Great Britain’s United Cup match schedule has been revealed and Emma Raducanu will face a humdinger season-opener as she will take on former world No 1 Naomi Osaka in Perth.
With Great Britain paired with Japan and Greece in Group E, there were always going to be some tasty rematches on the cards as Raducanu has faced both Osaka and Greece’s No 1 Maria Sakkari on the WTA Tour.
Greece and Japan will square off on January 2 before the latter faces Great Britain on January 4 at the RAC Arena and British No 1 Jack Draper will take on world No 92 Shintaro Mochizuki in the opening clash before four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka faces the 2021 US Open champion in the second match.
It will be a first-ever meeting between Draper and Mochizuki, but Osaka and Raducanu will square off for a second career meeting with the latter winning their previous clash 6-4, 6-2 with the match coming in the round of 16 match at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in July this year.
The 23-year-old was naturally pleased with her performance as she stated afterwards: “I thought it was going to be a really difficult match. Naomi, she’s won four Slams, she’s been world No 1, won Masters.
“She’s so dangerous, and on the hard courts I think she’s particularly comfortable, so I knew I was going to have to play really well and manage my own service games – which I’m really proud of how I did.
“I was kind of making some inroads in her service games after I got used to it a little bit. I’m really pleased with how I handled the ball speed and the conditions here in D.C.”
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She will no doubt be looking to copy that game plan for her next encounter against Osaka, but the latter has improved in recent months as she has climbed to No 16 in the WTA Rankings, while Raducanu will start the new year at No 29.
Great Britain will conclude their group phase against Greece on January 5 with Draper taking on Stefanos Tsitsipas before Raducanu faces world No 51 Sakkari in what will be their fifth top-level meeting.
Raducanu is yet to drop a set against the former world No 3 with a 4-0 lead in their head-to-head rivalry as she won their first-ever meeting 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-final of the 2021 US Open and then won 6-2, 6-3 in the round of 32 at Wimbledon in 2024.
They also faced each other twice in 2025 with the British No 1 winning 6-4, 6-2 in Dubai and 6-4, 7-5 in Washington DC.
The 2026 United Cup features 18 teams and they are divided into six groups. Each tie will consist of one men’s and one women’s singles match plus one mixed doubles encounter.
The six group winners will go into the quarter-finals while the best runner-up in each city (Perth and Sydney) will also qualify for the last eight.
Great Britain finished top of their group in the 2025 edition, but then lost 3-0 in the quarter-final against Poland, who in turn lost the final 2-0 against the United States.
AloJapan.com