Tosses won through a game of rock, paper, scissors, winning one points against players like World number 2 and defending Australian champion Jannik Sinner, Laura Pigossi, Amanda Anisimova and Pedro Martinez followed by a win against world number 117 Joanna Garland in the final, taking home one million Australian dollars and emerging the champion in a field including 16 top seeded professional professional players including world number one Carlos Alcaraz apart from Australian football star Bailey Smith, Melbourne Cup winner Damien Oliver, singer-songwriter Jay Chou, Twitch streamer Loserfruit, and television presenters Karl Stefanovic and Andy Lee. That was Sydney-based Tennis coach and amateur player Jordan Smith’s journey to win the 1-Point Slam at the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday evening ahead of the Australian Open. Smith, who coaches at the Castle Hill Tennis Academy in Sydney, also took 50,000 dollars for his club with the title win, became the second winner in the tournament’s history with his win over Garland.
“I’m just happy I won a point. I was so nervous. I can’t even speak. Coming into tonight I would have been happy winning just one point. I was so nervous but enjoyed being out here, it was a great experience,” Smith said after the win at Rod Laver Arena. When asked what he will do with the prize money, Smith replied that he will probably ‘half a house’ in Sydney. “Or maybe half a house… prices in Sydney are insane,” added Smith.
The 1-Point Slam was introduced last year ahead of the Australian Open with Andrey Rublev being the only top-ten player to feature in the format and the prize pool being 60,000 Australian dollars. Omar Jasika had defeated Priscilla Han to win the title last year.
This year saw the 1-Point Slam featuring 24 professional players including Sinner and Alcaraz, eight main draw wild cards, eight qualifying wild cards and eight community champions including Lee and Smith. With the format seeing the top 16 professional players seeing first round byes and each match consisting of one single point, the 24 amateur were allowed two serves with the ATP ranked or WTA ranked players only getting one serve. All the matches saw toss being held by the game of rock, paper, scissors, Smith opened his campaign with a win over Laura Pigossi followed by the third round match against World Number 2 and defending Australian champion Sinner. World number two Sinner double faulted his serve handing Smith a famous win. Smith then scored a win over world number six Amanda Anisimova scoring the win through a service winner before facing Martinez in the semi-final. The math saw a long rally before Martinez made a backhand error handing Smith a win. Against Garland, Smith lost the toss with Garland serving in the match. With Garland serving, Smth made a return with Garland’s backhand going out and handing Smith the title. “There are three winners tonight. Tennis, me and him (Smith),” Garland had said prior to the match.
Garland had scored wins over the likes of Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios, Maria Sakkari and Donna Vekic in her road to the final. After he won his opening match against Western Australia State champion Steve Yarwood, Kyrgios lost against Garland. “My heart is racing. That was a good serve. Honestly, this feels like the finals of Wimbledon,” Kyrgios had said after his win over Yarwood.
Earlier in the day, three-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev had lost against Anisimova before Anisimova lost against Smith. World number one Carlos Alcaraz too suffered a loss against Sakkari, who eventually lost to Garland. Sinner had scored a win over Carreno Busta in his opening match after electing to receive as he won the rock, paper, scissors game to win the toss. “I kind of called it so that’s how it happens. You cannot imagine my heartbeat right now. It’s around 200, but I survived until now,” Sinner said after his win over Busta.
Alcaraz too had talked how it felt ‘a little’ like playing a Grand Slam final post his third round loss against WTA number 52 Maria Sakkari. “It feels a little like I’m playing a Grand Slam final right now,” said Alcaraz.
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