Amateur Stuns Alcaraz and Sinner to Win Australian Open Million-Dollar Prize
The One Point Slam has come to a close in Melbourne, Australia.
Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Tennis
Marcus Chan
Topics: Tennis
An amateur player has beaten the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in a million-dollar event at the Australian Open.
On Wednesday night, ahead of the 2026 Australian Open, the One Point Slam took place inside Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The 48-player tournament included 24 professionals, eight state champions from Australia, eight qualifiers from Melbourne and eight wildcards.
Each match contains one point, with the winner advancing to the next round, the eventual champion will win one million Australian dollars.
Advert
Players representing the professionals included the likes of Sinner, Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff.
However, to the shock of fans watching inside the stadium, Sinner was beaten by amateur Jordan Smith, after the four-time Grand Slam champion double faulted.
Smith then dispatched Amanda Anisimova before beating Pedro Martinez to seal a place in the final.
The New South Wales state champion was up against Joanna Garland, who is currently ranked 117th in the WTA rankings.
In her own fairytale run to the final, Garland got the better of the likes of Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios.
Having won the 'rock, paper, scissors' contest, Garland decided to serve.
Smith returned the serve well and Garland went on to send a backhand wide, handing Smith the win and one million dollars in prize money.
Speaking ahead of the tournament, Smith spoke about how he planned to play against the professionals.
He said: "My strategy is to basically be a brick wall. I’ll just make a lot of balls and hopefully they miss. If someone’s going to beat me, they’re going to have to hit a lot of tennis balls."
When asked on what he will spend the prize money on, Smith said: "Partly buy a house. In Sydney, they’re pretty expensive."