United Cup: 7 big names to watch – ft. Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz

The 2025 tennis season is officially underway, with action at the United Cup across Perth and Sydney kickstarting what looks set to be a thrilling year of tennis.
Here, we look at seven of the biggest stars to watch across the mixed-team event.
Iga Swiatek – Poland
The highest-ranked woman in the draw, can Swiatek guide Poland to its first United Cup title in 2025?
The Pole played a starring role for her nation 12 months ago, going 5-0 in singles action as Poland reached the final, where it fell to Germany in an enthralling final.
World No 2 Swiatek returns in 2025 looking to recapture her best form, having not won a title since her fourth French Open victory back in June.
She is also playing for the first time since news of her one-month doping suspension emerged, and all eyes will be on how she responds on-court.
Alexander Zverev – Germany
Twelve months after proving to be one of the key players in Germany’s title charge, Zverev looks to kickstart his 2025 with another title in the team tournament.
Zverev recorded one of the best seasons of his career in 2024 following the United Cup, reaching a second major final at the French Open and finishing the year as the world No 2.
A year ago he was one of the busiest players in the whole competition, playing all of his nation’s five men’s singles matches alongside all five mixed doubles matches.
If he is close to his best, Germany has a solid chance of completing a successful title defence.
Coco Gauff – United States
Choosing to prioritise the United Cup over attempting an Auckland Open ‘threepeat’, what impact can Gauff make across the event?
The world No 3 ended 2024 in style, winning both the China Open and the WTA Finals, and will hope the off-season has not stalled that momentum.
Only Swiatek is ranked higher than Gauff in the WTA field, and the American will be a warm favourite for her projected group matches against Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
America has the strongest team on paper and the 20-year-old could play a key role in their quest to regain the title they won in 2023.
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Taylor Fritz – United States
Two years after leading his nation to victory in the first staging of the competition, can Fritz inspire the US and capture a second title in the space of three seasons?
The world No 4 will be one of the men to beat in the event, having reached the final of both the US Open and ATP Finals in the latter stages of 2024 – also winning two titles in a career-best season.
Fritz separated himself from the bulk of the ATP field last season, and now all eyes will be on whether he can maintain his rise in 2025.
His round-robin rubbers against Felix Auger-Aliassime and Borna Coric won’t be easy, but he should win both contests.
Elena Rybakina – Kazakhstan
Rybakina is one of the few players to have already been in action at the United Cup, starring for Kazakhstan in their 2-1 opening-day win over Spain.
The former Wimbledon champion looked in fine form with a comprehensive win over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and then teamed up with Alexander Shevchenko to win the decisive mixed doubles.
2024 proved a difficult year for Rybakina, who struggled with illness and injury throughout the season and fell out of the top five.
However, working with new coach Goran Ivanisevic, the early signs look promising – with Kazakhstan looking like potential dark horses.
Casper Ruud – Norway
Norway are certainly underdogs in the competition but the presence of Ruud, currently ranked sixth on the ATP Tour, boosts their chances significantly.
His 2024 season rather tailed off during the second half of the year but he rediscovered his best form at the ATP Finals, channelling the tennis that took him to two titles and three further finals at the start of the year.
Ruud does not necessarily have an easy round-robin draw in Sydney, with the 26-year-old set to face rising star Tomas Machac of Czechia and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
However, he won both his singles rubbers a year ago, and will fancy his chances of doing the same once again.
Stefanos Tsitsipas – Greece
After a disappointing 2024 season, Tsitsipas will hope a strong United Cup campaign kickstarts a significant resurgence in 2025.
The Greek lifted his third Monte Carlo title back in April but struggled outside of that, and fell out of the top-10 – achieving his lowest year-end ranking finish since 2018.
However, Tsitsipas has produced some of the best tennis of his career Down Under and will hope to channel that kind of form.
He is set to face Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta and Kazakh Shevchenko in Perth.
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