The Glow-Up of the Glorious "1 Point Slam"

A cult favorite last year, the Australian Open now has itself a million-dollar sideshow worth every penny.

MELBOURNE, Australia — This is my 13th time coming to Melbourne to cover the Australian Open, and it’s also my 13th time getting here early enough to cover qualifying, too. I always like getting a chance to see rising players I haven’t seen up-close before, as well as seeing familiar names battling to make it back to primetime. Qualifying matches also just have a different dynamic that heightens the drama: they often feel like they have the starkest stakes to make-or-break careers.

But as I was planning my trip back down here this year, there was another major attraction this week that I was determined to arrive to Melbourne early enough to behold: the second edition of the glorious “1 Point Slam”.

I happened upon last year’s inaugural 1 Point Slam by chance, just because I had left my monitor on the Kia Arena court feed that was showing it. I was instantly hooked and entranced by this sideshow, watching an entire tennis tournament unfold, featuring men vs women and pros vs amateurs head-to-head in less time than it usually takes to play a match, with A$60,000 awarded to the winner.

When I ran into Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley at last year’s U.S. Open half-a-year later, the first thing I could think to tell him was how much I’d loved 1 Point Slam, and how much I hoped the Australian Open was bringing it back for 2026.

Indeed they were, Tiley told me, with plans to make it far bigger than the first edition.

That ambition has borne out this week at Melbourne Park, where 1 Point Slam qualifying “matches” are taking part in parallel to the main tournament, and many of the biggest names in tennis are booked to battle for a prize of A$1 million (about US$670,000) on Wednesday night in Rod Laver Arena.

To read this story that has been a year in the making and learn all about the 1 Point Slam—what made it so magical last year, interviews with many of the little-known players who became stars of the inaugural edition, how this year’s loaded extravaganza has been building up and the latest entry list of superstars and amateurs—please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben