Kyrgios defeats Sabalenka – but what did 'Battle of the Sexes' achieve?
Aryna Sabalenka loses to Nick Kyrgios in a Battle of the Sexes-style match that lacked the intensity and entertainment promised in the build-up.
Aryna Sabalenka loses to Nick Kyrgios in a Battle of the Sexes-style match that lacked the intensity and entertainment promised in the build-up.
Watch the best moments between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios at the Battle of the Sexes in Dubai.
Will Carlos Alcaraz claim ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours for the third time next season?
The World No. 1 is fresh off a season in which he won a career-high eighth titles and earned 71 match wins according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
The Spaniard has been working hard in the leadup to the 2026 ATP Tour season. Clive Brunskill of Getty Images photographed a day of the 22-year-old’s training in Murcia on 24 December to provide fans a look into Alcaraz’s efforts on and off the court.
<img alt=”Carlos Alcaraz trains in Murcia in preparation for the 2026 season.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/12/28/18/04/alcaraz-24-december-training-volley.jpg?w=100%25″ />
Nearly two weeks ago the news broke that Alcaraz had split with longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. The 22-year-old has been training under the watchful eye of Samuel Lopez, who formally joined his team ahead of last season.
<img alt=”Carlos Alcaraz trains in Murcia in preparation for the 2026 season.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/12/28/18/05/alcaraz-24-december-training-lopez.jpg” />
Alcaraz is an Australian Open triumph from completing the Career Grand Slam. The six-time major champion has emerged victorious twice at each of the other three Slam tournaments: Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. He is also an eight-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist.
<img alt=”Carlos Alcaraz trains in Murcia in preparation for the 2026 season.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2025/12/28/18/03/alcaraz-24-december-training-lift.jpg” />
Alcaraz is next scheduled to compete in Melbourne at the Australian Open. Earlier this year, he made the quarter-finals at the event before falling to 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Aryna Sabalenka hits an ‘amazing’ return against Nick Kyrgios at the Battle of the Sexes in Dubai.
BBC Sport looks at the key questions going into the divisive Battle of the Sexes-style match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios on Sunday.
When Aryna Sabalenka faces Nick Kyrgios, it will be under the banner of the Battle of the Sexes – but the stakes will not be as high as those that faced Billie Jean King 52 years ago.
Jack Draper announced on social media Friday that he will not compete in Australia to begin his 2026 season because of the arm injury he has been recovering from.
“Unfortunately me and my team have decided not to head out to Australia this year. It’s a really, really tough decision, obviously Australia being a Grand Slam, it’s one of the biggest tournaments in our sport,” Draper said in a video he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “However, I’ve had this injury for a long time. I’m at the very, very end stages of the process and to step back on court into best-of-five-set tennis so soon just doesn’t seem like the smart decision right now for me and my tennis.
“I’ve obviously been through a fair amount of setbacks so far. But by far and away this one has been the most difficult, most complex one that I’ve had.”
— jack draper (@jackdraper0) December 26, 2025
The British lefty has played one tour-level match since Wimbledon, a first-round win at the US Open. Draper then withdrew from the season’s final major and did not compete again in 2025.
The 24-year-old has been battling an arm injury. The No. 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings tallied a 30-9 record in 2025, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. He won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.
“It always seems to manage to make me more resilient, to make me hungrier, to make me just want to become the player I want to become even more,” Draper said of his injury. “I’m looking forward to getting back out there in 2026 and competing.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]British number one Jack Draper will not play in next month’s Australian Open because of an ongoing arm injury.
A host of top stars from both the ATP Tour and the Hologic WTA Tour are set compete at the 2026 United Cup in Perth and Sydney, Australia.
Team United States, led by World No. 3 Coco Gauff and World No. 6 Taylor Fritz, will defend its crown at the mixed teams competition in 2025. Germany, champion in 2024, boasts World No. 3 Alexander Zverev and debutant Eva Lys.
Other marquee players competing include Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz for Poland, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari for Greece, Jasmine Paolini and Flavio Cobolli for Italy, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Victoria Mboko for Canada, Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper for Great Britain, Naomi Osaka (Japan), Alex de Minaur (Australia) and Casper Ruud (Norway).
The 2026 United Cup will be held from 2 January through 11 January. The outdoor hard-court event, established in 2023, will take place at RAC Arena in Perth and the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre inside Ken Rosewall Arena. The tournament director is Stephen Farrow.
Eighteen countries were placed into six groups of three. The group stage will consist of round-robin showdowns, in which each country will play the two other countries in their group. Each tie will consist of one ATP singles match, one WTA singles match and one mixed doubles match. The top team from each group will advance to the quarter-finals, with one quarter-final spot also awarded to the best runner-up country in both Perth and Sydney.
The groups have been announced for the 2026 United Cup:
PERTH
Group A
United States
Spain
Argentina
Group C
Italy
France
Switzerland
Group E
Great Britain
Greece
Japan
SYDNEY
Group B
Canada
Belgium
China
Group D
Australia
Czechia
Norway
Group F
Germany
Poland
Netherlands
The fourth edition of the United Cup will be played in Perth (from 2 January 2026) and Sydney (from 3 January). The host cities will each stage group play and quarter-finals, with four countries advancing to the semi-finals (10 January 2026) and final (11 January) in Sydney.
The full schedule can be found here.
The 2026 United Cup will offer a minimum of US $11,806,190 in total prize money and participation fees, with a minimum of US $5,903,345 each for ATP and WTA players, respectively. The total prize money is split into three components: participation fee, per team wins and prize money.
A full list of broadcasters for the 2026 United Cup can be found here.
Hashtag: #UnitedCup
Facebook: United Cup
TikTok: @unitedcuptennis
YouTube: United Cup
X: @unitedcuptennis
Instagram: @unitedcuptennis
United States won the third edition of the United Cup in 2025 by defeating Poland in the championship match in Sydney (Read more). Fritz, Gauff, Denis Kudla, Danielle Collins, Robert Galloway and Desirae Krawczyk competed for United States across the event.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]While 2025 marked Learner Tien’s breakthrough season on the ATP Tour, the blueprint was drawn a year earlier, when the lefty proved himself at ITF World Tennis Tour events and ATP Challenger tournaments.
Far from the bright lights of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which Tien won on Sunday to join an elite list of former champions including Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the American was building his foundation.
Flashback to early 2024, and Tien endured a three-month layoff due to a seventh-rib injury that made moving his dominant arm difficult. Tien’s rapid rise ever since has rarely slowed. A part of why Tien stands where he does today is the ATP Challenger circuit, long regarded as the launchpad for rising stars. Even the sport’s greatest names, including the ‘Big Three’ had to pass through Challenger events.
Tien enjoyed a decorated junior career, twice winning the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championship (2022, 2023). He also twice reached the final of junior Slam tournaments. Tien announced his pro arrival in 2024, notably building a 28-match winning streak that included four ITF World Tennis Tour title runs and his first Challenger trophy.
“Playing tournaments like that really sets you up to take that next step,” Tien said Sunday after winning in Jeddah. “I think the amount of matches you have to play, especially if you win them — I think the confidence it gives you, really boosts you to reach the next level.”
Tien’s opponent in his maiden Challenger final appearance in Bloomfield Hills was countryman Nishesh Basavareddy, who he rematched in the Jeddah semi-finals last week. That Challenger meeting between Tien and Basavareddy was just the third final in Challenger history to feature two American teenagers. Tien, then 18 years old, needed a deciding set in all five of his matches that week.
“I was just really happy and relieved to get through all of them,” Tien said at the time. “I’m really happy to get my first Challenger. That was one of the goals that I wanted to cross off my list this year.”
Tien accomplished his goal of claiming one Challenger title and then some. He finished the 2024 season with a hat-trick of Challenger trophies, also triumphing in Las Vegas and Fairfield. He tallied a standout 35-9 match record at that level. In Las Vegas, Tien raced past former No. 17 Bernard Tomic 6-0, 6-1 in a 39-minute final, the shortest championship match in Challenger history.
<img alt=”Learner Tien in action at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Fairfield, California.” style=”width:100%” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/14/13/54/tien-fairfieldch-2024.jpg” />
Learner Tien in action at the 2024 Fairfield Challenger. Credit: Taube – Grossman Pro Tennis Tournament
The California native joined Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and Taylor Fritz on an exclusive list of Americans to win three Challenger titles before their 19th birthday.
“If you would have told me six months ago that this is how my year would’ve looked, I probably would’ve been a bit skeptical,” Tien told commentator Mike Cation after winning the Fairfield Challenger.
Before Tien went on his stretch of 28 consecutive match wins, he posted a graphic on Instagram of two pickaxe-wielding diggers in a dirt tunnel. One gave up just short of the prize; the other kept swinging, inching closer to the diamonds he hoped — but didn’t know — lay on the other side.
That relentless mindset, evident in Tien’s steady rise, has translated into tangible results. The 20-year-old won his first tour-level title in November in Metz and finished the season at a career-high No. 28 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Upon returning to the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, where last year he was a finalist, Tien went one step further to claim a $502,250 champion’s payout.
It is safe to say Tien’s ‘up and coming’ days have passed. Tien has arrived at the top of the sport. The intimate Challenger venues and the chase for a breakthrough are now part of his past. Tien successfully used those experiences to spring himself to where he is today.
“I think Challengers are great,” Tien said. “I think it prepares you to play a lot of matches in a row. Matches there aren’t easy.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]