The Australian Swing reaches a crescendo next week with a galaxy of star players jetting into Melbourne for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, in the wake of the prestigious United Cup.
The latter, a mixed team event representing the cream of tennis-playing nations, is a litmus test of the physical and mental state of national No 1s, as they embark on respective quests to bag the Melbourne Major.
And it is Team Poland, headed up by World No 2 Iga Swiatek and World No 53 Hubert Hurkacz, who are off to a roaring start.
Having reached the final for the third successive year, they narrowly fought off a ferocious Swiss veteran combination of 2021 Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic and three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka — in the throes of his swansong — to be crowned 2026 United Cup champions.
Overall, Hurkacz and Bencic were the standout players, now posing a real threat to top seeds in their respective sides of the AO draw.
Hurkacz, sidelined from the ATP Tour for seven months of the previous season and plummeting from his lofty position of No 6 ranking in 2024 to below top 50 throughout 2025, announced his comeback in straight-set victories over World No 3 Alexander Zverev (Team Germany), Dutch No 1 Tallon Griekspoor and World No 4, American Taylor Fritz, in their group ties in Perth, before felling Wawrinka in Sydney.
This feat, boosted by serving 42 aces over four sets, earned him 500 ranking points and a No 18 seeding as a Norman Brookes Cup contender. As for Bencic, ranked at 421 at the start of 2025, she — with two-year-old daughter Bella court-side — amassed nine out of 10 singles and doubles victories for Team Switzerland, including dishing out a bagel and a defeat to Swiatek in the rollercoaster final, having decimated World No 8 Jasmine Paolini in a previous tie.
Thus, she arrived in Melbourne reinstated into the top 10.
Neither Poland nor Switzerland has won the United Cup since its inception in 2022, and the irrefutable common denominator in Hurkacz and Bencic’s United Cup success is the consistency and accuracy of their first serves, the ultimate weapon in winning a Grand Slam. Just ask Novak Djokovic, the 24-Slam singles title record holder and 4th seed in the pending Major.
The Serbian has won a higher rate of service games in 2025 than in all but two seasons of his entire career. Indeed it is his serve, rather than his remarkable returning ability, that has kept this icon in the game.
On the subject of Grand Slam winners, the top seed going into this Major is Carlos Alcaraz, who ended the year as the world No 1, despite losing the ATP Final in Turin to his nemesis, world No 2 Jannik Sinner.
The Spaniard is in search of his maiden Melbourne title to become only the fifth man in the Open era to win all four majors at least once. Meanwhile, No 2 seed and two-time defending champion, Sinner, is closing his 6-10 head-to-head deficit with Alcaraz.
The Italian will be feeling far less pressure at the onset than third seed and three-time major finalist Alexander Zverev, who is long overdue a maiden Slam.
Zverev came within touching distance of getting the monkey off his back last year when Novak Djokovic handed him a semifinal walkover, owing to a torn hamstring. That twist short-circuited the German straight into the Australian Open final, where he ultimately succumbed to Jannik Sinner.
Zverev, quite apart from keeping his booming first serve firing, is going to have to, like Djokovic, force himself to come into the net more often to deal with the surge in young players — all adept at moving forward and wielding the volley as a weapon — such as Alcaraz, Joao Fonseca, Flavio Cobolli and Ben Shelton, if he stands any chance of lifting this trophy.
In his aborted exhibition match versus fifth seed Italian Lorenzo Musetti this week, the German showed signs of renewed resolve to get to the net, and it paid dividends, earning him the first set tiebreak, much to the delight of fans, commentators and brother Mischa, a dedicated serve volleyer in his Tour heyday.
Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, unlike Zverev, remains a mercurial dark horse in the draw and a very dangerous one after his rise to the Top 10 in 2025, beating the likes of Sinner along the way and winning four Tour titles.
Sadly, incorrigible Australian crowd puller Nick Kyrgios, who despite being injured for almost a year, beat WTA No 1 and former Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in the recent, much-touted “Battle Of The Sexes” in Dubai, has rejected a wild card to enter the Main Draw.
He doesn’t believe he’s fit enough to cope with five set matches, whereas Wawrinka, who’s shown his mettle, together with his physical prowess, in the United Cup, as Switzerland Team Captain, deserves to participate in this event once more, as a former champion, as he bids the game goodbye at 40.
A magnanimous gesture, be it a costly one, in terms of entertainment value, because the Rod Laver Arena minus Kyrgios will be like a carton of popcorn without the salt.
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