The third edition of the mixed-team United Cup, an 18-nation, mixed-team competition, is being played across two Australian cities, Sydney at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre, and in Perth at the RAC Arena, over 10 days.
I’m really excited to be back, of course. I had a little bit of nerves at the start, and a little bit of rust, so I’m happy I, kind of, accepted that, and tried to fight through it. And after, I felt like it went smoother, I became a little bit more calm, and kind of was more able to focus on my tennis. Belinda Bencic
Action in the group stage opened in Perth, Western Australia on Friday, while it began in Sydney on Saturday.
Each city is hosting 3 groups of 3 countries for a total of 9 teams, competing in a round-robin format.
Ties are comprised of one men’s singles match, one women’s singles match, and a mixed doubles match.
Singles matches are best-of-three tiebreak sets, while the mixed are two tiebreak sets with a deciding match tiebreak (10 points) at one set-all.
Each group winner in each city will advance to the quarter-finals, with one quarter-final spot in each city awarded to the best runner-up from that city.
Quarter-final winners progress to the semi-finals and finals, both hosted in Sydney, with the teams advancing from Perth receiving a travel day and rest day on 2 and 3 January.
The semi-finals will be played on Saturday, 4 January, with the final taking place on Sunday, 5 January.
Germany are back to try to defend their title, while 2023 champions United States are the top-seeded squad, both competing initially in Perth.
Belinda Bencic led Team Switzerland to an opening win in Group D against Team France on Day 2 of the 2025 United Cup
© Jason McCawley/Getty Images
In Sydney on Saturday, Belinda Bencic led Switzerland to a 2-1 win over France to kick off their United Cup campaign in a Group D tie.
On the come-back trail after giving birth to her first child, Bencic put the Swiss on the board with a dominant 6-3 6-1 win over Chloe Paquet at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
France then levelled the tie when Ugo Humbert defeated Dominic Stricker, 6-3 7-5.
Stricker, guided by Bencic, found redemption after fighting off the French pair of Elizane Lechemia & Edouard Roger-Vasseli to win 6-1 7-6(4) in the deciding mixed doubles.
“[Stricker is] a little bit worse than the little one. At least, she cannot talk back,” Bencic joked. “It was a pleasure playing with Dominic. It’s so easy when it’s on his serve. I’m just chilling.”
The former World No 4, who is now ranked 487, returned to competitive tennis in October after giving birth in April, and is among 6 women competing at next month’s Australian Open using protected rankings.
“I’m really excited to be back, of course,” The 2021 Olympic gold medalist said on court after her singles win. “I had a little bit of nerves at the start, and a little bit of rust, so I’m happy I, kind of, accepted that, and tried to fight through it. And after, I felt like it went smoother, I became a little bit more calm, and kind of was more able to focus on my tennis.”
Bencic needed 87 minutes to get past the 123rd-ranked Paquet on the hard court, and notched up her first win at a tour event since her 3rd-round victory at the 2023 US Open over 15 months ago.
“I didn’t expect, of course, to be back so early,” Bencic said. “I definitely have a huge respect to all the moms there, what a woman goes through, the body changes.
“And everything is amazing, we couldn’t be happier at the moment. We are parents now, our lives have changed, but definitely for the better, and yeah, we are super excited with Bella. She’s here, we survived the flight to Australia, and I’m really, really happy.”
Bencic is travelling with her husband and fitness coach, Martin Hromkovic, their 8-month-old daughter and her mother.
“Yes, Bella is going to Australia,” Benic said from her home in Bratislava, Slovakia, a week before the family flew to Sydney. “It will be me, my mom [Dana], my husband and the baby. We’re honestly doing pretty well. She likes to come with us to the tennis, even to the gym. It’s cool that we can take her everywhere.”
In late October, 13 months after her last match in San Diego, Bencic split two matches at the ITF W75 in Hamburg, then went one better the next week in Luxembourg.
“I knew I had to get faster, my reaction time was still not there,” Bencic said. “But I worked on that stuff. By Fed Cup, I was already moving better.”
On Friday, Bencic spoke to the media ahead of the United Cup, and shared her thoughts on her progress and goals for the season.
“Well, I’m definitely improving every day,” she said. “So that’s very motivating for me to see improvement. I think my tennis is there. I think that’s like riding a bike. I don’t think that you lose that.
“But it’s definitely the physical side that I can still improve. I already did a lot of improvement. I think the most that I needed to improve was my movement, was the reaction and just physical condition.”
Belinda Bencic defeated France’s Chloe Paquet in straight sets in the women’s singles to put Switzerland 1-0 up
© David Gray/AFP via Getty Images
Bencic brought her resurgent form into her first meeting with Paquet, a tour veteran who cracked the Top 100 for the first time in her career earlier this year just after her 30th birthday.
From 2-3 down, Bencic won 4 games on the trot to claim the opening set, in which she fired 7 backhand winners to Paquet’s 1, and then extended her game-winning streak to 9 straight before the Frenchwoman got on the scoreboard again at 1-5 in the second set.
The 27-year old Swiss then routinely served out the match one game later to put Switzerland 1-0 up in tie.
Ugo Humbert of Team France levelled the tie against Switzerland with a win over Dominic Stricker on Saturday
© Jason McCawley/Getty Images
Humbert followed for France, and levelled the tie with a straight sets win over Dominic Stricker in 72 minutes.
“It was the first match of the year, so it was not easy after the preseason,” Humbert said. “I worked well. I felt much better at the end, and I’m super happy about my win today.”
Although the French left-hander fell behind by a break in the 2nd set, he remained composed enough to battle his way through to the tight win.
“I tried to push myself,” Humbert said. “At the end I had the break, my energy was going low, so I tried to push a little bit more, and I played really great tennis at the end, so it was a nice victory for me.”
Dominic Stricker & Belinda Bencic of Team Switzerland celebrate match point in their Group D doubles match against Elixane Lechemia & Edouard Roger-Vasselin of Team France
© Jason McCawley/Getty Images
There was no lack of drama in the decisive mixed doubles match that followed, in which Bencic & Stricker appeared to be in cruise control after losing just 12 points in the first set, but they were then made to work hard by Lechemia & Roger-Vasselin, who pushed matters into a tiebreak where the Swiss prevailed to ultimately win in 77 minutes.
“I saw her matches when she played with Roger, so it was not easy for me,” Stricker said, referring to fellow Swiss Roger Federer. “But we just had a good talk before the match, and then we came out hot, and it’s super great to win that match and that tie.”
Bencic said: “So important [to earn the win] and it was a pleasure playing with Dominic. It’s so easy when he’s on serve. I’m just chilling at the net, not touching the ball, so it’s super cool to play with him, and we had great energy on the court.”
The Swiss will need to recover quickly for their next tie against Italy on Sunday evening, while France will face Italy on Tuesday to complete Group D action.