Tennis great Wally Masur has warned against writing off the dark horse teams Australia will have to beat in the group stage of the United Cup before making it to the quarter-finals.
Australia was drawn as the top seed in Group D to battle with Norway and Czechia, with formidable players such as Casper Ruud and 20-year-old superstar in the making Jakub Mensik aiming to spoil the home team's campaign in the fourth edition of the competition.
"Casper Ruud is the number one player for Norway, and look, it's an interesting competition because obviously it helps to have good depth in men and women," Masur told 2GB's Wide World of Sports.
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"There's the men's and women's singles [and] then there's the mixed [doubleds], but if you've got a team like Norway, for example, with Casper who's capable of beating anybody on any given day, been to grand slam finals, I think he's ranked 12th in the world at the moment.
"Their female player [Malene Helgo] is not rated that highly, but obviously then Casper plays mixed and the mixed is sudden death – the third set is a tiebreak – so there's a real random element to the mix.
"The seeds are justified by virtual rankings, but there's quite a few wildcard teams…that where, if their best player fires, everybody's in with a shot.
"Czech Republic; they actually have Jakub Mensik, he's the youngest player inside the top 20 in the world, so he's a player who's really on the rise.
"And the female player is Barbora Krejcikova, who's probably been the best doubles player on the WTA tour for the last decade.
"Australia on paper, they look pretty good, but Czech Republic and Norway will be tough teams for different reasons."
Alex de Minaur will be headlining Team Australia with teen star Maya Joint in Sydney.
De Minaur has drawn headlines for an emotional interview last week after losing to Lorenzo Musetti from a winning position in the ATP Finals, continuing a trend of buckling with the match on his racquet against top 10 players through 2025.
De Minaur ultimately turned that tournament around by beating world No.6 Taylor Fritz in the following match to qualify for the semi-final, which he lost in a tight two-set tussle with Jannik Sinner. Masur said it was important for de Minaur to give his many successes as much reflection as he does the difficult losses.
"He [de Minaur] said he was in a pretty dark place, having lost a couple of matches and maybe the one against Musetti, we felt like that was one that got away," Masur said. "Bounced back, beat Taylor Fritz."
"I guess the message to Alex is, 'Mate, don't be too hard on yourself.'
"It's pretty amazing what you've achieved and just keep knocking on the door because what he wants out of the sport is obviously a grand slam and Davis Cup titles, etc. and they'll come. You've just got to keep working at it.
"He's so close, so I don't like to think that he finds himself in a dark place or he's getting negative because what he's achieving is amazing."
Over in Perth, Masur tips top-seeded USA as the team to beat, with star power in Fritz and Coco Gauff hard to pass as reigning champions.
"Taylor Fritz is a real team man. I've really been impressed with the Americans," he said.
"Fritz and [Gauff] don't play a lot of mixed doubles, so they might bring in a more specialised team to play their doubles, but on paper, two top 10 players in good form.
"Obviously Coco won the French Open this year, she's a gun. They'll be very hard to beat.
"It'll be pretty exciting, and I think 44 players that are involved in the ATP Tour finals will be fronting up for the United Cup.
"They've [United Cup] done well, they've got a really good contingent."
What is the United Cup and how does it work?
This year marks the fourth edition of the United Cup, which is a mixed team event split across two cities, Perth and Sydney.
A total of 18 countries will participate, drawn into six groups of three teams, that compete in a round robin format.
Each team can have up to six members with a maximum of three ATP players and three WTA players. Each team has a captain too.
"Each session between countries will consist of one men's singles match, one women's singles match, and a mixed doubles match," said the United Cup website.
"The singles matches will be played by the country's No.1 men's and women's singles players that enter the competition.
"The order of the singles matches may change – ties can start with either men's or women's singles – but mixed doubles will always conclude the tie.
"The team which wins at least two of the three matches wins the tie."
Once group sessions are played, the six teams topping their respective groups will move into the quarter-finals.
The other two quarter-final spots are given to the best-performing runner-up team from each city.
When and where is the United Cup held?
The United Cup tennis tournament will be held from Friday January 2 to Sunday January 11, 2026.
Perth Arena and Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney will play host to the teams.
Eighteen countries will feature for the fourth consecutive year.
How can I watch the United Cup?
Stan Sport will have live, ad-free and on-demand coverage of the United Cup from January 2 to 11, 2026.
It will also be broadcast on Nine and 9Now.
Who is playing in the United Cup?
Five of the world's top 10 men and four of the top ten women are among the international tennis players committing to the tournament.
For the home team, Australia, de Minaur and Joint create a formidable duo to headline alongside Jason Kubler, Maddison Inglis, Storm Hunter and John-Patrick Smith.
The duo of Jack Draper and Emma Radacanu have announced their debut with Team Britain, and Gauff and Fritz will again compete for reigning champions Team USA.
Six-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz lead Poland for the country's fourth appearance and Alexander Zverev and newcomer Eva Lys will look to seal Team Germany's second United Cup title.
Team Japan makes its debut at the event this summer with four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka lining up with Shintaro Mochizuki, and Team Italy will be guided by Jasmine Paolini and rising star Flavio Cobolli.
The Draw
In Perth, Group A will see top-seeded USA compete against Spain and Argentina.
Group C has Italy facing off with France and Switzerland, and Group E is Great Britain against Greece and Japan.
In Sydney, Group B is headlined by Canada, Belgium and China.
Group D hosts Australia, Czechia and Norway, and Group F has Germany, Poland and Netherlands.
How much prize money is on offer?
The tournament offers a minimum of AUD $17m in prize money.
This is split between three components: participation fee, per team wins and prize money.
Tournament schedule
The group stages will be hosted in the two cities, Perth holding their matches from the 2nd to 6th, with the quarter finals on January 7 and Sydney from the 3rd to the 7th, with their quarter finals on January 8 and 9.
Sydney will then host two semi finals on Saturday, January 10 and the United Cup finals will begin from 5.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday, January 11.
Australia's group stage match ups in Sydney will kick off against Team Norway on Saturday, January 3 and then they face Czechia on Tuesday, January 6.
Who won last year?
USA defeated Team Poland in 2025 to take home top honours, also lifting the trophy in the inaugural year of the United Cup in 2023.
The two-time champions will be led by Gauff and Fritz, who return to defend their title in January.
Germany has also won the United Cup competition, taking the 2024 victory.
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