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Leylah Fernandez was an early arrival in Perth for the first event of the season, the United Cup.

And Félix Auger-Aliassime wasn’t far behind her.

It’s coming up before you know it – Day 1 is Dec. 27 (Friday) in Perth, and the next day in Sydney.

All of the info is here on the website.

Here’s some video of Fernandez (credit: Tennis Australia).

And here is some of Auger-Aliassime.

A year ago, Auger-Aliassime was still dealing with a lingering knee injury. And so the No. 2 (who was Steven Diez) got to play singles.

In the end, Auger-Aliassime tested it out in the first mixed doubles match of his career against Greece, with the outcome already decided. So Tsitsipas-Sakkari v Auger-Aliassime-Fernandez ended up being … PETROS Tsitsipas-Despina Papamichail v Auger-Aliassime and Stacey Fung.

That’s the kind of thing that can happen at United Cup, if one team is up 2-0.

Here’s the rest of the Canadian squad.

Tough pool, tough sked

The event gets under way in Perth with Spain vs. Kazakhstan on Friday – with Spain not fielding their best.

Here’s the full schedule.

On Saturday, Canada takes on Croatia.

No gimme there. It’s the day session with a 10 a.m. start in Perth.

Perth is 13 hours ahead; so the Canadian start times are friendly: 9 p.m. Friday ET, and 6 p.m. PT.

On Sunday, Dec. 29 in the night session, Canada will take on the U.S.

That’s a night session with a 5 p.m. start. so 4 a.m. (yeesh) ET and 1 a.m. PT.

It’s tough to see the U.S. not winning that group, which is Group A.

So the likely best-case scenario would be for Canada to finish as the “best runner-up” amongst the other nations.

In which case they would play a quarterfinal tie on Jan. 1 (again the evening session). Against the winner of Group A. So likely the U.S. again.

But anything can happen, so stay tuned.

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