United Cup introduces timeouts ahead of 2024-25 edition

Players have been handed a major boost ahead of the 2024-25 edition of the United Cup. The team-based event will be played from December 27 to January 05, 2025, in three different locations in Australia.

Sydney, Perth and Brisbane will hold the team-based events in a nine-day competition. A new rule has been introduced for the upcoming year, which will give the players more power. English media outlet Daily Express has reported that in the upcoming edition, players will be given a chance to pause the game once in the match to discuss their tactics.

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The report stated that there will be a maximum of two timeouts per match, one for each team. The report also quoted tournament director Stephen Farrow, who expressed excitement about introducing new rules for the event and believes that new rules will help to involve more fans in the upcoming event.

“Timeouts initiate a pause in play, it’s a time for teams to discuss tactics and strategy and potentially change the momentum of a match,” said Farrow. “We’re excited to see how the best tennis players in the world and their teams utilise this new tool. Innovation is at the core of everything we do at the United Cup and this is another example of leading the way and finding new ways to present the sport and engage our fans.”

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This will be the third edition of the competition. In the previous edition, team Germany came out on top and lifted the title after beating Poland in the final with a score of 2-1. This year, as many as 18 teams will feature in the competition as they are divided into three teams each.

Group A: USA, Canada, Croatia

Group B: Poland, Czechia, Norway

Group C: Greece, Kazakhstan, Spain

Group D: Italy, France, Switzerland

Group E: China, Germany, Brazil

Group F: Great Britain, Australia, Argentina