{"id":408137,"date":"2026-01-12T10:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408137\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T10:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:57:10","slug":"how-the-australian-opens-1-point-slam-works-and-why-it-has-suburban-players-dreaming-of-a-1m-win-over-the-worlds-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408137\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Australian Open\u2019s 1-Point Slam works, and why it has suburban players dreaming of a $1m win over the world\u2019s best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open organisers have taken an innovative step this year with the \u201c1-point Slam\u201d competition. It will be shown live on Channel Nine and other broadcasters. To kick the idea off last year, a smaller tournament was held with a vastly smaller prize on offer \u2013 $60,000.<\/p>\n

The concept is relatively straight-forward. Each \u201cmatch\u201d is decided by a single point. Win the point and you advance; lose it and you\u2019re out. A \u201crock, paper, scissors\u201d contest determines which player serves (or, alternatively, which side of the court \u2013 the deuce or add court \u2013 they\u2019ll opt to play on) \u2013 a factor which can go a long way to deciding how the point plays out.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one crucial rule, however: amateurs receive two serves, while current ATP and WTA-ranked players get one serve.<\/p>\n

Jovic is on about a 10-point winning streak through qualifying.<\/p>\n

The brutal nature of \u201cone-point\u201d competition \u2013 players live on the edge and walk the tightrope of going for a winner or playing the percentages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got all these sort of emotions going into it. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s just so chaotic,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n

His final contest at Fawkner Park Tennis Centre, with a spot at the AO on the line, was dramatic.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I] won the toss, so I had to pick the serve, obviously. And then the funny thing was, yeah, I\u2019ve hit the serve, and I\u2019ve thought I\u2019ve missed it; it looked like it was very close to the line<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve sort of stopped because I did think he was gonna call it, and then he\u2019s just returned it, and it\u2019s been in play. I\u2019m on the back foot because I\u2019m, like, panicking,\u201d Jovic recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready to pick the second ball out of my pocket, and then he\u2019s hit [the ball] back. So I\u2019m back-pedaling, and I\u2019ve hit a backhand and sort of popped it up a bit, you know, and he\u2019s just gonna hit the forehand, and just missed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Victorian<\/p>\n

Victorian Petar Jovic is one of eight state champions competing in the innovative event.Credit: Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n

Jovic doesn\u2019t know if there\u2019s a sense of destiny for him, but he won\u2019t die wondering on Wednesday night \u2013 even as he contemplates trying to fire down an unreturnable serve against a player of the ilk of two-time defending Open champion Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only be so prepared because someone can frame a ball and it bounces weird and, you know, everything can just be thrown out of whack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

What about the prospect of readying for the final point with the $1 million cheque in sight?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d hate to lose,\u201d Jovic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great question \u2013 you\u2019d almost prefer to lose [in an earlier round].\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow our live Australian Open blog each day from January 18 for results, news, analysis and interviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open organisers have taken an innovative step this year with the \u201c1-point Slam\u201d competition. It will be shown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-408137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}