This is a photo collection curated by AP photo editors.
FILE - Confetti falls over attendees in Times Square during New Year's Eve celebration, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
FILE - Fireworks light up the sky in central London to celebrate the New Year on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump arrives with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Dec. 17, 2025, for the casualty return of Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, who were killed in an attack in Syria. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Young dancers wait to perform at a Christmas ballet event in Nairobi, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)
FILE - Palestinian Khalil Abu Jayyab, right, and Tahseen Abu Assi warm up before surfing on the beach in Gaza City, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Revelers take part in the Afro-Venezuelan Holy Innocents' Day celebration in Caucagua, Venezuela, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Seen from above, buildings peak through above dense fog in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)
FILE - Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, helps his 7-year-old great-grandson James Schaeffer scope ducks while hunting in Kotzebue, Alaska, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag, File)
FILE - Philippines John Christopher Tolentino celebrates winning the men's 110m hurdles final race at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
FILE - Men dressed as former President Abraham Lincoln attend a mock funeral for the penny, which was discontinued earlier in the year, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - The Palestinian city of Jericho, seen from the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Jericho in the West Bank, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Dec. 11, 2025, the night before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)
FILE - Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown, center, breaks a tackle by Miami Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks, right, for a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game, Dec. 21, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Henry County local correspondent Joe Durbin pauses in the late day sun as he interviews participants during the Beef Bash 2025 tasting event at the Berry Center, Oct. 11, 2025, in New Castle, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - People watch a multimedia light show during the "Country of Light" festival at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
FILE - Britain's Kirsty Muir crashes during the women's freeski big air final at the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2025 in Beijing, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - Members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China, are illuminated by beams of pulsed laser light from a cellphone's LiDAR scanner as they sit for a photo, Oct. 12, 2025, in Midland, Texas. Photographed are Wensheng Wen, rear right, his wife, Lou Guangyzing, and their children Xin, 11, from right, Gehua, 9, Jinghua, 3, Rou, 6, and Younghua, 3. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Sahar Taroush speaks with her brother after returning to her collapsed home in Jabaliya, Gaza City, Nov. 11, 2025, following the latest ceasefire. Her children are Ammar, far left, Hassan sitting with with his 2-year-old sister Ahlam, and Bisan, right. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Pyongyang citizens and soldiers pay respect to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il on the 14th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death in Pyongyang, DPRK, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)
FILE - Maximiliano Rivero holds up his pet Manola as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
FILE - New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin), File)
FILE - Attendees stand during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, Dec. 18, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)
FILE - A mother cries by the coffin of her son Oleh Borovyk, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral in Boiarka, Ukraine, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
FILE - DR Congo's Nathanael Mbuku, top, and Botswana's Gape Edwin Mohutsiwa fight for the ball during their teams' Africa Cup of Nations group D soccer match in Rabat, Morocco, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
FILE - Army helicopters fly overhead during a parade by the new Syrian army, marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar Assad regime, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
FILE - An activist from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shouts slogans as police detain him during a protest near the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh, alleging that Bangladeshi groups are wrongly targeting Indians, in Mumbai, India, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
FILE - Gentoo penguins nest at Neko Harbour in Antarctica, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
FILE - Environmentalists create a glacier-shaped structure outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to protest a bill that would ease environmental protections, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
FILE - Photos of Brown University shooting victims MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, lay on a makeshift memorial outside the Engineering Research Center, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from left, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France's President Emmanuel Macron, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz pose for photos after their meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - Internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing the fighting in Congo's South Kivu province arrive in Cibitoke, Kansega, Burundi, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)
FILE - Israelis ride on horseback for the funeral procession of Aviv Maor, an 18-year-old Israeli who was killed by a Palestinian attacker the previous week, at Kibbutz Ein Harod cemetery in northern Israel, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - A family mourns during a menorah lighting ceremony for the victims of a shooting on Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
FILE - A child sits on an armored vehicle on display among Christmas lights in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Aria Wogoman leaves her flooded home in Redding, California, following heavy rain, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - Judges in their windows watch the men's Individual Gundersen Normal Hill/10Km event at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
FILE - Ayen Deng Duot, far right, and her family reinforce their island with vegetation and mud from the swamp to prevent their home from being flooded along the Nile River in Akuak, South Sudan, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Florence Miettaux, File)
FILE - Palestinian brides and grooms get married at a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
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FILE - President Donald Trump arrives with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Dec. 17, 2025, for the casualty return of Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, who were killed in an attack in Syria. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China, are illuminated by beams of pulsed laser light from a cellphone's LiDAR scanner as they sit for a photo, Oct. 12, 2025, in Midland, Texas. Photographed are Wensheng Wen, rear right, his wife, Lou Guangyzing, and their children Xin, 11, from right, Gehua, 9, Jinghua, 3, Rou, 6, and Younghua, 3. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Confetti falls over attendees in Times Square during New Year's Eve celebration, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
FILE - Fireworks light up the sky in central London to celebrate the New Year on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump arrives with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Dec. 17, 2025, for the casualty return of Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, Iowa, and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, who were killed in an attack in Syria. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Young dancers wait to perform at a Christmas ballet event in Nairobi, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)
FILE - Palestinian Khalil Abu Jayyab, right, and Tahseen Abu Assi warm up before surfing on the beach in Gaza City, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Revelers take part in the Afro-Venezuelan Holy Innocents' Day celebration in Caucagua, Venezuela, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Seen from above, buildings peak through above dense fog in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)
FILE - Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, helps his 7-year-old great-grandson James Schaeffer scope ducks while hunting in Kotzebue, Alaska, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag, File)
FILE - Philippines John Christopher Tolentino celebrates winning the men's 110m hurdles final race at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)
FILE - Men dressed as former President Abraham Lincoln attend a mock funeral for the penny, which was discontinued earlier in the year, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - The Palestinian city of Jericho, seen from the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Jericho in the West Bank, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - Pilgrims arrive at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, Dec. 11, 2025, the night before her feast day. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)
FILE - Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown, center, breaks a tackle by Miami Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks, right, for a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game, Dec. 21, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Henry County local correspondent Joe Durbin pauses in the late day sun as he interviews participants during the Beef Bash 2025 tasting event at the Berry Center, Oct. 11, 2025, in New Castle, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - People watch a multimedia light show during the "Country of Light" festival at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)
FILE - Britain's Kirsty Muir crashes during the women's freeski big air final at the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2025 in Beijing, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
FILE - Members of a Chinese church living in exile after fleeing from China, are illuminated by beams of pulsed laser light from a cellphone's LiDAR scanner as they sit for a photo, Oct. 12, 2025, in Midland, Texas. Photographed are Wensheng Wen, rear right, his wife, Lou Guangyzing, and their children Xin, 11, from right, Gehua, 9, Jinghua, 3, Rou, 6, and Younghua, 3. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Sahar Taroush speaks with her brother after returning to her collapsed home in Jabaliya, Gaza City, Nov. 11, 2025, following the latest ceasefire. Her children are Ammar, far left, Hassan sitting with with his 2-year-old sister Ahlam, and Bisan, right. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - Pyongyang citizens and soldiers pay respect to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il on the 14th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death in Pyongyang, DPRK, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)
FILE - Maximiliano Rivero holds up his pet Manola as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
FILE - New signage, The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, is unveiled on the Kennedy Center in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin), File)
FILE - Attendees stand during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, Dec. 18, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)
FILE - A mother cries by the coffin of her son Oleh Borovyk, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral in Boiarka, Ukraine, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
FILE - DR Congo's Nathanael Mbuku, top, and Botswana's Gape Edwin Mohutsiwa fight for the ball during their teams' Africa Cup of Nations group D soccer match in Rabat, Morocco, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
FILE - Army helicopters fly overhead during a parade by the new Syrian army, marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar Assad regime, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed, File)
FILE - An activist from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, shouts slogans as police detain him during a protest near the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh, alleging that Bangladeshi groups are wrongly targeting Indians, in Mumbai, India, Dec. 23, 2025.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
FILE - Gentoo penguins nest at Neko Harbour in Antarctica, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
FILE - Environmentalists create a glacier-shaped structure outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to protest a bill that would ease environmental protections, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
FILE - Photos of Brown University shooting victims MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, left, and Ella Cook, lay on a makeshift memorial outside the Engineering Research Center, Dec. 16, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from left, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France's President Emmanuel Macron, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz pose for photos after their meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - Internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing the fighting in Congo's South Kivu province arrive in Cibitoke, Kansega, Burundi, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)
FILE - Israelis ride on horseback for the funeral procession of Aviv Maor, an 18-year-old Israeli who was killed by a Palestinian attacker the previous week, at Kibbutz Ein Harod cemetery in northern Israel, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - A family mourns during a menorah lighting ceremony for the victims of a shooting on Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
FILE - A child sits on an armored vehicle on display among Christmas lights in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - Aria Wogoman leaves her flooded home in Redding, California, following heavy rain, Dec. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - Judges in their windows watch the men's Individual Gundersen Normal Hill/10Km event at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
FILE - Ayen Deng Duot, far right, and her family reinforce their island with vegetation and mud from the swamp to prevent their home from being flooded along the Nile River in Akuak, South Sudan, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Florence Miettaux, File)
FILE - Palestinian brides and grooms get married at a mass wedding ceremony in Hamad City in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — If it's a new year, it must be serious tennis time Down Under.
Just over six weeks since the ATP and WTA held their respective 2025 Finals, players on the men's and women's tours are arriving in Australia and New Zealand for a crammed two-week schedule of tournaments ahead of the Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam event starting Jan. 18 in Melbourne.
Leading the way is the United Cup, a mixed teams event which will be played in Perth and Sydney beginning Friday and finishing Jan. 11. The tournament will feature four of the world’s top 10 men and women including Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Iga Świątek, Alexander Zverev, Jasmine Paolini and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Also during the first full week of 2026, the Brisbane International will be headlined by defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, fresh off the Battle of the Sexes exhibition against Nick Kyrgios in Dubai. Also on from Jan. 4-10 is the Canberra International, a joint ATP Challenger and WTA 125 tournament in Australia's capital city.
But missing from the pre-Australian Open tournaments are the two biggest names in men's tennis: No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and second-ranked Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz and Sinner — who have won nine of the last 10 Grand Slam singles titles, with Sinner winning the 2025 Australian Open — have decided to play an exhibition at Incheon, South Korea on Jan. 10. After the exhibition, it's expected they'll fly to Australia to begin their preparations at Melbourne Park.
Alcaraz will be playing his first major in seven years without coach Juan Carlos Ferrero — the Spanish player recently announced their split. Alcaraz has not announced a replacement.
Other players at the United Cup, which begins Friday with Greece taking on Japan in Perth, include Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Stan Wawrinka, who has said 2026 will be his last year on tour.
The 40-year-old, three-time major winner Wawrinka says he hopes to improve on his current ranking of 157 and move back into the top 100 before he retires. His highest ranking was No. 3, achieved when he won the Australian Open in 2014.
“I’m happy with the decision (to retire) and feeling at peace with that," Wawrinka said when he arrived earlier this week in Perth.
Joining Sabalenka at the 500-level Brisbane International will be two-time major finalist Amanda Anisimova, WTA Finals champion Elena Rybakina, reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva.
The 18-year-old Andreeva is tipped to be the next big thing in women’s tennis and she could renew her rivalry with Sabalenka in Brisbane. Sabalenka leads 4-2 in the head-to-head matches but world No. 9 Andreeva had a three-set win in the Indian Wells final in 2025.
The Russian also made it to the quarterfinals at last year’s French Open and Wimbledon along with the semis at Roland Garros in 2024 when at 17 she became the youngest to reach the final four in a major since Martina Hingis at the 1997 U.S. Open.
“Maybe the rivalry (with Sabalenka) is a little bit there but she is leading ... unfortunately ... for now,” Andreeva told Australian Associated Press this week.
Andreeva lost to Sabalenka in the semifinals in Brisbane in 2025 and again in the fourth round at the Australian Open before her victory at Indian Wells where she was the youngest winner since Serena Williams.
“That gave me a lot of confidence. Winning Indian Wells is a milestone of my career so far,” she said.
In the second week of the warm-up events, the joint ATP- WTA Adelaide International featuring 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic will run from Jan. 12-17 as well as a WTA 250 tournament at Hobart, Australia.
Auckland, New Zealand will host a WTA tournament from Jan. 5-11 before the ATP plays at the same venue from Jan. 12-17. Kyrgios and Frances Tiafoe are scheduled to play in an exhibition tournament at Kooyong in Melbourne several days before the Australian Open begins.
And in the only warm-up tournament being played outside Australia or New Zealand, Hong Kong will host an ATP event from Jan. 5-11.
The ATP events will come under a new rule for 2026 to address extreme heat during men’s matches that will allow for 10-minute breaks during best-of-three-sets singles matches and is similar to what was put in place on the WTA more than 30 years ago.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Aryna Sabalenka acknowledges the crowd after losing against Nick Kyrgios in their Battle of the Sexes match, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday Dec. 28, 2025. (Christopher Pike/Pool Photo via AP)