Carlos Alcaraz Ready to Battle Amateurs in $1 Million Winner-Takes-All Event

Amateur players are being offered an opportunity to earn A$1m when they face world-class athletes - headed by top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz - in a one-point battle before January's Australian Open

Event planners of the year's first Grand Slam have revealed the Million Dollar One Point Slam, which will pit 10 amateur players against 22 professionals in a elimination competition at the tournament grounds

How the Competition Operates

Participants must play 'the decision-making game' to establish who gets to serve or return, and the competitor securing the point will advance to the following stage

The champion of the event will receive approximately half a million pounds

By comparison, players who advanced to the penultimate round of the men's or women's singles in the previous year's tournament won substantial prize money

Previous Similar Events

The US Open hosted a revamped, independent combined gender tournament in August which encouraged top singles players to compete, with the winners receiving one million US dollars

The Melbourne tournament held its inaugural One Point Slam this year, but the prize fund was sixty thousand Australian dollars and it generated little publicity

The Russian player was the single high-ranked athlete competing, and his progress came to an end when he put the sole serving chance granted into the net in his quarter-final

Event Information

Officials have not specified precisely how the event will work, but it is expected to follow a comparable structure to the most recent iteration

The top competitors will be allowed to have a single serve and the non-professionals on two occasions - as is the norm in conventional tennis

While it is unclear how the pairings will work, there will be multiple elimination stages and the venue will be the primary court rather than the secondary venue

The concluding rounds will take place in a nighttime schedule instead of midday timing

Participation Information

Domestic competitors - or international players who have enrolled with the national federation - can compete in 'single-point competition' events at their local tennis clubs

The champions of the local competitions will then go into a selection process, with one amateur player from every geographic division selected to take part in the 'grand finale' in a evening match on mid-January

There will also be a preliminary competition in the final month which amateurs, developing professionals, famous personalities and sports personalities can participate in

It starts on early January and the pair of champions will qualify for Wednesday's 'final showdown' with the remaining non-professionals and top-ranked athletes

"Regardless of your skill level, the overall victor will receive the prize. Registrations will start imminently at clubs across the country"

Event organizers mentioned there were "further celebrities to be announced soon", while the tournament site said "celebrities" would be participating