British number ones Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu could partner each other in mixed doubles after agreeing to play at next year’s United Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n
Great Britain, Poland and Australia are the first three teams to be confirmed for the mixed-team event, which will take place in Perth and Sydney from 2 to 11 January the week before the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Draper pulled out of the 2025 event with injury before Britain exited at the quarter-finals, while 2026 will be Raducanu’s United Cup debut.<\/p>\n
“To see British [number ones] in Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu line up for the first time will bring new star power to the tournament,” said United Cup director Stephen Farrow.<\/p>\n
Eighteen teams – each featuring up to three male and three female players – will be split into six groups of three, with teams playing those in their groups in a round robin format.<\/p>\n
Each tie will comprise one men’s singles and one women’s singles match featuring the number one-ranked singles players, and one mixed doubles match.<\/p>\n
Draper and Raducanu could partner in the doubles, though it is likely team organisers will select two doubles specialists for the squad.<\/p>\n
Ranking points will be on offer and could prove crucial as Raducanu, the current world number 29, tries to qualify as one of the 32 seeds for the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
“I’m honoured to be able to make my United Cup debut in January,” Raducanu said.<\/p>\n
“Being able to play for Team GB with my team-mates is a unique opportunity and week to enjoy.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to be able to experience a new format on the tour, represent my country and spend a couple extra weeks in Australia.”<\/p>\n
Poland have confirmed the participation of world number two Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz, while world number six Alex de Minaur and Maya Joint will represent Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British number ones Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu could partner each other in mixed doubles after agreeing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-233215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}