United Cup: Spain meet Argentina; Greece face Japan on opening day in Perth

Perth, Jan 1 (IANS) Jaume Munar will take on Sebastian Baez in the men singles, while Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro will play Solana Sierra in the women singles when Spain kick off their campaign against Argentina in the United Cup mixed team tennis competition in Perth on Friday.

The four players will be involved in a mixed doubles clash to decide the outcome of the match in case they fail to reach a verdict in the singles clashes.

In other matches, Greece will face Japan with Maria Sakkari taking on Naomi Osaka, while Stefanos Tsitsipas will clash with Shintaro Mochizuki in the men singles encounter on the same court as the fourth edition of United Cup, the international hard-court event hosted by Tennis Australia, which is played across Perth and Sydney.

The event will have 18 national teams comprised of up to three women’s and three men’s players, who will compete in a group stage followed by a knockout format. Matches in Perth will take place at RAC Arena, while play in Sydney will be held at Ken Rosewall Arena.

For the group stage, the 18 teams were split into six groups of three in a round-robin format. Groups A, C, and E will play in Perth while groups B, D, and F will play in Sydney. The three group winners and the best runner-up in each city will advance to the quarterfinals.

Perth will host its two quarterfinals on January 7, with winners travelling to Sydney for the semifinals and final. Teams relocating from Perth will have a travel and rest day on January 8-9. The Sydney quarterfinals are scheduled for Jan 8-9, followed by the semifinals on Jan 10 and the final on Jan 11.

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

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

Teams

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, Shintaro Mochizuki

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

--IANS

bsk/

Source: IANS | © IANS. All rights reserved.