It’s that time of the year again where Greeks across Sydney, Australia will turn up in droves to the Ken Rosewall Arena to witness as Team Greece play against other countries in a bid to be crowned champions of the United Cup.
The new-look United Cup is an innovative mixed team event in Perth and Sydney from 29 December to 7 January 2024.
This year’s Team Greece will be captained by World No.110 Petros Tsitsipas and world No.6 Maria Sakkari. The team also consists of World No.7 Stefanos Tsitsipas, Stefanos Sakellaridis, Despina Papamichail and Valentini Grammatikopoulou.
Ahead of the team’s first match against Chile on Tuesday, January 2 at 10.30am, the Tsitsipas brothers, Sakellaridis, Papamichail and Grammatikopoulou all attended a media conference on Friday afternoon. Sakkari was not present at the time due to a delay with her international travel.
At the media conference, the Greek players all said they’re looking forward to the tournament.
“The United Cup is one of the most exciting competitions that tennis has at the moment and to be representing the Greek colours is something that you don’t see that often in tennis,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said.
“We’re here to do better, bigger, bolder things this year. We were very close last year in the semi-finals and it is important for us to get back together, unite again and make it work the way we did last year.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas added that he can’t wait to play in front of loyal Greek fans.
“Same Greeks, different city,” he said.
“All the Greeks that are here support us at any given moment I feel like and we have a great relationship with them.
“We’ve witnessed it in Melbourne, even in Brisbane and now we’re in Sydney. I feel like regardless of the player, regardless of who is on the court playing, the support is the same. The support is intense on every occasion and that for us, means a lot. It gives us a psychological advantage.”
