Who could Swiatek, Gauff, Raducanu, Mboko, Zverev, Draper face at the United Cup?

Shahida Jacobs
L-R: Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu.
Pictured: Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu.

The draw for the 2026 United Cup has been confirmed with defending champions the United States headlining Group A, hosts Australia in Group D and Great Britain in Group E.

The United States are the No 1 seeds, followed by Canada, Italy, Australia, Great Britain and Germany with the seeding for the event based on the combined ranking of the top ATP and top WTA players using the ranking as of November 10.

The 2026 edition will feature five men who are inside the top 10 of the ATP Rankings and four women who are ranked in the top 10 on the WTA Tour.

Each tie consists of one men’s singles match, one women’s match and one mixed doubles match with rubbers split between the Australian cities of Perth and Sydney with the tournament running from January 2 to 11.

The United States defeated Poland in the 2025 final and they will once again be spearheaded by world No 3 Coco Gauff and world No 6 Taylor Fritz with Mackenzie McDonald, Christian Harrison, Varvara Lepchenko and Nicole Melichar-Martinez the other members on the team.

The top-seeded Americans will face Spain – who have Jaume Munar and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro as their top two players – and the Sebastian Baez and Solana Sierra-led Argentina in the group stage.

Team USA’s rubber against Argentina will take place on January 3 before they meet the Europeans two days later.

Canada are the top seeds in Group B and they have a strong line-up with world No 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and world No 18 Victoria Mboko two in-form players in 2025.

The North Americans will take on China on January 4 and Belgium on January 6.

WTA No 8 Jasmine Paolini is the highest-ranked player on the Italy squad and she will be joined by Flavio Cobolli and doubles specialists Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori. Italy find themselves in Group C alongside France (Arthur Rinderknech and Lois Boisson) and Switzerland (Stan Wawrinka and Belinda Bencic).

Australia have Alex de Minaur and Maya Joint in their squad and they be up against Norway (Casper Ruud) on January 3 and the Czech Republic (Jakub Mensik and Barbora Krejcikova) on January 6.

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Czechia reached the semi-final in 2025 before they lost against the United States while Australia failed to get make it out of the group stage.

Great Britain will be represented by Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu and they have landed in a tough group as they start their campaign against the Naomi Osaka-led Japan on January 2 and three days later they face Greece, who can call on Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari.

But Group E is perhaps the toughest as 2024 champions Germany and two-time runners-up Poland are joined by Netherlands.

World No 3 Alexander Zverev headlines the German team that will also feature Eva Lys while Poland have six-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz in their squad.

The big Germany-Poland tie will take place on January 5 in Perth.