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The Australian Open crowned a new millionaire champion—and he isn’t a professional tennis player.
Australian amateur Jordan Smith won $668,500 ($1 million AUD) on Wednesday after winning the 1 Point Slam, an exhibition event held during the qualifying week at Melbourne Park. The 1 Point Slam features men’s and women’s professional and amateur players competing with the winner of a single rally advancing to the next round.
Amateurs competed in regional qualifiers last month to qualify for the tournament.
The event debuted last year at the Australian Open, but it had prize money of about $40,000 ($60,000 AUD). Smith’s winnings are more than the singles quarterfinalists of the official Australian Open, which is about $500,000 ($750,000 AUD).
The increased prize money in Year 2 helped lure in a field featuring many of tennis’s best, including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Świątek, and Coco Gauff. Andrey Rublev was the professional in the top 10 who participated last year.
Smith defeated women’s world No. 117 Joanna Garland in the tournament’s final to win the prize. He upset men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who faulted on a serve, en route to the championship.
Garland defeated men’s No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Australian men’s professional Nick Kyrgios to reach the final round.
Taylor Fritz, the top-ranked American male, was not in the field, but he expressed regret for not participating.
“Now that I’m actually watching it on TV, massive L from me to not be playing the one point slam, this looks like so much fun,” Fritz said on X/Twitter. Gauff also tweeted after Smith’s win, calling the 1 Point Slam “a great event.”
The success of the 1 Point Slam comes just months after the US Open also attracted the majority of tennis’s top singles stars to a qualifying week event as tournaments try to increase attendance.
The 2025 US Open mixed doubles featured nearly all top 10 men’s and women’s players (only Gauff did not participate) after the tournament raised the prize money from $200,000 to $1 million. It also offered wild-card entries to lower-ranked popular names like Venus Williams and Emma Raducanu.
The change helped the US Open deliver record attendance for its first week (239,307). The 2026 Australian Open has already reported record highs in attendance through its first few days of qualifying week.
But the US Open mixed doubles was highly criticized. Unlike the 1 Point Slam, the mixed doubles event is considered an official Grand Slam tournament with many of the past participants being professional doubles players.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the 2024 US Open mixed doubles champions and lone true doubles pairing in the bracket, won the 2025 tournament.
“I think this one is for all the doubles players that couldn’t play this tournament. I think this one is also for them,” Errani said after the win.
It’s unclear whether the French Open and Wimbledon, the other two Grand Slams, will incorporate similar events into their qualifying week.
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