Sydney (Australia), Oct 29 (IANS): Tennis Australia on Friday announced that the Australian cities of Brisbane, Perth and Sydney will jointly host a new global mixed team event called the United Cup from December 29 to January 8 as a kick-off to the 2023 tennis season.

Presented by ATP and WTA in partnership with Tennis Australia, the tournament is expected to gather 18 teams from countries with high-ranked men's and women's players.

Each team will comprise up to four men and up to four women, and a prize pool of 15 million U.S. dollars, as well as 500 ATP and 500 WTA ranking points, are up for grabs.

The 11-day competition includes two phases: the three cities each host two groups of three countries competing in a round-robin format from December 29 to January 4, while the Final Four is scheduled on January 6-8.

Group winners will then play for one of three semifinal places, with the remaining berth to be awarded to the next best-performing team from the group stage.

According to Tennis Australia, the United Cup draw will be held on November 11 and will determine where the top 16 countries will play. The last two teams will be determined the week commencing November 21, reports Xinhua.

"The United Cup presents a unique opportunity to unite both the men's and women's tour in a brand new way that has never been seen before," said Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley.

"We have the opportunity here in Australia to leverage tennis' unique position to allow the world's top men and women to compete side by side and represent their country at the highest level. We couldn't be more delighted to see how this event unfolds in January across Brisbane, Perth and Sydney," he added.