifinals at this year’s Mubadala Citi DC Open, and she also has wins over Sakkari at Dubai (2025), Wimbledon (2024) and US Open (2021).

Osaka is 3-2 against Sakkari, but they have not faced each other since Miami in 2021. This will be Japan's debut at the event.

Expected men's singles matchups: Jack Draper (GBR) vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE); Shintaro Mochizuki (JPN) vs. Draper; Tsitsipas vs. Mochizuki

Sydney (Ken Rosewall Arena)

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

Though Mertens and Mboko will play each other for the first time, both have previously played Zhu, but not recently. Mertens, who has a 3-1 record against Zhu, last met in Wimbledon four years ago while Mboko lost her lone matchup in Tunisia on the ITF Tour back in 2022. 

Expected men's singles matchups: Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) vs. Zizou Bergs (BEL); Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) vs. Auger-Aliassime; Bergs vs. Zhang

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

Czechia and Norway are in the same group for the second consecutive year, though Helgo will face Krejcikova for the first time as Karolina Muchova held the Czech top singles spot in the last edition.

Krejcikova will also face Australia’s Joint in their first ever matchup. Joint previously faced Helgo on the ITF Tour in a 2024 tournament in Slovenia, which Joint won the matchup 6-2, 6-1. 

Expected men's singles matchups: Alex de Minaur (AUS) vs. Jakub Mensik (CZE); Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. de Minaur; Mensik vs. Ruud

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

Swiatek, who reached the final with Poland at the 2025 edition, defeated Lamens 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 at this year’s US Open second round in their lone meeting. The six-time Grand Slam champion is 3-0 against Lys, with recent victories at the National Bank Open in Montreal and the Australian Open this season.

Lys and Lamens are tied with one win apiece between the two, but this will be their first meeting since 2022. 

Expected men's singles matchups: Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. Hubert Hurkacz (POL); David Pel (NED) vs. Zverev; Hurkacz vs. Pel