The 2025 tennis season is here! It begins on Friday at the United Cup, a team competition that is taking place in Perth and Sydney.
Eighteen nations are competing and they have been placed six different groups of three. The six group winners and the overall second-place teams in each of the two host cities will advance to the quarterfinals. After the quarterfinal matchups are contested in Perth and Sydney (no travel involved for any team prior to the semifinals), the semis and final will be played in Sydney on January 4 and 5.
The field is incredibly strong this year. Defending champion Germany is running it back with Alexander Zverev and Laura Siegemund, while 2024 runner-up Poland is once again led by Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek. Also on the list of favorites is the United States (Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff), Czechia (Tomas Machac, Karolina Muchova), Greece (Stefanos Tsitsipas, Maria Sakkari), and Italy (Flavio Cobolli, Jasmine Paolini), .
Groups and team rosters
Group A
United States (Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff)
Canada (Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez)
Croatia (Borna Coric and Donna Vekic)
Group B
Poland (Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek)
Czech Republic (Tomas Machac and Karolina Muchova
Norway (Casper Ruud and Malene Helgo)
Group C
Spain (Pablo Carreno Busta and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro)
Greece (Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari)
Kazakhstan (Alexander Shevchenko and Elena Rybakina)
Group D
Italy (Flavio Cobolli and Jasmine Paolini)
France (Ugo Humbert and Chloe Paquet)
Switzerland (Dominic Stricker and Belinda Bencic)
Group E
Germany (Alexander Zverev and Laura Siegemund)
China (Zhizhen Zhang and Gao Xinyu)
Brazil (Thiago Monteiro and Beatriz Haddad Maia)
Group F
Australia (Alex de Minaur and Olivia Gadecki)
Argentina (Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Nadia Podoroska)
Great Britain (Billy Harris and Katie Boulter)
Picks
Quarterfinals: United States over Canada, Italy over Australia, Germany over Greece, and Poland over Czechia
Semifinals: United States over Italy and Poland over Germany
Final: United States over Poland
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.