The United Cup has reached its third season, and there can be little doubt that 2025 was the most successful season yet.
After years of being plagued by near-empty crowds and matches between low-ranked players for some ties, the format came to life this year with both Australia ties being played before sell-out crowds, while the final, where the Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff led USA team defeated Poland, was played in front of 10,283 fans at Ken Rosewall Arena.
Although this year’s tournament was undoubtedly an improvement over previous years, there is still a question about the United Cup’s place in the tennis ecosystem.
The event drew a strong entry list this year with Fritz and Gauff joined by other top players such as Iga Świątek, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Elena Rybakina and Alex De Minaur. However, several players such as Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have eschewed the event, while Novak Djokovic decided not to return after playing the 2024 edition. Further, top players such as Aryna Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev have not entered the event, with Russia and Belarus not allowed to field teams.
Tournament Director Stephen Farrow revealed that the Tennis Australia team were in regular contact with the top players who did not participate but could not negotiate an agreement for this year. He also acknowledged that the absence of Russian and Belarusian players was significant, but believed that it did not devalue the rest of the event, with a strong player field still making the cut.
"We want all the top players playing," he said. "Having had conversations with a number of the Russian players, they would obviously love to play the tournament, but they can’t for the reasons that are well-established. I don’t think it devalues the competition; it is just one of those things."
The format has also been tinkered with over the years, with the change from five rubbers to three rubbers per tie being highly successful. However, there have been concerns raised over the 'best runner-up' format, which came to the fore when Australia were knocked out of the tournament after missing out on the spot in somewhat contentious fashion.
The players also spoke highly of the team aspect of the competition, enjoying the chance to bond with their colleagues, who they don’t get to spend regular time with on the tour.
"I think the support has been amazing," confirmed Świątek. "We respect each other so much that we really have been here together no matter who was playing. Overall I think we stuck together through everything. It was amazing."
"It's the perfect way to start the season in the team," said Italian Flavio Cobolli. "We are, all of us, great friends, so it's important to have a big group to start the season. We have fun on all days, so I like it."
"The United Cup was the perfect start to the year for me. I enjoyed it a lot," said Australian Open doubles runner-up Andrea Vavassori.
"I thought it was a great event," said Australian Olivia Gadecki. "We are so lucky to be able to start the year in a team event so I loved the week."
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While players generally talked positively about the event, the players who had to travel from Perth to Sydney during the tournament were less forthcoming with their praise. Alexander Shevchenko, who was part of the Kazakhstan team who qualified for the semi-finals from the Perth leg, only to lose to Poland upon arrival in Sydney, was particularly scathing in his criticism.
"No, it's not fair. I think it's just ridiculous that we have to fly five hours and then time change, because as a team we went to sleep a little bit later because we cannot fall asleep," he said.
"Obviously, the condition is so much different. Here it's indoors, and there it's outdoors. There is quite a bit slower. Here it's faster. I think they should change probably that because this is not the right thing to do."
Taylor Fritz also mentioned that the conditions were very different between Perth and Sydney.
"I feel like it's so different," Fritz said as he smiled. "It's really, really different. For me, the ball was flying a lot more in Perth. The court in Perth is probably a little bouncier, and, like, I don't know about court speed, definitely slower over here, but I think that might just be the air, how it's going through the air because it felt tougher to control the ball. Definitely faster in Perth.
"Here, in this match particularly, especially a couple of games in, once it got dark out, I felt like I could not generate any kind of pace on the ball. It felt so slow out there, so dead."
With some exceptions for matches involving Australia and some finals matches, attendance at both the United Cup and its predecessor, the ATP Cup, has been somewhat low, with free tickets distributed through websites like Promotix to help fill out the stadium.
"We’re not giving a whole bunch of free tickets," said Farrow. "We’ve obviously got offers out there but we’re still building this competition."
The tournament is clearly a made-for-television event, with no action on the outside courts. This certainly diminishes the spectator experience, with many dead rubber doubles matches and time lost between games, combined with little else to do around the site.
However, from a financial point of view, this probably does not impact the bottom line at all as the outside courts at smaller tournaments do little to move the needle in terms of television rights and given the tournament’s week on the calendar (it clashes with arguably the biggest sporting event of the year in Sydney, the Sydney test match), there probably isn’t a huge need to enhance the spectator experience immensely.
Nonetheless, an opportunity for the doubles players and second-ranked singles players to play practice matches for nominal points (perhaps between 25-50 points per win) would likely increase the quality of the squad depth, meaning that injuries do not cripple the tournament as much and also giving the tournament a degree of legitimacy beyond the biggest stars.
There is also an ever-looming threat over Tennis Australia’s stranglehold on the first few weeks of the calendar, with recent rumours suggesting the tournament may be replaced by a Saudi Arabian Masters 1000 event.
However, Farrow categorically denied that the tournament could be replaced in the near future, confirming that the tournament would proceed in 2026.
"We’ve got a long-term contract with the WTA and the ATP. We're all invested in this event. We're all working hard to make this event the best it can be."
The United Cup has improved over the last few years, and there’s no doubt that it has created moments that very few other tennis tournaments can create. Tennis is one of the few sports where men and women compete side by side, and the tournament has certainly taken advantage of this in a unique manner.
Whether the momentum can continue remains to be seen, but it does feel as though the tournament is on the right track.
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