American Coco Gauff, Czech Linda Noskova and Polish Maja Swalinska top the list of players participating in the fifth edition of the United Tennis Cup, scheduled to be held from January 1 to 10 in the Australian cities of Perth and Sydney.
The tournament also witnesses the participation of Belgian Elise Mertens, Swiss Belinda Bencic and Canadian Victoria Mpoko.
The tournament brings together male and female players from the World Professional Tennis Association and the World Women’s Tennis Association, with the participation of 18 countries divided into 6 groups, with 9 teams in each of Perth and Sydney, with the competitions being held in a league system of one round within each group.
The winner of each group qualifies for the quarter-finals, along with the best second-place team in each city, while the semi-final and final matches will be held in Sydney on January 9 and 10, respectively.
Each match includes 3 matches, with a singles match for women, another for men, and a mixed doubles match. The two singles matches are held in 3 sets with a tie-breaking system, while the mixed doubles match consists of two sets, with resort to a 10-point tie-break in the event of a tie.
The first group in Perth includes the United States, Croatia, and Kazakhstan, while the third group includes Canada, Italy, and Denmark, and the fifth group includes Poland, Germany, and Switzerland.
In Sydney, the second group includes the Czech Republic, Greece and Hungary, while the fourth group includes France, Australia and Britain, and the sixth group includes Belgium, Spain and Argentina.
The next edition will witness the fifth appearance of the tournament, after the United States won the title twice in 2023 and 2025, while Poland enters the competitions as the defending champion.
The IAAF Awards Organizing Committee announced that the Americans Melissa Jefferson Wooden, Masai Russell, and the Swiss Audrey Ferro have qualified for the final list of the three candidates for the Best Athlete in the World Award for 2026, ahead of the IAAF Awards ceremony scheduled to be held in Monaco.
The selection of the three female athletes came after a vote in which fans, athletes, media representatives and members of the international athletics family participated. They topped a list of 10 female candidates who were previously selected by an international committee of game experts.
Jefferson Wooden achieved a remarkable achievement by winning both sprint races in the Ultimate Championship. She also set the best world record this year in the 100 meters with a time of 10.62 seconds and the 200 meters with a time of 21.41 seconds, which is the third best time in the history of the 200 meters race.
For her part, Russell set a world record in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 12.09 seconds, and achieved 9 of the 10 fastest times in the race during the season. She also won the Ultimate Championship and Diamond League titles, and ended the season undefeated in this race.
As for Vero, she won titles in the 800-meter race in the Ultimate Championships, the Diamond League, and the European Championships, and broke the Diamond League record three times, before setting the best world record this year with a time of one minute and 53.70 seconds, ranking third in the list of the best numbers of all time.
German striker Niklas Volkrug crowned his brilliance since his return to Werder Bremen, after two disappointing experiences with England's West Ham and Italy's Milan, by being called up to the German national team.
Germany coach Jurgen Klopp summoned Wolkrug to the squad for the European Nations League matches against Serbia on Friday, and the Netherlands next week.
Volkrug has not played an international match since Germany lost to France in the third-place match in the Nations League in June 2025.
Although Klopp, who is under contract until after the 2030 World Cup, stressed that his focus was on youth and building the future, he found it difficult to ignore Volkrug.
The 33-year-old striker is currently the top scorer in the German League, ahead of Englishman Harry Kane, and has scored 12 goals in 11 matches in all competitions, after only managing to score four in two seasons after leaving Germany for West Ham.
“Performance trumps everything else,” Klopp admitted.
Klopp said: “He proved his worth with very diverse goals... and almost all of them were amazing.”
Volkrug also has an excellent record with Germany, with 14 goals in just 24 matches, many of which he scored after coming on as a substitute.
Volkrug has a simple explanation for his level since his return to Bremen on loan for a full season from English West Ham, which is now in the second level of English football (Championship).
"It's my football home," Volkrug said of the club he joined for the first time at the age of 14.
He added: “Everyone sleeps better in their own bed.” “I feel completely comfortable here.”
Volkrug became the latest striker to suffer an unhappy experience at West Ham, a club that has become a graveyard for promising European strikers.
He scored only three times in 18 months in London, which was plagued by injuries. But, even if he was not among the top scorers, he won the love of some fans with his usual German frankness.
After conceding a late goal in a 1-1 draw at home with Southampton in April 2025, Volkrug said something to himself, using an obscenity to describe the “Hammers” performance, and West Ham fans used his statement to come up with a chant referring to him.
Volkrug's outspokenness has also won him support from many in Germany, where the gap-toothed footballer is seen as an antidote to the modern, image-conscious player.
“I couldn't stay fit,” Volkrug said of his struggles abroad.
He added: “The key is to stay in good shape and have a team around me looking for me and passing the ball to me when the right moment comes. "That's the key, and I think I've been able to prove that now."
Volkrug is at a scintillating level, but his recall highlights how empty the arena is in a country once famous for producing high-caliber strikers.
The four-time world champion has produced strikers such as Gerd Müller, Fritz Walter, Ulf-Kirsten, Rudi-Völler and Jurgen Klinsmann.
But Germany has not had an outspoken, high-caliber striker since Miroslav Klose, the 2014 World Cup winner.
Among the current generation, Kai Havertz, the English player for Arsenal, starts many matches in attack, but he has never been an outright scorer.
Volkrug said that Klose was and still is his role model: “Miro was my role model when I was a child. He said: 'I played until I was 38, and I became world champion at 36.'
On Friday, Klose praised Volkrug, saying: “I consider him a very talented player in the penalty area. Having someone on the team who knows how to find the net is very good.”
