In a world first, the United Cup will see men and women playing side-by-side on the same teams. The global tournament is kicking off for the first time ever in Australia next year and will see some of the world’s top tennis players compete for a shot at a sweet USD$15 million (AUD$22.2 million) prize pool and 500 ranking points.
Eighteen countries have been divided up into six groups. In Brisbane, fans will see the likes of world No.2 Casper Ruud, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka and Belinda Bencic. In Perth, we’ll see Stefanos Tsitspas and Maria Sakkai hit the court for Greece. Icons like Rafael Nadal and Paula Badosa will be flying the flag for Spain in Sydney, along with Americans Taylor Fritz and world No.3 Jessica Pegula, and Aussies Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanovic.
But before we jump into this tennis utopia, let’s look back through some borked examples that show exactly why this more equal event is so significant…
Smashing racquets in frustration
This is the big one! Frustrations build up on the court and, more often than not, it gets taken out on the racquet.
During the 2018 US Open final, Serena Williams copped a code and argued with the umpire before smashing her racquet into the ground in frustration — something we’ve seen many times in high-level tennis games. In response to yelling and slamming her racquet, Serena was given two more codes.
Male players have slammed racquets, shouted and even sworn at umpires. And, would you believe it, the fellas didn’t get the same penalties…
How the media covers them
When Naomi Osaka set a boundary last year and chose to cop a fine instead of doing press after the French Open (for her mental health, mind you) reporters labelled it “hugely destructive and a massive commercial blow”.
On the other hand, Andy Murray once corrected a journalist for some casual sexism (AKA the bare minimum). In response, he received loads of praise — four glowing pages of Google articles…
Exposing a little skin
If the ol’ blood hasn’t boiled yet, this’ll do it. These tennis players are often playing in hot AF conditions, so the men are always serving sans shirt. One (1) time, Alizé Cornet needed to spin her shirt around because it was back-to-front and in the process revealed a little bit of torso and sports bra (the horror!). She got hit with a code violation for ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’. Ugh.
And yet, look at this guy…
Eek. Let’s leave all that in the past and strap in for a summer of tennis stars in our own backyard!
You can catch men and women competing together at the United Cup from Thursday the 29th December.
