United Cup: Tournament director Stephen Farrow open to the prospect of Perth hosting final in future

United Cup tournament director Stephen Farrow says he is open to the prospect of Perth hosting the final of the popular mixed tennis competition down the line. It comes as Perth braces for another influx of tennis stars this December tournament, with Farrow touting this year’s draw as the strongest in the competition’s brief history. The United Cup stepped out of the shadow of the Hopman Cup last year with a successful second iteration of the tournament which saw the likes of Novak Djokovic, Alex De Minaur, Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz head to Perth in the lead-up to the Australian Open. With the cup splitting ties between Perth and Sydney, it has meant RAC Arena has been limited to staging just group stage games and quarter-finals, with Ken Rosewall Arena hosting the semifinals and finals. But Farrow gave a glowing endorsement of Perth as a host city and said the appetite was clearly there to host a final down the road. “It’s certainly possible; we’d never rule anything out,” Farrow told The West Australian. “We know there’s great appetite to support this event and great excitement about this event, and we are growing every single year, so why not?” “RAC Arena is an absolutely magnificent venue. It’s a great stage for top quality tennis, we saw that last year when we had Serbia and Australia playing there. “We had maybe four attendances which were over 10,000 in that arena, which is huge for tennis. “We know there’s the appetite for big tennis events here, we know the Perth public will come and support the United Cup again this year.” While Perth will miss out on seeing the Australian team at this year’s tournament, they will get to see a USA side boasting Fritz and 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff, Chinese Olympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng, men’s world number three Alexander Zverev, former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina and Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas, among others. Farrow said there were plenty of stars on the Perth side of the draw and it was impossible to pick a winner. “It is our strongest overall entry list that we’ve had and a lot of people keep asking me who do I think is going to win, and it’s a really open competition,” he said. “Every single team has got at least one, if not two players in it who can win all their matches and that just means we’re going to end up with a lot of ties being decided on the mixed doubles again, which we had last year. “65 per cent of the matches would be decided on the mixed doubles last year and it just makes for a really open and exciting competition.” While there is something of a generational shift at the top of the tennis world, Farrow said the likes of Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez and Chinese star Zheng, who are all on Perth’s side of the draw, all had exciting futures. “It’s obviously a period where we’re moving from the days of Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) and Andy (Murray) and Novak is obviously still playing, but there’s a real changing of the guard. “What the United Cup really encapsulates is quite how exciting the future of the sport is, because there’s so much talent, there’s so many engaging players, and in this format, you really get the opportunity to see the best of the men’s and the women’s game together.”