I’ve already watched the greatest slice of live television entertainment I’ll see all year

It’s only January, but I think I’ve already watched the greatest slice of live television entertainment I’ll see all year.

The Million Dollar One Point Slam, staged before a sellout crowd of 15,000 people at the Australian Open in Melbourne, saw professional tennis players, seasoned amateurs and a sprinkling of local celebrities compete in a knockout tournament of matches comprising a single point.

Amateurs were granted the standard two serves, pros only one, with the coin toss decided via a fierce and often chaotic duel in the most serious two-person game of all: rock paper scissors.

The low-key inaugural edition of the mixed-gender event, in 2025, was a hit with tennis journalists, who judged it the right kind of silly. Its second outing, on Wednesday, was elevated into a TV spectacle by the participation of the sport’s biggest stars and a cash prize of one million Australian dollars, or just over €570,000, for the last player standing – a sum that guaranteed everyone was rooting for the underdogs.

“You cannot imagine my heartbeat right now,” Jannik Sinner, the second seed, who survived his first match only to later ditch his one serve into the net while facing off against the amateur player Jordan Smith. Did Sinner, a multimillionaire, need to win? No, but he surely wouldn’t have opted to beat himself in the manner he did.

“Probably the best point I’ve played in my life,” Joanna Garland, the giant-killing world number 117, said after she defeated Alexander Zverev, the men’s number three, by executing her shots perfectly in a tense rally. Insert your own “To me, that’s cinema” meme here.

Throughout the whole wonderful shebang, it felt as if anything could happen, and it frequently did. When it got down to the final, the stakes were unlike any found in “normal” tennis, where scoring rules mean a match must be won by a margin of two. This was a million-dollar point for both players.

Broadcast on TNT Sports, the brilliantly bizarre exhibition remains available to stream on YouTube for fans of fuzzy yellow balls or random joy, so no more spoilers here. Let’s just say brevity of format can be an effective equaliser, and may even prompt an ingenious flipping of the usual dynamic.

The concept ratchets up the influence of pressure on the outcome. Luck also becomes a greater determinant of victory. The game is no longer about sustained skill and stamina levels, or learning to adapt to your opponent’s tactics over time. It’s about not messing up.

[ Roger Federer hails Alcaraz and Sinner's 'great' rivalry amid Australian Open returnOpens in new window ]

Some stars, anxious to avoid losing face, will fluff their lines. Lower-ranked pros, who struggle to stay financially afloat, may be distracted by the dazzling amount of money on offer. Amateurs risk feeling happy just to be there. The standard laws of excellence don’t apply.

But that’s showbiz. I often wonder how performers of all persuasions do it. How do actors still in search of their big break, for example, cope with the sliding doors of an important audition? How do they walk into a room knowing that, in their cutthroat and unpredictable line of work, this might be their one shot at stardom?

It’s easy to spot tennis players beset by nerves. Their legs are suddenly leaden; it’s as if they’re playing in quicksand. They make the wrong shot choices, their brains not functioning as they should.

For actors consumed by stress during an audition, it’s not so different. Their arms might not tighten, but their voices will. Overcome by the desire to just get through it without collapsing, their eyes go dead. They might report having an out-of-body experience, and not in a good way.

Like the tennis players, they risk either playing it too safe or taking too big a swing. And if they do crash and burn, they might not feel like laughing afterwards, as many of the One Point Slam competitors, high on the ridiculousness of it all, couldn’t help but do.

Actors sometimes refer to the process of auditioning itself as “the job”. Maybe this is a useful psychological tactic for living with disappointment. Maybe it’s important to tell yourself that you don’t care about this really intense thing, even when you do.

Success is no escape. Secure a role with clear breakthrough potential and it becomes the next site of debilitating fear. Fail to make the most of that one big chance, or find that the project flops for reasons beyond your control, and industry gatekeepers may be quicker to discard your nascent talents than nurture them. You’re one and done.

But don’t listen to me – listen to Taylor Fritz. “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,” the men’s world number nine posted.

Stepping up to the line can seem terrifying, absurd or simply a waste of time, but you’ve got to be in it to win it. Who knows how it might end up?

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