World No.3 Coco Gauff will get a double chance to avenge her Olympic heartbreaks when she spearheads the United Cup campaign of top seeds the US.
Gauff will link up with world No.4 Taylor Fritz for the mixed-teams tournament, which begins in Perth on Friday and Sydney on Saturday.
The 20-year-old star of the women's game has already snared nine WTA titles, including the 2023 US Open and the 2024 WTA Finals crown.
Gauff also reached the French Open final in 2022, but her Olympics debut at this year's Paris Games turned into a fizzer.
Fritz and Gauff were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles when they went down to Canadian duo Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime in a clash that was decided by a match tiebreaker.
Gauff was defeated by Croatia's Donna Vekic in straight sets in the third round of the women's singles.
And in the women's doubles, Gauff and teammate Jessica Pegula were eliminated in the second round by Czech duo Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova, despite starting as top seeds.
In a twist of fate, the US has been placed in Group A alongside Canada and Croatia at the United Cup.
It means Gauff and Fritz have the chance to turn the tables on Canada, who will be led by Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez.
That battle will take place in Perth on Sunday night.
When Gauff faces Croatia in the women's singles on Tuesday, she is set to come up against world No.19 Vekic.
"The hope is to win," Gauff said of her tournament goal after landing in Perth this week.
"It's really cool to play with Taylor. We're both coming off a good year.
"It will be our second time playing together, so hopefully we can do even better than the Olympics."
Ready to kick off the Aussie summer in Perth 🇺🇸@CocoGauff #UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/Ok35Ru4Wzi
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 26, 2024
Fritz was part of the US outfit that won the inaugural United Cup in 2022/23.
In that tournament, each tie consisted of two men's singles matches, two women's singles matches and a mixed-doubles encounter.
Last summer's event, which was won by Germany, was more streamlined, with each tie featuring just one men's clash, one women's clash and a mixed-doubles encounter.
That format will continue this summer.
"The year we won, we could use our team's depth a lot more to help us," Fritz said.
"Now a lot more things can go wrong for the favoured team. It's just one match each and the deciding mixed doubles.
"I'm still excited to play. I'm glad Coco is here. Obviously we're a top team.
"Team events are always my favourite. It's a different kind of energy."
Poland, who will be led by world No.2 Iga Swiatek and world No.16 Hubert Hurkacz, are ranked second favourites, with Greece (Stefanos Tsitsipas, Maria Sakkari) and Germany (Alexander Zverev, Laura Siegemund) also expected to fare well.
Australia will be headlined by world No.9 Alex de Minaur and Olivia Gadecki, with Olympic doubles gold medallist Matthew Ebden also amongst the squad.
The action begins at Perth's RAC Arena on Saturday with Spain taking on Kazakhstan in the day session, and China facing Brazil at night.
China were dealt a blow when Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen withdrew from the event in order to better prepare herself for the Australian Open.
Australia's campaign kicks off on Saturday night in Sydney against Argentina.
The six group winners - plus the two best runners-up - will qualify for the quarterfinals.
