IF IT’S a new year, it must be serious tennis time Down Under.

Just over six weeks since the ATP and WTA held their respective 2025 Finals, players on the men’s and women’s tours are arriving in Australia and New Zealand for a crammed two-week schedule of tournaments ahead of the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam event starting January 18 in Melbourne.

Leading the way is the United Cup, a mixed teams event played in Perth and Sydney, which began yesterday and runs until January 11. The tournament will feature four of the world’s top 10 men and women including Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Iga Swiatek, Alexander Zverev, Jasmine Paolini and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Also during the first full week of 2026, the Brisbane International will be headlined by defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, fresh off the Battle of the Sexes exhibition against Nick Kyrgios in Dubai. Also on from January 4-10 is the Canberra International, a joint ATP Challenger and WTA 125 tournament in Australia’s capital city.

But missing from the pre-Australian Open tournaments are the two biggest names in men’s tennis: No 1 Carlos Alcaraz and second-ranked Jannik Sinner.

Alcaraz and Sinner — who have won nine of the last 10 Grand Slam singles titles, with Sinner winning the 2025 Australian Open — have decided to play an exhibition at Incheon, South Korea on January 10. After the exhibition, it’s expected they’ll fly to Australia to begin their preparations at Melbourne Park.

Alcaraz will be playing his first major in seven years without coach Juan Carlos Ferrero — the Spanish player recently announced their split. Alcaraz has not announced a replacement.

Other players at the United Cup, which began yesterday with Spain playing Argentina and Greece taking on Japan in Perth, include Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Stan Wawrinka, who has said 2026 will be his last year on tour.

The tournament format features men’s and women’s singles followed by a mixed doubles match.

The 40-year-old, three-time major winner Wawrinka says he hopes to improve on his current ranking of 157 and move back into the top 100 before he retires. His highest ranking was No 3, achieved when he won the Australian Open in 2014.

“I’m happy with the decision [to retire] and feeling at peace with that,” Wawrinka said when he arrived earlier this week in Perth.

Tsitsipas said in Perth on Thursday that he considered retirement last year due to back issues, but that he has arrived in Australia pain-free. He also has his father Apostolos coaching him again after a brief stint with Goran Ivanisevic last year.

“My biggest concern has been, can I actually finish a match?” Tsitsipas, now ranked 36th, told Australian Associated Press. “That was what was going through my mind the last six to eight months.

“There were phases during the year where I was asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this, and why am I putting myself through so much pain?’ I’m just hoping 2026 doesn’t bring any of that.”

Joining Sabalenka at the 500-level Brisbane International will be two-time major finalist Amanda Anisimova, WTA Finals champion Elena Rybakina, reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva.

The 18-year-old Andreeva is tipped to be the next big thing in women’s tennis and she could renew her rivalry with Sabalenka in Brisbane. Sabalenka leads 4-2 in the head-to-head matches but world No 9 Andreeva had a three-set win in the Indian Wells final in 2025.

The Russian also made it to the quarter-finals at last year’s French Open and Wimbledon along with the semis at Roland Garros in 2024 when at 17 she became the youngest to reach the final four in a major since Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open.

Andreeva lost to Sabalenka in the semi-finals in Brisbane in 2025 and again in the fourth round at the Australian Open before her victory at Indian Wells where she was the youngest winner since Serena Williams.

“That gave me a lot of confidence. Winning Indian Wells is a milestone of my career so far,” she said.

Venus Williams is set to play in the Australian Open for the first time in five years after being given a wildcard for the singles in Melbourne yesterday.

The 45-year-old, who reached the Australian Open final in 2003 and 2017, had already accepted a wildcard for a warm-up event in Auckland.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner returned to action for the first time in 16 months in Washington in July, going on to play Cincinnati and the US Open, where she reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles with Leylah Fernandez.

She has not played a tournament outside North America since appearing on the grass at Birmingham in 2023, while her last outing at the Australian Open was back in 2021.

“I’m excited to be back in Australia and looking forward to competing during the Australian summer,” Williams said.

“I’ve had so many incredible memories there, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to a place that has meant so much to my career.”

In the second week of the warm-up events, the joint ATP-WTA Adelaide International featuring 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic will run from January 12-17 as well as a WTA 250 tournament at Hobart, Australia.

Auckland, New Zealand will host a WTA tournament from January 5-11 before the ATP plays at the same venue from January 12-17. And in the only warm-up tournament being played outside Australia or New Zealand, Hong Kong will host an ATP event from January 5-11.

The ATP events will come under a new rule for 2026 to address extreme heat during men’s matches that will allow for 10-minute breaks during best-of-three-sets singles matches and is similar to what was put in place on the WTA more than 30 years ago.