Returning to the scene of past successes can be daunting, but Team France’s Caroline Garcia and Alize Cornet are feeling nothing but excitement as they return to Perth to spearhead Team France’s charge at the inaugural United Cup.
The pair was part of France’s Fed Cup-winning team in 2019, a victory that was clinched with final victory against Australia in the city in Western Australia.
“Yesterday when we had our first hit on centre court with Caroline, we had a little moment of emotion coming back on this court,” said Cornet of Perth’s RAC Arena, where Team France will take on Team Croatia and Team Argentina in Group F. “It was very powerful, this team experience, and this joy of winning… So I hope this lucky charm is going to act on this team, because we have a really good team to go far in the tournament.”
Captain Edouard Roger-Vasselin has a strong team at his disposal this week, when Top 50 ATP stars Arthur Rinderknech and Adrian Mannarino join Cornet and WTA World No. 4 Caroline Garcia as their team’s singles players. Garcia reached her maiden Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open before lifting the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, and the 29-year-old is keen to showcase more of that form to help her team to success this week in Perth.
“I think with the format, every match and every game is important,” said Garcia. “If you cannot qualify as first one, it would be the second one, and so every match is very important for the team. But also as your personal goal, you want to keep improving, play the best you can when you're on court.”
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Another player who enjoyed the biggest win of his career last season was Borna Coric, who clinched his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The 26-year-old is the highest-ranked singles player on Team Croatia and believes the unique nature of the mixed-teams event, which will see 18 nations competing in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney from 29 December to 8 January, is a motivating factor.
“I would like to see how the girls are going to be playing, how the men are going to be playing,” said Coric. “If we win, it's going to be great… [The creation of this event] is very, very important. I'm sure we going to do great, that we going to have a very, very good time. I think that's the most important as well.”
Like their Group F rivals Team France, Team Croatia possesses considerable strength-in-depth. Established WTA stars Petra Martic and Donna Vekic are both looking to build on strong showings in the 2022 season.
“You want to take the good times into the new season, build on that good feeling and good momentum,” said Martic, who lifted her second WTA Tour title in Lausanne in July. “I'm feeling pretty good. I think I was progressing last year from beginning until the end. I was playing better and better. I hope I can keep doing that in 2023.”
“I'm really happy to be in Perth, to be playing this event,” said former WTA No. 19 Vekic. “I think it's a great start of the year. We have two matches guaranteed, and hopefully we can play a couple more. Hopefully I can continue in good form from last year.”
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It is not just the United Cup experience that will be new for Team Argentina this week. Former WTA star and team captain Gisela Dulko admitted most of team had only recently met for the first time, but believes that could only improve their first United Cup experience.
“We don't know each other since very long,” said Dulko. “So it's going to be our first experience. We are happy we are going to have this time to know each other, to talk, to help each other. It's going to be a good week for us.”
Team Argentina’s lead WTA singles player is Nadia Podoroska, while ATP No. 30 Francisco Cerundolo is the highest-ranked singles player in the group. Like many of his compatriots, Cerundolo admitted to being inspired by the exploits of Argentina’s men’s football team, which claimed World Cup victory in Qatar just 10 days ago.
“I think it was crazy the last 10 days and the whole month Argentina people went crazy when we started winning,” said Cerundolo. “Of course when we won the finals, the city, Buenos Aires, was unreal, people went nuts.
“Of course it inspires me, and I think the other guys, but I think it inspires the whole country, because football there, I think it's everything. It was great, great news for the country, for us… Of course we can [also] bring the cup back home.”
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