United Cup: Cameron Norrie & Katie Swan give Great Britain a perfect start
Great Britain take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five opening match against Australia in the United Cup event in Sydney.
Great Britain take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five opening match against Australia in the United Cup event in Sydney.
Novak Djokovic says his deportation from Australia will stay with him for the rest of his life.
Alize Cornet passed the test of a first-time encounter with flying colours on Thursday at the United Cup, defeating Maria Lourdes Carle 6-2, 6-1 in one hour and 15 minutes to give Team France a 1-0 lead over Team Argentina in Perth.
Cornet, a quarter-finalist at the 2022 Australian Open, had never faced No.147-ranked Carle before. Consequently, the first five games were filled with extended baseline exchanges as both players probed each other’s games while refusing to miss.
It was University of Georgia alumna Carle, 22, who ran out of ideas first. A lapse into error handed Cornet the first break for 4-2, and the Frenchwoman seized momentum firmly to reel off six straight games, including 13 of the last 14 points of the first set.
Punishing Carle’s second serves and getting the better of the all-court rallies, Cornet was in control at 2-0 in the second set — until she squandered three game points for 3-0. Carle took advantage, breaking back with a vicious slice to halt the run of games against her.
But Cornet refused to let that become a turning point. A booming backhand winner down the line regained her advantage for 3-1 and she did not drop another game, sealing her first match point with an authoritative smash.
The world’s best tennis players will be competing for more than AUD $100 million prize money this summer.
The historic prize pool is a result of a record $76.5 million in prize money for the Australian Open (a 3.4 per cent increase) as well as the addition of the lucrative new United Cup event.
“It is critical to the continued success of the Australian tennis summer that we provide strong and relevant playing opportunities and ensure that the best players in the world are compensated appropriately. We want to ensure Australia is the launchpad for the global season and that we see as much of them as possible. They inspire us all to engage in this great sport as well as inspiring future generations,” Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said.
“We are delighted to have more than $100 million in prize money on offer across the Australian summer, along with more chances to compete across the country. We’ve worked tirelessly alongside the ATP and WTA to launch the exciting new United Cup, which includes its own significant ranking points and prize money, a further two WTA and ATP events in Adelaide, the Hobart International and an upgraded ATP 100 Challenger in Canberra.
“At the Australian Open we’ve upped prize money for every round from qualifying, through to the finals, with the major increases in the early rounds, where these substantial rewards help players invest in their own careers and in many cases, set themselves up for success throughout the year.”
2023 Australian Open Singles Prize Money (Men & Women)
| Round | Prize Money |
| Champion | $2,975,000 |
| Finalist | $1,625,000 |
| Semi-finalist | $925,000 |
| Quarter-finalist | $555,250 |
| R16 | $338,250 |
| R32 | $227,925 |
| R64 | $158,850 |
| R128 | $106,250 |
2023 Australian Open Doubles Prize Money (Men & Women per team)
| Round | Prize Money |
| Champion | $695,000 |
| Finalist | $370,000 |
| Semi-finalist | $210,000 |
| Quarter-finalist | $116,500 |
| R16 | $67,250 |
| R32 | $46,500 |
| R128 | $30,975 |
Australian Open 2023 prize money fast facts:
Australian Summer of Tennis Prize Money Fast Facts:
Exceeds $100 million for the first time – up 10.8 per cent on 2022
The United Cup, an ATP-WTA event presented in partnership with Tennis Australia, offers USD $15 million in prize money as well as up to 500 Pepperstone ATP Ranking points and 500 WTA Ranking points.
Just some of the initiatives for players at AO 2023 include:
Enhancing the experience for players competing in the AO Junior Championships is another focus for 2023, with a range of initiatives designed to welcome them into the Grand Slam family, including a $500 travel grant for all competitors.
Cameron Norrie ensured Great Britain made a winning start to its United Cup tie Thursday when he powered past Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-3 to give his nation a 1-0 lead against Australia in Group D.
In front of a lively crowd in Sydney, the World No. 14 did his best to quieten the Australian supporters, hitting his flat backhand with consistent depth to keep De Minaur pinned behind the baseline for large periods of the 90-minute encounter.
“I am feeling great,” Norrie said. “First match of the year there is a lot of nerves. It is a tough task to play Demon in Australia on this court, him playing at home. He loves playing here and it was not easy. I ran a lot, absolutely drenched three shirts. A lot of running and it was humid in there. I enjoyed the atmosphere and it was nice to get the win as well.”
The 27-year-old, who won 87 per cent (26/30) of his first-serve points, crucially rallied from 1-1, 0/40 on serve in the first set, gaining momentum from that moment to take control of the first set. Norrie then earned a break in the second set and won the majority of the lung-busting exchanges to triumph.
With his entertaining victory, Norrie has levelled his ATP Head2Head series against De Minaur at 1-1, having fallen to the World No. 24 in Barcelona last season.
Katie Swan will aim to double Great Britain’s lead when she faces Zoe Hives in the final match of the day. The United Cup is a new mixed-teams event featuring 18 countries across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. Played over two days, ties will be comprised of two ATP and two WTA singles matches and one mixed doubles match.
United Cup 2023
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Sixteen years ago, 19-year-old Novak Djokovic lifted the third ATP Tour trophy of his career in Adelaide. The Serbian, now a 91-time tour-level titlist, will try to triumph in the Australian city once again next week when he takes on a tough field at the Adelaide International 1.
“The field is super strong. You have Medvedev, Felix, Rublev. You have really, really top guys,” Djokovic said Thursday. “Also in the opening rounds, you can play Thanasi Kokkinakis, who is title defender, right? That could be fun actually. Playing Thanasi in front of his home fans, could be fun.”
Djokovic knows he will need to be sharp from the first ball at the ATP 250. As the 35-year-old noted, some of the world’s best players will be competing, including former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, red-hot Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, 2022 Nitto ATP Finals semi-finalist Andrey Rublev, Rolex Paris Masters champion Holger Rune and Italian Jannik Sinner.
“I always have faith in myself and belief that I can win every tournament that I play in. I think with the career that I’ve had, I feel like I deserve to have that kind of I guess mental approach,” Djokovic said. “Things are obviously different. Lots of young guys on the tour, [there has been] kind of a shift of generations. But [Rafael] Nadal and myself, [we are] still going strong from the older guys.”
Djokovic added: “I know what I need to do in order to compete with them, in order to be one of the contenders for the title here and in Melbourne. The good memories and good history that I have on Australian soil gives me a lot of positive emotions and belief that I can do it again, that I can go far.”
The Serbian has long enjoyed success in Australia. He has won nine of his 21 Grand Slam championships at the Australian Open.
“The goal is to peak in Melbourne. That’s where I want to play my best. I guess at this stage of my career, with all the achievements, every big tournament win is possibility to make more history. Of course, that’s very humbling for me. It’s also a big challenge, but it’s a huge motivation,” Djokovic said. “I don’t lack inspiration and motivation to play my best”.
For now, Djokovic is fully focussed on making a good start to the year in Adelaide. This morning, he was watching highlights of when he defeated Australian Chris Guccione to triumph in the city in 2007. Djokovic will hope those memories help push him to success next week.
“It’s a great place. People in Adelaide and generally in Australia love tennis, love sports. It’s a sporting nation,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully we’re going to have a lot of people watching and we can have some good time.”
One of the intriguing elements of the ATP Challenger Tour is the chance to witness the game’s brightest young stars before they evolve into household names at the season’s most prestigious events.
Each week players work hard to secure points, prize money, and the chance to launch their career to new heights. In 2022, several youngsters made a sudden impact on the Challenger Tour and now they hold high hopes of furthering their careers this upcoming season.
ATPTour.com looks at five Challenger Tour players to keep an eye on in 2023, including Frenchman Luca Van Assche, who looks to build upon his late-season surge while Italy’s Francesco Passaro hopes to use the valuable Milan experience as a stepping stone in his career.
Luca Van Assche
The 18-year-old, who won the 2021 Roland Garros boys’ singles title, has won nine of his past 10 matches, including collecting his maiden Challenger title at the Maia Challenger. The Frenchman was also a finalist at the Lisbon, Brest, and Valencia Challengers.
Now at a career-high 137 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Van Assche aims to continue his strong run to open the new season, including at the Canberra Challenger, where the teen will compete next week.
“My goal is to continue like how I ended the year, with a lot of confidence,” Van Assche told ATPTour.com. “I’m just working hard every day and my goal is to be in the Top 100 as soon as possible.”
Francesco Passaro
Following the Italian’s standout year, which earned him a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals, Passaro is closing in on making his Top 100 debut. A five-time Challenger finalist in 2022, Passaro earned his maiden title at the Trieste Challenger, where he rallied from a set down to defeat Zhang Zhizhen in the championship match.
Passaro was one of seven Italian #NextGenATP Challenger champions this past season. The Perugia native joined countrymen Matteo Arnaldi, Mattia Bellucci, Flavio Cobolli, Francesco Maestrelli, Lorenzo Musetti, and Luca Nardi.
Juncheng Shang
At the Lexington Challenger, the Chinese teen became the youngest (17 years, 6 months) player to win a Challenger title since Carlos Alcaraz at Alicante in 2020 and the youngest Chinese champion in Challenger Tour history.
After a runner-up finish in Granby and a semi-final appearance in Las Vegas, the lefty cracked the Top 200 for the first time. The Beijing native, who became the first player born in 2005 to win a Challenger title, now sets his sights on a strong year with hopes of qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals.
Gabriel Diallo
Earlier this month, the 6’7” youngster announced he will forego his senior season at the University of Kentucky and turn professional. The Canadian had already seen his game translate well to the Challenger Tour. Now tennis will be his full-time job.
In August, only one week after claiming his first Challenger main-draw win in Vancouver, Diallo was lifting his maiden Challenger trophy. The Montreal native was unfased as he won on home soil in Granby and the following month finished runner-up at the Fairfield Challenger (l. Mmoh). The 21-year-old enters the new year as 227 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
Timofey Skatov
At the Challenger 125 event in Parma, Italy, Skatov became the only Kazakh Challenger champion of the year. The World No. 142 defeated Jozek Kovalik, who was on a nine-match winning streak, in the final.
Skatov, 21, plays his best tennis on clay, where he reached six Challenger semi-finals in 2022: Coquimbo, Lisbon, Braga, Seville, Roseto Degli Abruzzi-2, and Parma. Across four tournaments in September and October, the Kazakh won 14 of 16 matches and earned the highest-ranked win of his career, then-No. 71 Federico Coria, at the Coquimbo Challenger.
Taylor Fritz wasted little time in earning his first win of the season Thursday when he overcame Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 to give Team United States a 1-0 lead against Team Czech Republic at the United Cup.
Competing on Ken Rosewall Arena, the World No. 9 outlasted the 21-year-old Lehecka in the baseline exchanges, demonstrating great footwork to dictate on his forehand throughout the 75-minute clash in Sydney.
“In a team event, first match of the year, there are always some nerves coming out, so it is great to come out and get the team ahead,” Fritz said. “Hopefully loosen everyone else up. It is a tough position to play if behind, so it is really good for the team.”
The 25-year-old also raised his level when needed, saving both break points he faced in his first ATP Head2Head meeting against Lehecka.
”When I was down, I felt that I was coming up with big serves when I needed the free points,” Fritz said. “I don’t think from the ground I maybe played my best, but when I was down break point or 0/30 I was coming up with big serves.”
Fritz enters the 2023 season off the back of a career-best year which saw him win three tour-level titles and crack the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time. Lehecka also enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2022, reaching his maiden tour-level semi-final in Rotterdam before he advanced to the championship match at the Next Gen ATP Finals.
American Madison Keys will face Czech Marie Bouzkova in the second match of the Group C tie later on Thursday. The United Cup is a new mixed-teams event featuring 18 countries across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. Played over two days, ties will be comprised of two ATP and two WTA singles matches and one mixed doubles match.
The 2023 season is starting on a high.
Week 1 will feature the United Cup, the new 18-country, mixed-teams event. The world’s best players will be in action across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney, including Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Poland’s Iga Swiatek. ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to watch at the inaugural event.
1) Playing Captains: Five of the 18 countries competing in the inaugural United Cup feature playing captains: Bulgaria (Grigor Dimitrov), France (Edouard Roger-Vasselin), Greece (Petros Tsitsipas), Kazakhstan (Alexander Bublik) and Switzerland (Stan Wawrinka).
2) Nadal Leads Spanish Bid: World No. 2 Nadal headlines Team Spain at the United Cup. The 36-year-old performed impressively on Australian soil last season, winning an ATP 250 title in Melbourne before he captured the Australian Open crown. WTA star Paula Badosa and World No. 13 Pablo Carreno Busta will also feature for Spain against Team Australia and Team Great Britain in Group D.
3) Home Favourites Australia: Co-captains Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur will aim to bring home fans joy and guide Team Australia to the title in Sydney over the next 11 days. The home nation will be spearheaded by Alex de Minaur, with Ajla Tomljanovic the women’s No. 1 singles player. The team has been bonding in the lead-up to the mixed-nations event, having visited Campbells Cove earlier this week. Australia will be looking to use its collective team spirit on court to earn wins in Sydney.
4) Champions In Action: Several tour-level champions will look to bring their best when they compete on Ken Rosewall Arena over the coming days. The 29-time titlist Petra Kvitova plays for the Czech Republic, while two-time Nitto ATP Finals victor Alexander Zverev is set to return from injury to represent Germany. Indian Wells winner Taylor Fritz is in action for the United States alongside World No. 3 Jessica Pegula.
5) Return To Perth: This week’s United Cup action marks the first time the Western Australian capital has hosted an event on either the ATP Tour or Hologic WTA Tour since January 2020. Three teams in Group A and three in Group F will battle at RAC Arena from 29 December until 4 January, when they will attempt to qualify for the United Cup Finals to be held in Sydney from 6-8 January.
6) Team Greece Top Seeds: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari are the No. 1 singles players for Team Greece, the only squad in Perth featuring players ranked inside both the ATP and WTA Top 10s. Tsitsipas takes on Team Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in a blockbuster opening ATP singles match, and the World No. 4 could also team with Sakkari for the mixed doubles.
The pair has played together before at RAC Arena, at the 2019 Hopman Cup, where they notched notable mixed doubles wins against the USA’s Frances Tiafoe and Serena Williams, and Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Roger Federer. Can they lead their nation to further success this week in Perth?
7) French Strength In Depth: Team France features four singles players ranked inside the Top 50 on their respective Tours. Arthur Rinderknech (No. 44 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings), who reached his maiden ATP Tour final in Australia last season at the Adelaide International 2, and Adrian Mannarino (No. 46) will look to kickstart their 2023 seasons with strong showings in Perth. Their teammates this week include WTA World No. 4 Caroline Garcia and No. 36 Alize Cornet.
8) Brisbane Is Back: The list of Brisbane International winners includes stars like former World No. 1s Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick. Fans at the Queensland Tennis Centre enjoyed the first ATP Cup in the city in 2020, and will now get a taste of the inaugural United Cup. Switzerland playing captain Stan Wawrinka reached the semi-finals at the Brisbane ATP 250 in 2017 and will try to rely on those positive memories this week.
9) Polish Power: One of the countries to watch in Brisbane is Poland, led by WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and ATP World No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz. The country also has veteran leadership in former doubles World No. 1 Lukasz Kubot. Co-captain Agnieszka Radwanska, a WTA legend, also has mixed-teams experience having helped her country win the Hopman Cup in 2015.
10) Italy On The Rise: One of the biggest stories in the sport over the past few years has been the rise of Italian tennis. Matteo Berrettini has already helped his country to the championship match in the ATP Cup. Will the Italians be able to take it a step further in the United Cup, with Martina Trevisan on their side?
Leave it up to Iga Swiatek to change the trajectory.
In this case, we’re not talking about her on-court results. During Poland’s United Cup press conference Wednesday in Brisbane, Swiatek (in good fun) wanted to move on from the team camaraderie line of questioning.
To be fair, it’s safe to say her fellow Polish teammates are reveling in not only playing together at this inaugural team event, but have aspirations of succeeding.
“Yeah, pumped for the team, and we will try our best,” said Hubert Hurkacz, the ATP’s World No. 10.
Still, Swiatek was ready to change it up, which of course, led to questions on her 2022 season, where she finished as the top-ranked player by a landslide. Swiatek, who finished with more than twice as many rankings points as No. 2 Ons Jabeur, was quick to admit her season went far better than she could have imagined — but was also ready to move on.
“I’m going to try to kind of cut off everything that happened last year and just focus on the future, because I feel like I can take a lot of experience from these tournaments last year,” she said, “but I don’t want to really like hold on to that too much, because I want to go forward and kind of focus on my next goals.
“For sure all these press conferences are going to kind of remind me of everything, but my goal is to just focus on the future and try to improve as a tennis player.”
Sviate will hope that future involves a deep run at the United Cup, where Poland will try to battle past Kazakhstan and Switzerland in Group B.
With Swiatek and Hurkacz, as well as the leadership of former doubles World No. 1 Lukasz Kubot and co-captains Agnieszka Radwanska and Dawid Celt, Poland has plenty of experience on its side.
“We had experience before to play in the ATP Cup, now it’s United Cup. I think it’s a great thing, and we are going to continue this for the next years,” Kubot said. “I’m very pleased to be with the Polish team, especially right now it’s a big boom in our country with tennis.”
Radwanska is familiar with mixed-teams events, having lifted the 2015 Hopman Cup trophy for her country with Jerzy Janowicz.
“I’m very happy to be part of the team. Myself, I had a great experience playing Hopman Cup for the two times and winning that event as well,” Radwanska said. “I think it’s going to be a really interesting one, combined, ladies and gentlemen all together. I think it’s going to be a lot of good tennis the next few days.”
Poland will need to be sharp against Kazakhstan and Switzerland, both of which have playing captains. Former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka leads Switzerland, which also features WTA stars Belinda Bencic and Jil Teichmann.
“It’s always special to be in a team, especially when you represent your country,” Wawrinka said. “It’s something that I want to play my best, do the best I can. Hopefully I can really help the team.”
Alexander Bublik is the playing captain for Kazakhstan. The 25-year-old is thrilled not just for the event, but to be competing in Brisbane.
“It’s great to be back in Brisbane. Been here first time in [2018] when they hosted the ATP event here,” Bublik said. “It’s always been great memories, one of my favourite stops in Australia. Pretty excited to play here, centre court, and have this inaugural United Cup and be part of it.”
