Belinda Bencic and Coco Gauff playing strong at 2026 United Cup

Coco Gauff (Google Images)

We now know two semifinalists at the 2026 United Cup in Australia. In the two quarterfinal matchups in Perth on Wednesday, the United States beat Greece 2-1 and Switzerland beat Argentina 2-1.

What we saw from both ties were exceptional play from the female tennis players on the United States and Switzerland. Grand slam champion Coco Gauff of Atlanta, and grand slam semifinalist Belinda Bencic not only won their singles matches, but won doubles matches too. Gauff is a two-time grand slam singles champion as she won the 2023 United States Open and 2025 French Open. 

Gauff beat Maria Sakkari of Greece, 6-3, 6-2, and teamed up with Christian Harrison of Shreveport, Louisiana, to beat the Greek duo of Sakkari and Stefanos Tsistsipas 4-6, 6-4, [10-8]. Bencic won all four of her sets she played in. She beat Solana Sierra of Argentina 6-2, 6-2, and teamed up with Jakub Paul to beat the Argentinian duo of Maria Lourdes Carle and Guido Andreozzi, 6-3, 6-3. The grand slam semifinals that Bencic reached in the past came at the 2019 United States Open and 2025 Wimbledon.

The other two quarterfinal matchups are in Sydney. On Thursday, the Czech Republic is facing Belgium, and on Friday, Australia is playing Poland. Australia won Group D in Sydney, as they won a group that included the Czech Republic and Norway.

Australia’s top player to date has been Storm Hunter of Rockhampton. She beat Malene Hello of Norway 6-2, 7-6 in singles play, and teamed up with John-Patrick Smith of Townsville, and Alex de Minaur of Sydney to win separate doubles matches since Saturday.