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Meet Jakub Paul, the Cinderella story of United Cup 2026

The United Cup has its Cinderella story.

Jakub Paul, the little-known 26-year-old Swiss, wasn’t even sure he’d get to play mixed doubles in the tournament. But with Stan Wawrinka foregoing mixed doubles play early in the tournament due to back-to-back three-hour singles marathons, opportunity arose. The World No. 81 seized it.

Teaming with Belinda Bencic, Paul has won three deciding mixed doubles rubbers and four overall to play a key role in sending Switzerland to its first United Cup final on Sunday.

“For me, it’s still surreal,” Paul told ATPTour.com in Sydney after he and Bencic defeated singles stars Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens in Saturday’s semi-finals. “I can’t really believe that we are in the final yet because I don’t think anyone expected this…

“But these are the moments I practise for. We knew mixed doubles was always going to be important and Stan gave me the chance to play. So I felt I had to really be ready, give my best. Of course, I never expected to win all those four matches. Now that we’re in the final, we want to give everything and let’s go for the title.”

Notable is how Paul has approached the challenge with the likes of Grand Slam champions Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Vavassori standing across the net.

Far from being overwhelmed by the big stage and playing for his country, he has played fearless tennis, poaching with confidence and drilling passing shots in behind opponents at net.

Despite being far more experienced, Bencic has empowered Paul to adopt a ‘large and in charge’ attitude on court. “It’s just amazing to see him play and how brave he is,” she said.

“When Belinda tells me to go, I just go,” Paul said. “That’s a bit the doubles player coming out in me. If you make a call, you have to stick to it because at the baseline she doesn’t know if I’m actually going to go or not. So it’s just better to go, and it’s been working out.”

Paul picked up the sport like many kids do, tagging along with his father and older brother to his local club in Chur. When his potential emerged, Paul relocated to an academy three hours away in Kreuzlingen, staying in the dorms and returning home on weekends.

“I don’t really like change and at 13 I didn’t want to move out from home but after a couple of months I managed it well and really liked it. I stayed for five years,” Paul said.

At 18 he moved to Biel to practise at the Swiss Federation’s training base and in the same year in his only singles appearance at a junior Grand Slam, he qualified for the US Open boys’ event and won two rounds. That led to a meeting with Roger Federer.

“Roger actually saw that,” Paul said. “Once I got back home Severin Luthi called me and said that Roger would like to practise because he had a house quite close to where I live in the mountains. He invited me for an evening and of course I went.”

Currently No. 341 in the PIF ATP Rankings for singles and 81 for doubles, Paul is caught between sacrificing potentially lucrative doubles opportunities at Tour-level with trying to build his singles ranking at ATP Challengers.

“It’s not an easy decision but at the moment I still want to push in singles,” he said. “I still feel I have potential and a couple of months ago I was at my highest rank of 288.

“On the other hand, doubles is going much better being Top 80 and I have the chance to play Slams, so it gets very interesting. I’m still playing Challengers where’s it’s possible to combine singles and doubles.

“If I play a doubles final on Saturday and then have to play singles qualies in a different city on Sunday, it’s difficult. For now I can still manage it, but in the end I have to pay my bills and if I can make more money in doubles, I might have to switch.”

But for one more day at least, Paul’s full focus is on [mixed] doubles as he contemplates the possibility of suiting up for another tie-deciding mixed with Bencic in the United Cup final.

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Dominant Sabalenka reaches Brisbane final

World number one Aryna Sabalenka reaches the final of the Brisbane International for the third year in a row with victory over Karolina Muchova.

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Bergs survives Wawrinka to send Belgium-Switzerland United Cup SF to the mixed

Zizou Bergs has sent the Belgium-Switzerland United Cup semi-final to a deciding mixed doubles after a gruelling 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 win over Stan Wawrinka in brutal 41-degree Sydney heat Saturday.

Earlier, Belinda Bencic kept her undefeated season-opening run at the United Cup in tact in dramatic fashion as she outlasted Elise Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0) to put Switzerland up 1-0.

Backing up his consecutive wins over World No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 18 Jakub Mensik, Bergs rallied from 40/0 on Wawrinka’s serve at 4-3 in the third set to claim the decisive break seemingly from nowhere in a match that had featured just six break points to that stage.

Wawrinka, the 40-year-old three-time Grand Slam champion, has played inspired tennis to kick off his farewell season. But breaking serve just once across four matches has proved costly as he slipped to 1-3 in singles matches during the tournament.

“Stan played really well and I really had to battle it out today,” Bergs said.

“It was hard to control the ball on return and he served very good; it was very hard for me. To get rhythm is very tough. I’m just happy I found the solution.”

Bergs will team with Mertens in the mixed doubles against Bencic and Jakub Paul, who have won all three mixed rubbers (two of them tie-clinching) this week.

Bergs is looking to erase the heartache of his last outing in the Davis Cup semi-finals, when he let slip seven match points against Italian Flavio Cobolli while attempting to send the tie to a deciding doubles.

Bergs, 26, won 31 matches last year, more than doubling his career match wins tally. He begins the year at No. 42 in the PIF ATP Rankings, just three places below his career-high.

Playing his 25^th and final season, Wawrinka began the United Cup with an inspired third-set tie-break win over World No. 27 Arthur Rinderknech in Perth and a third-set tie-break loss to Cobolli. He fell in straight sets to Sebastian Baez in a quarter-final in Perth.

Bencic improved to 7-0 across singles and mixed doubles during the tournament after beating Mertens.

Mertens beat Bencic in their only previous meeting, back in 2021, but the 28-year-old Bencic who came into the tilt in more impervious form, with a 6-0 record across Switzerland’s first three ties. While Mertens had back-to-back tough tussles against Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova after a straight-sets win over Zhu Lin, Bencic hadn’t come close to losing a set against Leolia Jeanjean, Jasmine Paolini and Solana Sierra to lead Switzerland to the final four.

She was two games away from an uncomplicated 6-3, 6-4 victory before Mertens pushed the match the distance. But the Belgian then denied Bencic two chances to knot the second set at 5-5 before breaking serve, claiming a set in which she previously saw a 3-1 lead erased.

That set the stage for a dramatic third set, in which Mertens came from 3-1 down, saved a pair of break points that would’ve given Bencic a 4-1 lead, and was two points away from the win with Bencic serving at 30-30, down 6-5. But Bencic won the last nine points of the match following an in-the-moment decision to change her racquet to a freshly-strung one at that stage, wrapping up victory in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

“It feels like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders — I was so stressed; I really wanted to do well, and today I felt so much pressure to not let my team down,” Bencic said afterwards.

On the racquet change, she sheepishly confessed: “My brain turned off and let my instincts take over.”

“I think it was just a feeling, and I played with my back against the wall,” she added. “I was really focused on myself, on breathing, and I’m super happy that I stayed tough in the important moments.”

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Fonseca to miss Adelaide due to back injury

Joao Fonseca has further delayed the start of his 2026 season after withdrawing from the Adelaide International.

The 19-year-old Brazilian last week pulled out of the Brisbane International presented by ANZ due to a lower back injury, and he will now skip the ATP 250 in Adelaide for the same reason.

“Unfortunately I’m not able to play here,” said Fonseca in a press conference. “It’s difficult to make this decision. I felt those days that we were practising, every day feeling a little bit better, but it’s difficult to say that I’m a hundred per cent.

“We are trying our best to recover a hundred per cent to play the Australian Open, which is our main goal. That decision is not made. We want to play, we think that it’s going to be possible. So we want to focus on the recovery, and unfortunately I couldn’t play here, and I hope to come back stronger next year.”

The No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fonseca will now head to Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open, where he made a big impact on event debut in 2025. After coming through qualifying, he upset then-World No. 9 Andrey Rublev in straight sets in his first main-draw match at a major.

Fonseca lifted his first ATP Tour trophy in Buenos Aires last February before claiming the biggest title of his career at the ATP 500 in Basel in October. The 2024 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF champion, he hit his career high of World No. 24 in early November.

“I was born with something in my back and sometimes it’s more tight,” said Fonseca. “I already had a stress fracture five years ago, but it’s something that it’s going to be in my body, so I need to deal with it. I’m just trying my best to recover. We did a MRI, and it’s nothing very serious, but can be serious, so we want to be a hundred per cent to play.”

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ITF to review wildcard entries after viral performance

The International Tennis Federation says it will review its procedures for awarding wildcards after a female player’s “unacceptable” performance went viral on social media.

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Hewitt no regrets about De Minaur sitting out decisive United Cup mixed doubles

Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt had not regrets about resting Alex de Minaur in the decisive mixed doubles against Poland in the United Cup quarter-finals Friday night in Sydney.

After his two-hour, 18 minute victory over Hubert Hurkacz to send the tie to a deciding mixed doubles, de Minaur did not front up for mixed with Storm Hunter, like he did when Australia needed the mixed point to beat Czechia Tuesday to advance through the group stages.

Hunter teamed with John-Patrick Smith in a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa.

“Alex was feeling a few tweaks the last few days,” Hewitt said. “He’s been doing a lot of training in the off-season to get ready for five-set matches. We decided the best thing for his body moving forward was not to put his hand up to play mixed tonight.

“Also, if you are that second match, to turn around straightaway and switch on. You just don’t want to risk injury as well at certain times, especially the amount of moving he had to do tonight against a bloody quality player out there.”

De Minaur produced a heroic performance in the singles, saving nine break points across his first four service games before going on a streak of winning 21 consecutive points on serve through the late stages of the second set.

He won 82 per cent of first serves for the match, a vast improvement from 55 per cent and eight double faults in a scrappy opening-tie loss to Casper Ruud earlier in the tournament.

“I think what was a little bit strange for me was the amount of double-faults,” de Minaur said. “That’s something I don’t normally hit. Obviously that was what felt like an anomaly. We got back to the practice court, just worked on a couple things, a couple different feels.

“I’m very happy with my serving performance the following two matches, kind of showing all the work that I put in. Of course, if I can land first serves and play with a lot of first serves, it makes my life a whole lot easier. Makes me definitely a more dangerous opponent.”

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Medvedev finds his range, stays on course for Brisbane title

Daniil Medvedev recovered from a slow start on Friday before remaining on track in his title pursuit at the Brisbane International presented by ANZ.

The top seed was initially outgunned by lucky loser Kamil Majchrzak in the first set, but adopted a more aggressive approach to prevail 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 and book his spot in the semi-finals. Medvedev, who reached the championship match in his only previous appearance in Brisbane in 2019, is chasing his 22nd tour-level trophy this week after a strong finish to 2025.

“I’m super happy with myself” 😊@DaniilMedwed comes back from a set down to defeat Majchrzak in Brisbane 👏@BrisbaneTennis | #BrisbaneInternational pic.twitter.com/4hLEdEv5eK

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 9, 2026

“I think it was a high-quality match. I would honestly say it was a Top 10 match in terms of shotmaking,” said Medvedev, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. “I’m happy with myself… I managed to stay composed and hit some great shots to win the match.”

By reaching his 52nd tour-level semi-final on hard courts, Medvedev broke his tie with Gael Monfils for the second most among active players, trailing only Novak Djokovic (127). Against Majchrzak, Medvedev dropped just five points on serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, in the deciding set.

Medvedev next plays Alex Michelsen, who edged countryman Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6(7) for his 50th tour-level win on hard courts. Michelsen was rock solid behind serve, saving the only break point he faced, but he was significantly helped by Korda’s 37 unforced errors during their one-hour, 39-minute clash.

In the bottom half of the draw, Aleksandar Kovacevic and Brandon Nakashima scored contrasting wins to set an all-American semi-final in Brisbane. Kovacevic weathered 24 aces from 6’8” Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to eventually prevail 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3, while Nakashima eased past Belgian qualifier Raphael Collignon 6-3, 6-3 to reach his 10th ATP Tour semi-final.

“I’m super happy with the way I played. I knew it was going to be a very tough match, he had a couple of great wins here already,” Nakashima said of Collignon, who downed two-time Brisbane champion Grigor Dimitrov in the second round. “I knew I had to bring my best game, and I’m happy I did it in the end.”

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United Cup SF Preview: USA v Poland, Belgium v Switzerland

Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek arrive in the United Cup semi-finals with a point to prove on Saturday in Sydney.

Last year in the final, Taylor Fritz struck late in a deciding-set tie-break to clinch the title for Team USA after Coco Gauff had earlier beaten Swiatek — spoiling Poland’s bid for the trophy. If Hurkacz and Swiatek can exact revenge this time, they’ll ensure a new name is engraved on the trophy on Sunday.

In the first tie of the day, three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka will aim to add another memorable chapter to the early part of his farewell season when Team Switzerland meets Team Belgium. Belinda Bencic, unbeaten in singles and in mixed doubles, faces Elise Mertens before Wawrinka tackles Zizou Bergs later in the tie.

Your final four are confirmed 🤝

What a day we have in store! Who do you think is going through to the final? pic.twitter.com/catClF5jfr

— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 9, 2026

USA vs. Poland [5:30 p.m.] The opening match of this tie pits two former WTA Finals winners and rivals — Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff — against each other, with Swiatek looking to extend her perfect 3-0 run at this year’s United Cup.

Swiatek has been a standout for Poland, producing authoritative singles wins and helping her side reach the semis for the fourth consecutive edition. While Gauff suffered defeat to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the group stage, she has been central to the United States’ defence of its title.

Fritz and Hurkacz will then renew their rivalry in a match loaded with narrative. Fritz holds a 4-2 Lexus ATP Head2Head lead, while Hurkacz has been a constant threat this week following his return from knee surgery, producing one of the tournament’s biggest upsets with a straight-sets victory over World No. 3 Alexander Zverev.

With both teams brimming with firepower and history, this tie carries a strong revenge theme: Swiatek and Hurkacz aiming to overturn past disappointment against American foes who lifted the trophy in Sydney last season.

Switzerland vs. Belgium [10 a.m.] Bencic has been the driving force behind Switzerland’s run, remaining unbeaten across three singles matches and partnering Jakub Paul for three mixed doubles victories — two of them in decisive rubbers. The 28-year-old will look to level her rivalry with Elise Mertens, who claimed their only previous meeting, though Bencic is well aware the tie could once again hinge on the mixed doubles.

“He’s a great doubles player right now,” Bencic said of Paul. “I knew how good he can play. It’s more impressive on the court. He’s definitely helping me so much. Stan is, of course, coaching us great. We have great energy on the court.”

Wawrinka, who logged more than seven-and-a-half hours in Perth (one win, two losses), opted for another rest day on Friday after arriving in Sydney. With extreme heat forecast, the tie has been moved forward by 30 minutes to a 10 a.m. start, and the 40-year-old will need to be fully refreshed for his clash with Bergs.

“It’s going to be really hot and humid,” Wawrinka told ATPTour.com in Sydney. “The positive thing is that there’s a roof, so the sun is not going to be directly on us. We expect some really tough conditions, but we are ready for it. It’s going to be the same for us and Belgium, and I think it’s going to be a big fight.”

Bergs is full of confidence after straight-sets victories over World No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 18 Jakub Mensik en route to the semi-finals, marking the first time in his career he has defeated Top 20 opponents in back-to-back matches.

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Wawrinka handed Australian Open wildcard in final season

Stan Wawrinka receives an Australian Open wildcard as he begins the final season of his career, but Australian Nick Kyrgios misses out.

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Gritty De Minaur sends Australia-Poland United Cup QF to mixed doubles

Australia’s Alex de Minaur produced one of the grittiest opening-set performances of his career Friday night in Sydney to set up a 6-4, 4-6 6-4 win over Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz and send the last United Cup quarter-final to a deciding mixed doubles.

The World No. 6 saved all nine break points he faced across his first four service games – including four in the second game of the match – to keep Australia alive after former World No. 1 Iga Swiatek brushed aside Aussie teen Maya Joint 6-1, 6-1.

“Nights like these… these are just the best,” De Minaur said. “I love playing here. The atmosphere from the first ball to the last was amazing.

“I just had to fight him off from the first point to the last. It was a huge mental effort and we’re still alive. I’m glad I was able to bounce back after losing that second set. I had some dark thoughts in my head.”

The tie will now be decided by the mixed doubles, with the winner advancing to Saturday night’s semi-final against defending champion United States. None of the four singles players will compete in the mixed doubles. Australians John-Patrick Smith and Storm Hunter will take on Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa.

Playing his first tournament since last year’s grass season, Hurkcaz was near untouchable in his first three service games when he dropped just one point on serve. But growing increasingly frustrated by his inability to cash in on his chances in return games, his unforced error count ticked up in the closing stages of the set.

After De Minaur saved three break points to level at 4-4, the 26-year-old claimed the decisive break and then won 21 consecutive points on serve before unexpectedly dropping serve at the end of the second set.

But inspired by deafening roars from Aussie fans inside Ken Rosewall Arena, De Minaur went into lockdown mode with just two unforced errors in the final set en route to his eighth victory in 11 United Cup singles appearances.

Earlier, Swiatek overpowered Australia rising star Joint, capturing a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win in just 57 minutes at the United Cup quarterfinals.

From start to finish, the World No. 2’s experience prevailed as the Swiatek earned her second career win over Joint: Swiatek won 6-0, 6-2 in the Seoul semifinals, a tournament she’d go on to win. Swiatek also earned her 15th singles win at the United Cup.

“I think the intensity — the balls get quite heavy so I’m happy that I was always pushing forward,” Swiatek said on court. “I got pretty confident at the end so for sure it was a good match.”

Joint held serve to have an initial 1-0 lead, but after, the Swiatek show ensued. The six-time Grand Slam champion overwhelmingly controlled the rallies, often forcing Joint to scramble from side-to-side just to keep the rally alive.

Swiatek won six straight games to win the first set with a breadstick in 26 minutes and had garnered “Iga” chants from her Polish supporters early on into the match. Her set point, a cross-court forehand winner that sped past an outstretched Joint, summed up the match best.

In the second, Swiatek and Joint traded holds, the latter of which earned some encouragement from the home crowd. Similarly, Swiatek recaptured the lead with a break, and didn’t look back, en route to the double breadstick win.

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