TICKETS: Support Team Belgium at United Cup 2026<\/a><\/p>\nBergs last competed at the Davis Cup Final 8 event in Bologna, helping Belgium into the semifinals where he ultimately lost an epic against Italy\u2019s Flavio Cobolli \u2013 a match many believe to be one of the best contests of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m pretty sure I cannot fight in a normal tournament that I’m doing what I’m playing for my country,\u201d said Bergs, after going down 17-15 in a deciding set tiebreak.<\/p>\n
Despite that heartbreak, it was another notable moment in a career-best season for the 26-year-old. Bergs began 2025 ranked world No.71 but cracked the top 40 by October, after a quarterfinal showing at the Shanghai Masters.<\/p>\n
Bergs reached two ATP singles finals, in remarkable parallel to Mertens; as he was progressing to the final in Auckland, she was making her way into the WTA final in Hobart the same week. And when he reached the \u2018s-Hertogenbosch final, she won the title at the concurrent women\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
That trophy was one of two WTA titles for Mertens in 2025, who like Bergs began the year much lower in the rankings than she finished. She also won the singles title in Singapore and eventually returned to the top 20 after opening the season at world No.34.<\/p>\n
Yet even with Mertens\u2019 prowess in both singles and doubles, and Bergs\u2019 ascent as a singles force, Team Belgium captain Christopher Heyman has options when it comes to determining mixed doubles combinations.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s Greet Minnen, a top-50 doubles player as recently as 2024 who also peaked at world No.59 in singles. There\u2019s Sander Gille, an ATP doubles star who rose as high as world No.18 in late 2023. And there\u2019s also the experienced Lara Salden and Kimmer Coppejans, the latter a Grand Slam junior champion who went on to crack the ATP singles top 100.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a depth in the ranks reflecting the nation\u2019s proud tennis legacy. Could it translate to United Cup glory?<\/p>\n
Given Belgium\u2019s history of team success \u2013 their 2025 Davis Cup semifinal run followed finals appearances in 2015 and 2017, which came after a Billie Jean King Cup title in 2001 and another final in 2006 \u2013 and the talent of the players making that possible, another strong showing in January 2026 would feel apt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium\u2019s return to the United Cup in 2026 will serve as yet another reminder of the country\u2019s depth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-378389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}