Nick Kyrgios is confirmed to return to Rod Laver Arena for the 1 Point Slam, joining world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in a 48-player, one-day event featuring professionals, amateurs and celebrity wildcards. The winner-takes-£498k (AUD$1m) competition will see matches decided by a single point, with a rock-paper-scissors game deciding who serves.
The appearance boosts Kyrgios’ chances of playing the Australian Open after he was announced as a headline act at the star-studded event. The 30-year-old has played just one Grand Slam match since reaching the US Open quarter-finals in 2022, has featured in only five matches in 2025 and was last in action in March. He has dropped to world No 668 and will need a wild card to enter his home Slam after his injury-protected ranking of No 21 expired.
Kyrgios is rebuilding fitness after knee and wrist problems that have sidelined him for much of the past three years. He is also preparing for a controversial exhibition “Battle of the Sexes” match against Aryna Sabalenka on December 28 in Dubai, and is scheduled to play at the Kooyong Classic. Kyrgios acknowledged the pressure surrounding the Sabalenka exhibition, saying he felt he was “in the firing line” and would show the world she has weaknesses despite her top ranking.
The Sabalenka-Kyrgios billing echoes the famous 1973 match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which King won in straight sets at the Houston Astrodome. That match — watched by more than 30,000 in the arena and an estimated 90 million worldwide — is viewed as a landmark moment for women’s sport. In the same year King helped form the Women’s Tennis Association and the US Open became the first Grand Slam to offer equal prize money.
Earlier “Battle of the Sexes” and exhibition-style matches include Riggs’ May 1973 win over Margaret Court, dubbed the “Mother’s Day Massacre,” and a 1992 “Battle of Champions” where Martina Navratilova faced Jimmy Connors in Las Vegas. Connors prevailed, with each player reportedly paid $500,000 to compete, and Navratilova describing the event as uniquely pressured and unlike any other match she’d played.