The world’s top men’s and women’s players will team up for the inaugural edition of the United Cup, which takes place from 29th December 2022 to 8th January 2023 in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
Australia will be among the favourite teams, although it was drawn in a very competitive Group D, which also features Great Britain and Spain. These matches will be held in the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.
Alex De Minaur, who grew up in Spain (the country of origin of his mother Ester) and is training for the 2023 season in Alicante, will play in front of his home fans against his fellow Spanish colleagues.
“For me, there is no greater honour than to represent your country and that’s always been my belief. Hopefully tt’s another chance, another opportunity to do everything I can to get a win for Australia. So I will make sure that I am ready to give it my all. It’s going to be great for us to really ourselves and have great matches before the Australian Open. It’s going to be tough, but we like being underdogs. Hopefully we can push each other, have each other’s backs, come out with some great tennis and do Australia proud”, said De Minaur.
During a successful 2022 season in team competitions Australia reached the finals at both the Billie Jean King Cup and at the Davis Cup for the first time since 1993.
“People should realize how meaningful those two results are because they are very long years, and, us Aussies, we tend to spend a lot more time than anybody else on tour away from home. And for us to just show how much it means to play for Australia and how much pride we have in representing the green and gold. We might not have people in the top 20, but we are still out there making finals in both Billie Jean King and Davis Cup Finals”, said De Minaur.
The Australian team will boast a strong line-up featuring two-time Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Alex De Minaur, this year’s Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, this year’s Wimbledon and US Open quarter finalist Ajla Tomljanovic and Wimbledon doubles champions Matt Ebden and Max Purcell.
De Minaur won 47 matches during the 2022 season and reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and the semifinal in Stockolm. In his career he claimed six titles: Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai in 2019, Eastbourne and Antalya in 2021 and Atlanta in 2022. The Australian player hopes to start the 2023 season on a high note in front of home fans.
“We were in Malaga not too long ago playing for a Davis Cup title basically in a neutral venue, when back in the day you would tend to have packed stadiums for people cheering for or against you. That always made all of us very special, but we now get the chance to represent our country in Australia at home, so it’s going to be great. It will be good to play in front of an Aussie crowd again”, said De Minaur.
De Minaur is happy to compete for his team in his home city Sydney.
“I am looking forward to being back in Sydney, back on the courts I grew up on. It would mean a lot if we could do some damage, take home the title, especially in front of our home crowd. It’s going to be great for us to really test ourselves and have great matches before the Australian Open”.
De Minaur admitted that playing mixed doubles would be a new experience for him.
“That would definitely be a new thing for me. I would be potentially making my debut on the mixed doubles court. Who knows if that will happen ? We have got a lot of great options on the team, so we will keep our opponents guessing until the last second”.
