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Amateur players will have an opportunity to win one million Australian dollars when they take on elite players - including top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz - in a single-point showdown before January's Australian Open

Event planners of the Melbourne major have unveiled the Million Dollar One Point Slam, which will pair 10 amateur players against 22 professionals in a knockout tournament at Melbourne Park

How the Competition Operates

Players will play 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide who takes the serve or return position, and the player who wins the point will move forward to the following stage

The champion of the event will take home a significant cash prize

For comparison, players who reached the penultimate round of the main draw competitions in the last edition won A$1.1m

Previous Comparable Tournaments

The American Grand Slam staged a restructured, standalone mixed doubles tournament in August which encouraged top singles players to take part, with the winners receiving $1m

The Australian Open held its debut quick-fire event earlier this year, but the prize fund was a smaller amount and it had limited exposure

Andrey Rublev was the single high-ranked athlete involved, and his run came to an end when he sent the single service opportunity permitted into the net in his quarter-final

Competition Specifics

Officials have not said exactly how the event will function, but it is expected to mirror a comparable structure to the most recent iteration

The top competitors will be permitted to serve once and the amateurs two times - as is the usual procedure in conventional tennis

While it is unclear how the draw will work, there will be several competitive phases and the location will be the primary court rather than the secondary venue

The concluding rounds will occur in a night session instead of 1pm local time

Participation Information

Any Australians - or overseas competitors who have signed up with the national federation - can participate in 'single-point competition' events at their local tennis clubs

The champions of the local competitions will then go into a random pairing, with a single non-professional from every geographic division selected to participate in the 'championship round' in a evening match on the specified date

There will also be a entry tournament in late year which non-professionals, aspiring competitors, well-known figures and sports personalities can compete in

It commences on Monday, 12 January and the two winners will qualify for Wednesday's 'final showdown' with the other eight amateurs and 10 professionals

"Whether you're an amateur or a pro, the overall victor will claim the prize. Entries will begin shortly at venues nationwide"

Competition planners stated there were "more big names to be announced soon", while the tournament site said "famous personalities" would be involved