BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — If it’s a new year, it must be a serious tennis time in Australia.
A little over six weeks since ATP And WTA held their respective 2025 finals, players from the men’s and women’s tours arrive in Australia and New Zealand for a busy two-week tournament schedule ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year which begins January 18 in Melbourne.
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Headlining is the United Cup, a mixed team event which will be played in Perth and Sydney from Friday and concludes on January 11. The tournament will feature four of the top 10 men and women in the world, including Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Iga Świątek, Alexander Zverev, Jasmine Paolini and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Also in the first full week of 2026, the Brisbane International will be headlined by reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka, fresh off the Battle of the sexes exhibition against Nick Kyrgios in Dubai.
But the two biggest names in men’s tennis are absent from the pre-Australian Open tournaments: number one Carlos Alcaraz and second Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz and Sinner – who have won nine of the last 10 Grand Slam singles titles, with Sinner wins the 2025 Australian Open – decided to play an exhibition in Incheon, South Korea on January 10th. After the exhibition, they are expected to fly to Australia to begin their preparations at Melbourne Park.
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Alcaraz will play his first major tournament in seven years without a coach Juan Carlos Ferrero — the Spanish player recently announced his separation. Alcaraz has not announced a replacement.
Other players in the United Cup, which begins on Friday with Greece taking on Japan in Perth, include Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Stan Wawrinka, who said 2026 would be his last year on tour.
Wawrinka, 40, a three-time major winner, says he hopes to improve his current ranking of 157 and return to the top 100 before retiring. His highest ranking was No. 3, achieved when he won the 2014 Australian Open.
“I’m happy with the decision (to retire) and I feel at peace with it,” Wawrinka said upon his arrival earlier this week in Perth.
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Two-time major finalist Amanda Anisimova and reigning WTA Finals champion Elena Rybakina will join Sabalenka at the 500-level Brisbane International. Madison Keys, Australian Open championJessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva.
Andreeva, 18, is expected to be the next big star in women’s tennis and she could renew her rivalry with Sabalenka in Brisbane. Sabalenka leads 4-2 in head-to-head matches but world number 9 Andreeva won in three sets at Indian Wells final in 2025.
The Russian also reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year, as well as the semi-finals of Roland Garros in 2024, when at 17 she became the youngest person to reach the semi-final at a major tournament since Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open.
“Maybe the rivalry (with Sabalenka) is a little bit there but she’s in the lead…unfortunately…for now,” Andreeva told the Australian Associated Press this week.
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Andreeva lost to Sabalenka in the semi-final in Brisbane in 2025 and again in the fourth round at the Australian Open before her victory at Indian Wells where she was the youngest winner since Serena Williams.
“It gave me a lot of confidence. Winning at Indian Wells is a huge milestone in my career so far,” she said.
During the second week of warm-up events, the ATP- WTA Adelaide International with 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic will take place from January 12 to 17 as well as a WTA 250 tournament in Hobart, Australia.
Auckland, New Zealand, will host a WTA tournament from January 5-11 before the ATP takes place at the same venue from January 12-17. Kyrgios and Frances Tiafoe are expected to play in an exhibition tournament at Kooyong in Melbourne several days before the start of the Australian Open.
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And in the only warm-up tournament played outside Australia or New Zealand, Hong Kong will host an ATP event from January 5-11.
ATP events will be subject to a new rule for 2026 coping with extreme heat during men’s matches, which will allow 10-minute breaks during best-of-three-set singles matches and is similar to what was implemented at the WTA more than 30 years ago.
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
