While the United Cup begins Friday in Perth, the stars competing in Sydney are working hard towards the city's Saturday start for the mixed teams event.
Alex de Minaur leads Australia in its pursuit of a maiden United Cup trophy. Last year in Perth, he stunned Novak Djokovic. De Minaur will also take confidence off the back of the best season of his career, in which he qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.
De Minaur trained under the watchful eye of Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt Thursday, including in a session with Czech Tomas Machac. Interestingly, Machac's coach and the Czech captain, Daniel Vacek, defeated Hewitt in five sets at the 1998 Australian Open. They finished their Lexus ATP Head2Head series tied at 1-1.
Jasmine Paolini, the WTA's World No. 4, will try to lift her country to United Cup glory for the first time. Flavio Cobolli is Italy's top men's singles player in Sydney and Andrea Vavassori, part of the 2024 Fans' Favourite doubles team (with Simone Bolelli), could play a factor in mixed doubles.
Paolini practises on Thursday in Sydney. Photo: Peter Staples/ATP Tour.
Tomas Martin Etcheverry will try to help Argentina make a deep run in Group F, which also features Australia and Great Britain. Argentine captain Horacio De La Peña tried to keep his charge cool under the Australian sun during a training session with Jordan Thompson, who is heading to Brisbane to begin his season.
Photo: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour
The first match in Sydney, which will take place Saturday, pits Ugo Humbert and France against Dominic Stricker and Switzerland. In that clash, Belinda Bencic will return to action after giving birth to her first child in 2024. In the evening session, De Minaur and Australia will take on Etcheverry and Argentina.
