Best of United Cup Sydney Media Day 2: Swiatek's focused on the present

Iga Swiatek made it clear she isn't going to add any additional pressure on herself ahead of the 2026 season. 

The Polish national sits No. 2 in the PIF WTA Rankings, behind World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. With four Roland Garros titles and one at both Wimbledon and the US Open, she just needs a win at the Australian Open to complete the career Slam.

However, chasing the No. 1 ranking and achieving the career Slam aren't immediate priorities for the 24-year-old. She's just focused on herself, staying fully present in the moment. 

"I'm just focusing on my own process. Both of these things are hard to achieve and are a big goal," Swiatek said at the second United Cup Media Day in Sydney. "There is a long way to get there. On a Grand Slam you have to really play great for two weeks, not have any bad days, be consistent.

"Achieving No. 1 also is tough, especially when Aryna has been playing great for last years. I'll just focus on myself honestly, because that's the only way to go. I don't need to choose which one is more important, which one is a priority. I'm still young. I have plenty of time to do different things and achieve different goals in my career."

The six-time Grand Slam champion with 25 WTA titles has learned the importance of focusing on the current tournament. She doesn't want to get too far ahead of herself, a lesson she said she learned in 2023. 

"I think my mentality at the beginning of the year is usually pretty much the same," Swiatek said. "The only difference was maybe 2023 when I did the mistakes of thinking about the whole season already at the beginning. It totally didn't make sense."

"Now I'm really thinking about it as last year, as in 2024, just thinking about one swing, only tournaments in Australia. Then after I'm done with that, I'll think about the next one."

Swiatek's current focus is the United Cup, where she guided Poland to the final last season, before the team fell to the United States. It's a tournament she prefers nowadays as her tune-up into the Australian Open given the unique format, opposed to tournaments like Brisbane and Adelaide. 

"Playing United Cup, I will always want to because the atmosphere is so much different. We get so many, like, normal tournaments on tour that honestly it gets boring sometimes," said Swiatek, who will face Germany's Eva Lys and Netherlands' Suzan Lamens in Group F.

"Playing a team event and having the different energy, being able to have a team and talk to different people than we do on tour, I think it's great. It's really refreshing. I will always choose [the] United Cup."

Auger-Aliassime's high praise for Mboko

Canada's Victoria Mboko will make her United Cup debut, and is in charge of women's singles responsibilities in her Group B matches against Belgium's Elise Mertens and China's Zhu Lin.

Mboko returns to the court after a breakout 2025 season that saw the teenager climbed from outside the top 300 to No. 18 in the world. The pinnacle of her season came in her own country, when she defeated Naomi Osaka at the National Bank Open final for her first WTA 1000 title. 

She received high praise from her male counterpart, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is ranked fifth in world in the ATP PIF Rankings. In Sydney, it'll potentially be the first time the Canadian stars share the court, if selected for the mixed-doubles match.

"Vicky had a breakthrough year last year. Amazing year. It was so much fun to watch," Auger-Aliassime said. "I think myself and teammates and all of Canada was really proud of her. I'm looking forward to it.

"It would be our first time being on the same team, playing together mixed. I've had my share of experience, so hopefully I can help a little bit. She's got all the qualities we need on the court to go all the way and win."

Mboko said she's excited about the possibility of playing alongside one of the world's best, who reached the semifinals in men's singles at the 2025 US Open. Furthermore, she has enjoyed competing Canada's Billie Jean King Cup team previously, which helped her decision to play at the United Cup.

"This is just a different format that I'm not really used to," Mboko said. "It's a great way to start the year playing round-robin matches and then maybe eventually advancing to the final group stages. The whole format of everything was drawing me to play this tournament. I'm happy with my decision."

An opportunity Krejcikova couldn't pass up

Barbora Krejcikova is one of many players making their debut at the tournament, but to the Czechia native, the United Cup was an event she couldn't refuse.

Krejcikova, ranked No. 65, is ranked lower than compatriots such as Karolina Muchova and Marketa Vondrousova, but they elected to begin their years in Brisbane, paving the way for the two-time Grand Slam champion to represent her country.

"When I got this opportunity to be part of the team, to play this competition finally after a couple of years, I was really excited right away," Krejcikova said. "As I already said, I'm really happy that I can be here, that I can represent this team."

Krejcikova is currently scheduled to face Australia's Maya Joint and Norway's Malene Helgo in Group D, though Joint has been battling an illness in recent days.

After returning from injury in the middle of the 2025 season, Krejcikova said she's feeling healthy heading into this season, and improved her ranking with a quarterfinal finish at the US Open. She's also an easy choice for mixed doubles, too, given her seven Grand Slam doubles titles. 

"Regarding the mixed doubles, it's always been great to play mixed. I always enjoyed it very much," Krejcikova said.