SYDNEY, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- With Bulgaria and Kazakhstan joining the line-up, the 18 countries were confirmed on Wednesday for the first edition of the United Cup mixed team tennis event.
Bulgaria will join Greece and Belgium in Group A in Perth, while Kazakhstan will join Poland and Switzerland in Group B in Brisbane, said in a statement from Tennis Australia.
According to the statement, an opening session in Perth will feature world No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, up against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, while in Brisbane, Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland will meet Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva on the first game day.
World No.2 Rafael Nadal of Spain will make his first appearance in a group stage clash with British player Cameron Norrie, which will be held in Sydney on Dec. 31.
Earlier this month, Tennis Australia unveiled entries from 16 participating countries, which included Greece, Poland, the United States, Spain, Italy and France as the event's top six seeds.
Australia, Croatia, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Britain, Argentina and Norway also made their way into the round-robin phase of the competition.
Presented by ATP and WTA in partnership with Tennis Australia, the United Cup is a new annual mixed-team event taking place across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney from Dec. 29 to Jan. 8, 2023.
The event offers 15 million U.S. dollars in prize money and up to 500 ATP and 500 WTA rankings points. ■
