Key posts
Gadecki gets team Australia’s campaign under way
We’ve had out warm up, let the matches begin.
Gadecki serves first from the team Australia end.
It’s a shaky start, with Nadia Podoroska breaking Gadecki’s serve in the first game of the match.
Podoroska leads 1-0 in the first set.
Kyrgios practices in Brisbane
Gadecki is warming up on the court, but while we wait for the match to begin, here are some pics that just dropped from Nick Kyrgios’ practice in Brisbane.
Kyrgios will make his return to the ATP tour at the Brisbane International tomorrow against France’s Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard. That will be a battle of the serve, both players have one of the biggest serves on tour.
Nick Kyrgios practices in Brisbane.Credit: Getty Images
Nick Kyrgios makes his ATP return in 2025.Credit: Getty Images
Team Australia arrive at KRA
Team Australia are making their way onto court, and no surprises, we have some big cheers from the crowd.
The biggest cheer is reserved for world No, 9 Alex de Minaur, who will take on Tomas Martin Etcheverry after Olivia Gadecki’s match.
The crowd is starting to fill out here at Ken Rosewall Arena – team Argentina are in for a battle.
Meet Olivia Gadecki
Olivia Gadecki is our first Aussie in action, but many tennis fans might not know much about her.
The 22-year-old has actually just had her best year on tennis, and she’s ticked off a number of milestones in 2024.
Olivia Gadecki will start 2025 as the top-ranked Australian female tennis player.Credit: Getty Images for Tennis Australia
That includes an Olympic Games appearance, a maiden WTA singles final in Guadalajara, making her Wimbledon main draw debut and cracking the women’s top 100 for the first time in her career.
Now, Gadecki is Australia’s top-ranked female player at No.96 in the world, and she’s hunting a win against Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska.
Read more about Gadecki’s breakout year here.
Aussies out to break team drought
It’s almost a decade since Australia last won a team tennis tournament.
Daria Saville and Nick Kyrgios were the last to do it, with a victory at the 2016 Hopman Cup, but since then, the trophy cabinet has been gathering cobwebs.
Team Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt ahead of the 2025 United Cup.Credit: Edwina Pickles
The barren streak is particularly painful for Lleyton Hewitt, who was part of the Australian Davis Cup team that lifted the trophy in 1999 and 2003 and captained Australia when they fell agonisingly short in the 2022 and 2023 Davis Cup finals.
Hewitt led Australia to the semi-finals at last year’s United Cup and returns as captain for the 2024-25 edition desperate to help break the drought.
“We’ve come bloody close. Thanks for bringing it up,” Hewitt said when asked about Australia’s barren run. “The biggest thing is we keep knocking on the door.”
Read the full story here.
Update in Perth
Matches in Perth started a day earlier, with China winning their group matches 3-0 against Brazil, while Kazakhstan got the better of Spain with a 2-1 victory.
Today’s play started at 1pm AEDT with Canada against Croatia, and Canadian Leylah Fernandez snagged the first victory of the day with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic.
Leylah Fernandez (left) and Donna Vekic shake hands at the net.Credit: AP
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Borna Coric are currently on court in the men’s singles, before Fernandez and Aliassime take on Vekic and Coric in the mixed doubles.
Greece take on Spain later for the night session in Perth.
Everything you need to know about the United Cup
If you’re new to the United Cup as a tournament, here’s a quick rundown on how it works.
It’s a mixed-teams event similar to the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. Eighteen countries are split into six groups of three, where they compete in a round-robin format.
Each group stage match includes a men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles rubber. The group stage matches will be played at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney and RAC Arena in Perth.
The six countries finishing top of their group will progress to the quarter-finals, along with the two best runners-up. Semi-finals are played in Sydney on January 4 from 10.30am, with the final to be played from 5.30pm on January 5.
Want to know more? Read the full article here.
What happened earlier in the day
We’ve had tennis all morning in Sydney, starting with France taking on Switzerland.
Swiss player Belinda Bencic won the women’s singles comfortably with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Chloe Paquet, before Frenchman Ugo Humbert sent the round into a mixed doubles decider after a commanding 6-3, 7-5 win against Dominic Stricker.
Dominic Stricker and Belinda Bencic in the mixed doubles.Credit: Getty Images
Bencic and Stricker paired up for team Switzerland in the mixed doubles against Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Elexane Lechemia, and the Swiss team were able to get it in straight sets to put themselves at the top of group D after day one in Sydney.
Welcome
Good evening tennis fans, and welcome to our live coverage of the United Cup.
Billie Eder here at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney, where I’ll be taking you through Australia’s first group stage matches against Argentina.
First up we have Olivia Gadecki on court from 5:30pm AEDT against Nadia Podoroska, before Alex de Minaur plays Tomas Martin Etcheverry, and then the night wraps up with the mixed doubles where Matt Ebden and Ellen Perez take on Etcheverry and Podoroska.
Australia’s Alex de Minaur and Olivia Gadecki.Credit: Getty Images
