Live: The Summer of Tennis is underway with the Perth leg of the United Cup

Alexander Shevchenko 1-0 Pablo Carreño Busta

Elena Rybakina vs Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro

Shevchenko/Rybakina vs Martos Gornés/Cavallé Reimers

First on court is Russian-born Kazakhstani Alexander Shevchenko, who takes on Spanish veteran Pablo Carreño Busta.

The 24-year-old Alexander Shevchenko has only recently switched allegiance to Kazakhstan, has never got beyond the second round at a grand slam in his short career and is ranked 78th in the world.

Pablo Carreño Busta starts the year ranked 196 after a torrid time with injuries.

Don’t let that lowly ranking fool you though.

The 33-year-old has been as high as 10th in the world, reached the semi-finals of the US Open twice (2017, 2020) and won Olympic bronze in Tokyo.

Carreño Busta is serving first.

So what is the United Cup?

This is the third edition of the nation-based team event, which features 18 countries, men and women, who compete in six, three-team groups based in Perth and Sydney.

It was born out of the short-lived ATP-backed ATP Cup, which featured only men’s teams.

That team-based format proved popular, in part due to the guaranteed three matches each player can get under their belts, in part due to the fact they are representing their nation.

This tournament replaced the hugely popular Hopman Cup that ran from 1989 to 2019 in Perth.

The teams will play a men’s and women’s best-of-three-sets singles match, followed by a mixed doubles contest.

The winner of each group will play in the quarterfinals, along with the best runner up in each city.

Today, we’re starting off in Perth with Spain, which is seeded 14th, against Kazakhstan, seeded ninth.

As I mentioned, there is plenty of tennis coming up in the very near future for us all to get our teeth stuck into.

Here’s a brief summary of how it’s all going to go down over the next couple of weeks.

Hello and welcome to the first match of the Australian summer of tennis!

My name is Simon Smale and I’ll be bringing you all the action as it happens in the opening matches of the United Cup, which kicks off today in Perth’s magnificent arena.

This summer, the ABC is bringing you all the action from all five pre-Australian Open tournaments, before our extensive coverage of the action at Melbourne Park gets underway on January 12.

Before we get there though, we have plenty of tennis to get through, so let’s hop to it shall we?