The United Cup has unveiled a significant new rule change that will permit a timeout during a match. Each nation will have the opportunity to halt play once to discuss strategies on the sidelines in every mixed doubles rubber.
Players like Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, who often play both singles and mixed for their respective countries, will need to adapt to these mid-match interruptions. The United Cup is set to return for its third edition to commence the 2025 season ahead of the Australian Open, with ATP and WTA stars teaming up to represent their country.
The matches are distributed across Perth and Sydney, with two singles matches occurring before a mixed doubles contest. Organizers have now introduced a new “innovation” for the doubles, allowing players and captains to pause the competition for 60 seconds.
This will provide each team “the opportunity to confer on strategy in addition to the changing of ends.” The player or captain must press a large red button in the team zone to call the timeout. These can only be called when the player or captain’s team is serving, and the break cannot occur between first and second serves.
There will be a maximum of two timeouts per mixed doubles match – one per team. When the timeout is over, a 25-second shot clock will begin counting down for the next point.
