This Friday, at dawn Spanish time, the tennis season begins with United Cupmixed doubles tournament held in Australia until January 5. Produced by the ATP and WTA, 18 teams plus Spain They compete in the tournament where Germany defends as the 2024 champions.
18 teams compete in the first round of three three-legged ties split between Perth and Sydney. Spain are in Group C in Perth with Greece and Kazakhstan as rivals. The first place in each group and the best second place make up the eight players who advance to the quarterfinals, which will take place on January 1, 2 and 3. All semi-finals will be played on the 4th and the final is on Sunday, January 5.
Spain is led by Pablo Carreño and Jessica Bouzaswho started this morning against Kazakhstan. The Kazakh group is slightly higher than the ‘Armada’, mainly due to the availability of Elena Rybakinahis greatest fortune as the sixth-ranked tennis player in the world. Alexander Shevchenko is also at the top of the ATP rankings, but Carreño has seen his ranking disrupted by injuries and in their only tournament this year in Winston Salem, the Gijón native won.
The ‘Armada’ is completed by two more ATP tennis players and two more WTA players, up to six: Marina Bassols, Carlos Taberner, Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers and Sergio Martos. Spain has a difficult group, since Greece, Saturday’s competition, is led by Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari.
Live on Teledeporte and RTVE Play
Teledeporte and RTVE Play will provide live matches in Spain. This Friday at dawn, starting at 3:00 peninsular hours, the first duel against Kazakhstan is played. Shevchenko – Carreño first, then Rybakina – Bouzas and double, it’s only on RTVE Play. On Saturday from 10:00 am the round of Sakkari will be opened by Bouzas, followed by Tsitsipas – Carreño.
As for the other teams, there are several ‘top 10’s from the ATP and WTA that add excitement to the competition. In addition to Tsitsipas and Rybakina, fighters from Spain, a strong group from the United States is clearly visible. Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff; Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Laylah Fernandez; of Germany and Alexander Zverev and Laura Siegemundor of Poland and Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkaczamong others.
In this edition, the novelty of the timeout was introduced, a resource that is only considered in mixed games of any kind, which lasts one minute and can be requested by the players or the directors, when the team has a job. on their side. There will be only one time limit per game.