Rafael Nadal hits the ball. /
The Spaniard leads the Spanish block in the new team competition that will be held from Thursday in Australia
Rafa Nadal will compete again this week in the United Cup of Australia, the new team competition that replaces the ATP Cup and adds the novelty of being a mixed tournament. The new format is similar to the old Hopman Cup (which will also return, but in July in Nice), although with more participants and with the great claim of a Nadal who returns to the competition for the first time since the last ATP Finals, in the who fell in the group stage.
The Spaniard will test himself here, from December 29 to January 8, ahead of an Australian Open in which he will defend the title won last year. Nadal puts 2,000 points at stake in Melbourne (January 16-29) and will have fierce competition this year, with the return of Novak Djokovic, nine-time champion in Australia and with the green light to play, the evolution of Carlos Alcaraz, number one of the world and who defends the third round of last year, in addition to Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev…
This will be the first time that Djokovic has the opportunity to match the 22 Grand Slams of the Balearic Islands, after not participating in New York due to his non-vaccination, and it will be the first time that Alcaraz appears in a Grand Slam draw as champion of one.
The Murcian, yes, will not play any tournament prior to Australia and, therefore, will not participate in the United Cup, where Nadal will be accompanied by Paula Badosa, as leaders of the Spanish team, in addition to Pablo Carreño, Albert Ramos, David Vega , Nuria Parrizas and Jessica Bouzas.
The captain, Marc López, has decided that these are the seven members of the Spanish team, out of the maximum of nine places that were available. The tournament consists of six groups of three teams each, with a total of 18 teams that have qualified based on the rankings of their best players.
Kyrgios makes the morbid
Spain has been framed in Group D with the Australia of Nick Kyrgios, Alex de Miñaur and Ajla Tomljanovic and the Great Britain of Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans. Each tie will consist of two boys’ singles matches, two girls’ singles and one mixed doubles. Spain’s first confrontation will be against Great Britain in the early hours of December 31.
Nadal will face Norrie, whom he has beaten four times without dropping a set, and Parrizas, Katie Swan, to whom he lost this year on hard courts, before, on January 1, Paula Badosa takes on Harriet Dart, who beat him in the last Billie Jean King Cup Finals, and Pablo Carreño to Dan Evans. The mixed doubles remains to be defined.
The second day for Spain will be on January 2, with the highlight of the tournament, the confrontation between Nick Kyrgios and Rafa Nadal. It will be the tenth clash between the two, with 6-3 in favor of the man from Manacor. This match will be followed by Parrizas-Zoe Hives and on January 3 will be played Badosa-Tomljanovic, Carreño-De Miñaur and the mixed doubles.
The United Cup will be played in three venues: Sydney (where Spain will play), Perth and Brisbane, and each city will host two groups. The winner of each group will face the winner of the other group from the same city for a place in the semifinals.
The tournament will distribute a total of 15 million euros, 7.5 of them to the boys and 7.5 to the girls, so that the prizes will range from 38,000 euros for individual victory in the group stage to 251,000 euros in the final. As for the points, they will depend on the opponent’s ranking. Winning a ‘top ten’ in the group stage gives 55 points, while in the final the loot rises to 180. The maximum points that can be collected in the tournament is 500, as if it were an ATP 500.
In Group A will be Greece, Belgium and Bulgaria; in Group B, Poland, Switzerland and Kazakhstan; in Group C, the United States, Germany and the Czech Republic; in Group D, Spain, Australia and Great Britain; in Group E, Italy, Brazil and Norway; and in Group F, France, Croatia and Argentina.
Carlos Alcaraz. /
Alcaraz begins the defense of number one
Carlos Alcaraz will be number one when the next Australian Open begins, yes or yes. The Murcian, despite the fact that he will not play any tournament prior to the start of the first Grand Slam of the year, has an income of 800 points against Rafa Nadal in the ATP ranking, enough to guarantee him the first position until Australia.
The Spaniard has put a tournament in his preparation for Melbourne, the United Cup, in which, at most, he can score 500 points. Depending on the format of the tournament, the distribution of points will vary depending on the round and depending on the ranking of the opponent. Nadal, who will play his two group stage matches against Cameron Norrie (14) and Nick Kyrgios (22) will be able to add 45 and 40 points against each, respectively.
In the best of cases, Nadal could narrow the difference in the United Cup to 300 points, but then the Spaniard will lose 250 points for having won the preparation tournament in Melbourne, so Alcaraz’s advantage could be restored. shoot up to 550 units.
For Nadal, number one is no longer an obsession, so the biggest threat for Carlitos is a Novak Djokovic who right now appears 2,000 points behind Murcia, but has the advantage of not defending a single point from last season. . The Serb will start the year in Adelaide (January 2), where he will be able to add 250 points, before beginning the assault on his tenth Australian Open, where he can win a whopping 2,000 points.
The ace up Alcaraz’s sleeve is that he only reached the third round in 2022, which means 90 points in his locker. A relatively easy brand to beat.