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Everyday tennis enthusiasts are being offered the chance to win one million Australian dollars when they take on tennis' top professionals - featuring world number one Carlos Alcaraz - in a winner-takes-all point prior to January's Australian Open

Tournament officials of the Melbourne major have unveiled the Seven-Figure Quick-Fire Competition, which will match a dozen non-professionals against top-ranked players in a single-elimination format at the tournament grounds

How the Tournament Functions

Players will play 'rock, paper, scissors' to determine who gets to serve or return, and whoever wins the point will progress to the following stage

The winner of the event will take home approximately half a million pounds

For comparison, players who reached the final four of the main draw competitions in the previous year's tournament won A$1.1m

Earlier Similar Events

The US Open staged a redesigned, independent mixed doubles tournament in the eighth month which prompted top singles players to compete, with the champions receiving one million US dollars

The year's first major held its debut single-point competition earlier this year, but the total purse was sixty thousand Australian dollars and it had limited exposure

The Russian player was the sole elite competitor participating, and his progress came to an end when he put the one and only serve granted into the mesh in his last eight match

Event Information

Organizers have not detailed exactly how the event will operate, but it is expected to emulate a akin setup to this year's edition

The elite players will be granted to serve once and the non-professionals twice - as is the usual procedure in traditional tennis

While it is not certain how the pairings will work, there will be multiple elimination stages and the location will be the main stadium rather than the secondary venue

The concluding rounds will occur in a evening slot instead of early afternoon

Entry Information

Domestic competitors - or foreign participants who have registered with the national federation - can participate in 'One Point Slam' competitions at their community centers

The victors of the grassroots tournaments will then go into a random pairing, with an everyday competitor from every region and area chosen to take part in the 'grand finale' in a nighttime event on Wednesday, 14 January

There will also be a preliminary competition in the final month which non-professionals, aspiring competitors, well-known figures and sports personalities can participate in

It starts on early January and the two winners will advance to the midweek 'championship match' with the additional everyday players and 10 professionals

"No matter your experience, the overall victor will walk away with the reward. Registrations will start imminently at venues nationwide"

Tournament officials stated there were "more big names to be announced soon", while the official website said "celebrities" would be taking part