![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/jordan-smith-celebrates-after-winning-R7FNGTMB3VHUXCVWJRXVJ2J3JA.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSydney tennis battler Jordan Smith has lived out a real-life David-versus-Goliath dream to win the $1 million ‘One Point Slam’ at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
Smith claimed the prized scalps of two-time defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner and dual grand slam women’s finalist Amanda Anasimova en route to Wednesday night’s final of Tennis Australia’s all-or-nothing innovation.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old could not believe his good fortune when he then upset women’s world No.117 Joanna Garland in the final to upstage the game’s superstars and claim a life-changing million-dollar cheque at Rod Laver Arena. <\/p>\n
“I can’t even speak,” Smith said with his mother, father and two brothers, who run the Castle Hill Tennis Academy, watching on in disbelief from the stands.<\/p>\n
Asked what he would spend his winnings on, the humble champion said: “Invest or buy a house definitely with my girlfriend.”<\/p>\n
After suffering a first-round loss in Australian Open qualifying this week, Garland proved the fans’ favourite of the night while eliminating 2025 AO runner-up Alexander Zverev, home star Nick Kyrgios and women’s professionals Maria Sakari and Donna Vekic en route to the final.<\/p>\n
The event was being staged for only the second time.<\/p>\n
The pre-Australian Open concept was introduced last year with Russian firebrand Andrey Rublev the only top-10 player featuring and bombing out with a service fault in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
The 2025 prize pool was only $60,000, but a star-studded line-up this year played for a million bucks.<\/p>\n
The format was simple enough, with 16 top-seeded pros – headed up by world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, second seed Sinner and women’s superstars Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka – all enjoying first-round byes before the competition morphed into a grand slam-style knockout from the last-32 stage onwards.<\/p>\n
Each match consisted of one single point.<\/p>\n
Instead of a traditional coin toss, a game of “rock, paper, scissors” decided who served or received.<\/p>\n
Crucially, the 24 amateurs who qualified or were awarded wildcards were allowed two serves but any current ATP or WTA-ranked players only got one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jordan Smith celebrates after winning. (Source: Aus Open via X)<\/p>\n
In an early indicator of the unpredictable nature of the contest, French world No.34 Corentin Moutet was the first player eliminated after misfiring his return against Argentinean touring coach Andres Schneitner.<\/p>\n
Nick Kyrgios barely survived his opening “match”.<\/p>\n
“My heart is racing. That was a good serve. Honestly, this feels like the finals of Wimbledon,” Kyrgios said after his backhand passing shot caught the line to crush WA state champion Steve Yarwood’s dreams of a million-dollar run.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios ultimately bowed out when he over-cooked a backhand in his quarter-final with Garland, the eventual runner-up.<\/p>\n
“Biggest win of my life, right?” Garland said.<\/p>\n
As the biggest men’s stars perished under the pressure, six-times grand slam champion Iga Swiatek struck the first blow for women’s tennis, bossing world No.22 Flavio Cobolli from the baseline to win the first “Battle of the Sexes” match-up.<\/p>\n
The big-hitting Anisimova then out-duelled three-time AO runner-up Daniil Medvedev, Frances Tiafoe lost his nerve and serve against Swiatek and Alcaraz succumbed to Sakkari as the men dropped like flies. <\/p>\n
Sinner confessed to feeling the heat when he dumped a serve into the net to gift Smith a place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
“I kind of called it so that’s how it happens,” Sinner said, having elected to receive in his opening match.<\/p>\n
“You cannot imagine my heartbeat right now. It’s around 200, but I survived until now,” the Italian world No.2 said after outlasting Carreno Busta in his anxious opener.<\/p>\n
Queensland state champion qualifier Alec Reverente settled for a new car after beating Smith in the showdown of the two last standing amateurs.<\/p>\n
But the night belonged, almost fittingly, to a battler named Smith.<\/p>\n
“It’s insane,” he said before walking away with the spoils.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney tennis battler Jordan Smith has lived out a real-life David-versus-Goliath dream to win the $1 million ‘One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-233957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}