A proud tennis country, Spain has thrived in representative competitions when its players don national colours.
Six-time Davis Cup champions as well as five times a winner of the Billie Jean King Cup, Spain has also won 15 tennis medals at the Olympic Games, including two golds.
The United Cup is the next frontier for Spanish players, a team event yet to be conquered but where two players will be hoping to change that in 2026.
In January, Team Spain will be represented by the rising duo of Jaume Munar and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who will travel to Perth to compete against the USA and Argentina in Group A. Rounding out Spain’s six-player squad at RAC Arena are Carlos Taberner, Inigo Cervantes, Andrea Lazaro Garcia and Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers.
TICKETS: Cheer on Team Spain at RAC Arena in Perth
For the first time in 2025, both Munar and Bouzas Maneiro ended a season inside the world’s top 50, and both are trending up and forming a dangerous threat among the 18-country field at United Cup 2026.
Munar is fresh off helping Spain into the 2025 Davis Cup final in Bologna. As the Spanish team’s No.1 player he pushed Flavio Cobolli to the limit in a pulsating second rubber before going down in three sets, a result which saw Italy win its third straight Davis Cup.
Despite the loss, Munar’s ability to challenge higher-ranked opponents has been a defining factor in this breakout season. He outplayed top-20 Czech Jiri Lehecka in the Davis Cup quarterfinals and pushed world No.3 Alexander Zverev to two tiebreaks in the semifinals, two of several head-turning performances in 2025.
After reaching the fourth round of the US Open – his best ever Grand Slam result – and the same stage of the Shanghai Masters, Munar stunned Ben Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the Basel 500 semifinals.
That result propelled him to a career-high ranking of world No.36 just six months after he was ranked 66th, meaning he is within striking distance of an Australian Open seeding.
The 28-year-old said that beyond clashes with the world’s dominant top two Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, every match-up was tight – and winnable.
“Everything is close,” said Munar, who will face Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Baez in Perth. “I feel like any match-up now in the tour, it's pretty much the same. It's very close because the level is high.
“Of course, we have two guys on top of that. The rest, I think we fight each other.”
READ MORE: Top-seeded Team USA back for more United Cup glory
Bouzas Maneiro has shown a similar ability to challenge higher-ranked foes, and on many occasions has got the better of them.
She dipped as low as world No.73 in April but peaked at 40th in August, helped by winning 20 of 28 matches in that span – beginning with quality wins for Spain over Linda Noskova and Beatriz Haddad Maia in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers.
Her purple patch included a 6-0 6-1 thrashing of world No.9 Emma Navarro in the opening round at Roland Garros, and she also scored wins over Sofia Kenin and Dayana Yastremska as she stormed into the last 16 at Wimbledon, her best performance at a major.
Then came a quarterfinal run at the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal, before notable wins over Venus Williams, Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend en route to the Cincinnati fourth round, where she challenged world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
“I think I'm quite relaxed out on the court. I think I'm happy,” Bouzas Maneiro replied when asked about her form spike. “I'm trying to do things as good as I can and, yeah, working with my coach, my team.”
Bouzas Maneiro also stunned defending champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round of Wimbledon in 2024. That huge upset that will no doubt serve as a warning for world No.3 Coco Gauff, a superstar Bouzas Maneiro will meet in the United Cup group stages.
Should she and Munar continue rising to the occasion against the sport’s biggest names, Team Spain might have a new trophy to add to its well-stocked cabinet.
