As this 2026 WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz season unfurls, they are two of the most intriguing players based on their past performances — and, going forward, what the future holds.<\/p>\n
Naomi Osaka has won four Grand Slam singles titles, most recently the Australian Open nearly five years ago. Later that same year, Emma Raducanu was still a teenager when at the 2021 US Open, she became the first qualifier to win a major title.<\/p>\n
Since those crowning moments, neither has won a title. Can Osaka, 28, and the 23-year-old Raducanu — who both put together some encouraging results in 2025 and rose in the rankings — return to elite form?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunday may offer some emerging clues when they meet in a United Cup match pitting Great Britain against Japan at the RAC Arena in Perth. Later, another marquee singles matchup will be featured when Italy takes on Switzerland.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally difficult,\u201d Raducanu said. \u201cObviously, Naomi had a great end to the season as well. Yeah, just hope to give it all and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve played only once, last summer in Washington, D.C., when Raducanu was an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 winner in a Round of 16 match. There\u2019s some pressure on Osaka and Shintaro Mochizuki, both of whom lost in straight sets to Greek players on Friday. Osaka fell to Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to play the best players in the world straight off the bat, I think is a privilege,\u201d Osaka told reporters \u201cFor me, I really enjoy matches like that. I just feel like it’s going to be really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
After giving birth to a daughter in the summer of 2023, Osaka has gradually rediscovered her elite game, reaching the semifinals of the 2025 US Open, suggesting she soon might be a threat in Melbourne. This is the first United Cup experience for both Osaka and Raducanu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s a great way to start the year being part of a team environment,\u201d Raducanu said. \u201cIt’s a little bit easier to kind of settle into the year, which is so competitive and individual. It’s nice to share this with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another stellar match — the best strictly in terms of rankings in group play — sees No. 8 Jasmine Paolini versus No. 11 Belinda Bencic. Paolini is a two-time Grand Slam finalist, while Bencic won the singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n
Bencic won their first two meetings, but they played twice in 2025 with Paolini triumphing both times. The first match — at the United Cup — deserves an asterisk. Paolini was a 6-1, 6-1 winner, but it was Bencic\u2019s first match back after becoming a mother in 2024. It was much closer this past fall in a Ningbo quarterfinal won by Paolini 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.<\/p>\n
This is the Italian\u2019s third United Cup appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe some years ago I felt more pressure playing as a team,\u201d Paolini said. \u201cI couldn’t play well in Billie Jean King Cup. Then I get more relaxed. Hopefully this year it’s going to be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bencic comes in with some serious momentum after winning two matches in a 3-0 victory over France — including the decisive mixed doubles with Jakub Paul in a match-tiebreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a great day for us, thanks to Belinda to play so well and to show us the way,\u201d said Swiss captain Stan Wawrinka. \u201cWe are just living in Belinda’s world, so we’re enjoying that. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
United Cup Jan. 4 schedule, Perth, RAC Arena
\nGroup E: Great Britain\u00a0(0-0) vs. Japan (0-1)
\nStart Time: (10 a.m. local, 9 p.m. ET)<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s singles: Emma Raducanu vs. Naomi Osaka<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s singles: Billy Harris vs. Shintaro Mochizuki<\/p>\n
Mixed doubles: Olivia Nicholls and Neal Skupski vs. Nao Hibino and Y. Uchiyama<\/p>\n
Group C: Italy (0-0) vs. Switzerland (1-0)
\nStart Time: (Not before 5 p.m. local, 4 a.m. ET)<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s singles:\u00a0Jasmine Paolini vs. Belinda Bencic<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s singles: Flavio Cobolli\u00a0vs. Stan Wawrinka<\/p>\n
Mixed doubles: Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori vs. Bencic and Wawrinka<\/p>\n
United Cup\/Sydney<\/p>\n
If Sydney\u2019s opening match is any indication, we\u2019re in for a treat. The tie between China and Belgium went down to a mixed-doubles match-tiebreak with two players who had never been partners.<\/p>\n
Zhu Lin and Zhang Zhizhen stunned Elise Mertens and Zizou Bergs 5-7, 7-6 (5), 10-6 in a thriller at Ken Rosewall Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a tough day today, especially for Triple-Z,\u201d Zhu said of her partner. \u201cHe just finished a three-set match and didn’t get too much time to rest. I lost my singles today, so at the beginning of the game I was kind of slowly into the game, and he was there to cheer me up, to tell me to believe in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
China again will have to dig deep on Sunday with another challenge \u2013 Canada, led by rising star Victoria Mboko and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Zhu beat Mboko in their only previous meeting, but that was more than three years ago in Monastir, Tunisia — when Mboko was only 15 years old.<\/p>\n
The first tie is Germany vs. Netherlands. No. 40-ranked Eva Lys and Suzan Lamens (No. 89) have split their two career matches, with Lamens winning the most recent two years ago in Osaka qualifying.<\/p>\n
United Cup Jan. 4 schedule, Sydney, Ken Rosewall Arena
\nGroup F: Germany (0-0) vs. Netherlands (0-0)
\nStart Time: (Not before 5 p.m. local, 4 a.m. ET)<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s singles: Eva Lys vs. Suzan Lamens<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s singles: Alexander Zverev vs.\u00a0Tallon Griekspoor<\/p>\n
Mixed doubles: Laura Siegemund and Zverev vs. Demi Schuurs\u00a0and Griekspoor<\/p>\n
Group B: Canada (0-0) vs. China (1-0)
\nStart Time:\u00a0(10:30 a.m. local, 2:30 a.m. ET)<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s singles: Victoria Mboko vs. Zhu Lin<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s singles: Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Zhang Zhizhen<\/p>\n
Mixed doubles: Mboko and Auger-Aliassime vs. Zhu and Zhang<\/p>\n
Brisbane International Jan. 4 schedule<\/p>\n
Main-draw play begins Sunday at the Queensland Tennis Centre.<\/p>\n
The 16 seeds all have byes in this WTA 500 event, but there are six first-round singles matches, including one between Daria Kasatkina and Anastasia Potapova, who recently changed nationalities, to Australia and Austria, respectively.<\/p>\n
Special bonus: No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka opens 2026 as Paula Badosa\u2019s doubles partner.<\/p>\n
PAT RAFTER ARENA starts at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
11:00 AM Celebrity One Point Slam Challenge
NB 12:00 PM\u00a0D. Kasatkina (AUS) vs A. Potapova (AUT)\u00a0
P. Badosa (ESP) \/ A. Sabalenka vs L. Samsonova \/ S. Zhang (CHN)\u00a0<\/p>\n
SHOW COURT 1 starts at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
E. Jacquemot (FRA) vs [WC] A. Tomljanovic (AUS)\u00a0
S. Cirstea (ROU) vs A. Pavlyuchenkova\u00a0
S. Kenin (USA) vs [Q] E. Ruse (ROU)\u00a0
J. Cristian (ROU) vs M. Bouzkova (CZE)\u00a0<\/p>\n
SHOW COURT 2 starts at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
E. Arango (COL) vs M. Kessler (USA)\u00a0
[WC] K. Birrell (AUS) \/ T. Gibson (AUS) vs [3] C. Bucsa (ESP) \/ E. Perez (AUS)\u00a0
H. Chan (TPE) \/ X. Jiang (CHN) vs E. Alexandrova \/ M. Andreeva\u00a0
E. Hozumi (JPN) \/ F. Wu (TPE) vs [WC] P. Hon (AUS) \/ K. Muchova (CZE)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As this 2026 WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz season unfurls, they are two of the most intriguing players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-385941","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-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}