United Cup: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz ready to kick-start Australian Open prep in Perth

The United Cup’s biggest stars have arrived ostensibly hunting the same goal — one which goes beyond the team tournament and extends into the latter days of January, and on towards the rest of the year. American hotshots Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz and Greek hero Stefanos Tsitsipas have touched down in Perth as they prepare to begin their seasons at RAC Arena. And while all three have one eye on the Australian Open and the other pupil on the looming year ahead, they see Perth as a fundamental piece of the puzzle, the foundations on which the season is built. But while all three’s overarching goal is a good run in Melbourne in a fortnight, their method for finding a winning formula looks a little different. Take Tsitsipas, for example, the two-time grand slam runner-up who fell out of the top 10 last year and ended the grand slam season with first and second-round exits at the US Open and Wimbledon respectively. “I’m looking at reinventing myself. I felt like I’ve been stuck in a pattern over the last few months. I haven’t been able to kind of unlock the pattern or get out of it,” he said. “I’m looking for a fresh, new 2025. That doesn’t mean to suddenly just start winning everything. It’s just to see a trajectory of constant improvement and improving in all fields in my career, but also in my outside life.” Tsitsipas, who will take to the court on Saturday night against Pablo Carreno Busta when Greece take on Spain, hoped stability would help improve his ranking of 11th. “You have to reflect, sit down, and see what doesn’t serve you anymore, let the things that don’t serve you remove them or try to get them out of your life and refresh, restart, regroup, and go for those that you think that actually have purpose and can benefit you in what you’re doing,” he said. “When you’re on the tour for so many years, you know what it takes to get back to where you remember being, there is a pattern there of what it requires you to get back there. You just need to be consistent throughout the year; you can’t show up one day and not the other, you have to work it out from January all the way to November.” While Tsitsipas is seeking reinvigoration in Perth, women’s world no.3 Gauff is hoping a sea change in preparation can help her to a first Australian Open title. Fresh off victory at the year-ending WTA Finals, the 20-year-old believed facing Croatia’s Donna Vekic (19th in the world) and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez (31st in the world) in Perth would better prepare her for Melbourne Park than the Auckland Open, where she has won the last two titles. The 2023 US Open champion also threw her support behind the team format of the tournament, saying it encouraged a positive atmosphere ahead of the year’s first major. “I love Auckland, I went twice there, and it was a great tournament but for me, I wanted to play a higher level of competition, and also a team competition,” Gauff said. “I had a lot of fun with the Olympics, it’s basically a similar crew here today. The season’s already so much by ourselves that it’s nice to mix it up and I’m looking forward to hopefully having a good couple weeks here in Perth and hopefully in Sydney as well. “A couple good matches to start off the year, you want to do well here but I think probably the main focus is Australia Open and doing well there.” Gauff’s teammate Fritz is coming off a career-year that included a US Open final and his ranking soaring to fourth in the world, and like Gauff, his main focus is currently the Australian Open. After two successive United Cups in a row, including a visit to Perth last year, Fritz agreed with Gauff on the team event being a good, relaxed way to kick off a season. “I’m a bit older, so it’s not so much about absolutely killing myself as much as I can in the off-season, it’s about training, but still feeling recharged and ready to go and very motivated to come back out and be ready to play in Australia,” he said. “I feel like it’s about kind of finding the balance between working as much as I can, but still not burning myself out. “Since they’ve had the event, I’ve played it every year, even before it was the United Cup, it was the ATP Cup. “I feel like I play well in team events, and they’re also just really fun to have that team energy. There’s no reason why I wouldn’t come.”