HK Tennis Open, Web3 ecosystem summit, intelligent hardware exhibition<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nFour of the world’s top ranked men’s and women’s players will feature at the United Cup culminating with the final on Jan. 11 in Sydney.<\/p>\n
China starts their campaign against Belgium on Saturday in Sydney as they eye a deep run having been knocked out at the quarterfinal stage in the past two editions.<\/p>\n
Second seed Canada, who is led by men’s world No 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime, is also in Group B.<\/p>\n
China’s team captain Wu Di said at the pre-match media conference on Friday that although the team performed well in the past two editions, the challenge this year may be even greater.<\/p>\n
Still, veteran player Zhu Lin, the reigning women’s singles National Games champion, “has given the team an extra boost,” Wu said.<\/p>\n
Zhang Zhizhen, China’s most accomplished men’s player, returns to the event and will be partnered by dynamic Zhu, who is competing in the United Cup for the first time.<\/p>\n
Having reached a career high of world No 31 in 2024, a shoulder injury saw Zhang sidelined for six months last year as he tumbled down the rankings.<\/p>\n
Now fully fit after returning to the court in the backend of 2025, the 29-year-old Zhang is hoping to start the year in strong fashion at an event he has particularly fond memories.<\/p>\n
“I gave my all in recent exhibition matches and my physical condition is currently very good,” he said.<\/p>\n
Much like Zhang, Zhu is also on the comeback trail after her 2025 season was derailed by an elbow injury.<\/p>\n
The former world No 33 has shown that she has the firepower to match the very best players on the circuit if she can stay fit.<\/p>\n
Top seed the United States will once again be led by stars Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz, who last year steered the Americans to a second United Cup title in an unbeaten campaign.<\/p>\n
The United States has been drawn in Group A along with Spain and Argentina.<\/p>\n
There will be a lot of attention on women’s world number two Iga Swiatek, a six-time grand slam champion who is eyeing an elusive Australian Open title.<\/p>\n
The reigning Wimbledon champion leads Poland, who have been runners-up at the event for the past two years.<\/p>\n
Poland is in a tough Group F with Germany, boasting men’s No 3 seed Alexander Zverev, and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Host Australia’s fortune will rest with Alex de Minaur, the country’s top-ranked men’s player, while Japanese four-time major winner Naomi Osaka plays the event for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China’s Wu Yibing serves to Frances Tiafoe of the US (not in photograph) in a first round men’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[204155,2000,299,204156,23810,203299,104,182748],"class_list":{"0":"post-670405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-atp-wta-event","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-guido-andreozzi","12":"tag-iga-swiatek","13":"tag-jaume-munar","14":"tag-spain","15":"tag-united-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115829232360563544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/cfa7b7416ec15ef3ecdc0466e032fd59.png\"\/)
China’s Wu Yibing serves to Frances Tiafoe of the US (not in photograph) in a first round men’s singles match on day three of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, on July 5, 2023. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n