Coco Gauff found a lighthearted way to cap one of the strangest nights in recent tennis memory, sharing an elevator selfie and a heartfelt joke with the most unlikely winner of the Australian Open’s experimental 1 Point Slam. The American star posted a photo alongside amateur champion Jordan Smith and his girlfriend, turning the winner-takes-all event into a moment of humor and warmth.
Coco Gauff’s Elevator Selfie Sets the Tone for the Australian Open’s 1 Point Slam
The 1 Point Slam was staged as a one-night exhibition in Melbourne, designed to energize fans ahead of the season’s first Grand Slam. Held at Rod Laver Arena during opening-week festivities, each match was decided by a single rally: no games and no sets. One point meant survival or elimination.
With a winner-takes-all purse of A$1 million (US$667,289 million), the stakes were unusually high for an exhibition, especially one that placed elite professionals on equal footing with lower-ranked players and amateurs.
Following the event, Gauff took to X and posted an elevator selfie alongside Smith and his girlfriend. In the caption, Gauff joked about meeting “the legend himself” and teased Smith by calling his wife his girlfriend before adding that she insisted she be in the photo because “behind every good man is a great woman.”
met the legend himself and his girlfriend ! lol I told her to get in the picture because behind every good man is a great woman 😌 pic.twitter.com/BzfnSA9jsK
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) January 15, 2026
How Did Amateurs and Underdogs Thrive in the One-Point Format?
A deliberately mixed 48-player field was brought together, comprising established stars, tour-level competitors, and qualifiers with little or no professional pedigree. To level the playing field, professionals were often restricted to a single serve, while some amateurs were granted two.
The result was a cascade of instant drama. Matches ended in seconds. Even the sport’s biggest names were vulnerable, including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga ÅšwiÄ…tek, and Gauff herself.
Gauff’s own night mirrored the event’s volatility. She won her opening one-point match with a composed serve-plus-one play, only to be eliminated shortly afterward during a tight rally where her opponent forced the issue and drew the error.
That same unforgiving format cleared the path for Smith, an amateur who stayed patient and repeatedly let higher-ranked opponents crack under pressure. His run included a stunning one-point win over Sinner, whose lone serve clipped the net cord and ended his night almost before it began.
The final saw Smith face Joanna Garland, another surprise package of the exhibition. Garland had taken out a string of well-known names, including Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev, to reach the championship point. In front of a packed arena, the title came down to one tense exchange. Garland chose to serve, but a backhand drifted wide, handing Smith the entire prize in a single moment.
