Tie Break Tens

Tie Break Tens^[1] is a tennis format in which only tie-break matches are played. There are no games or sets, only tie-break matches and the winner is the first player to reach 10 points and lead by a margin of two. Most other traditional rules of tennis are the same. The winner takes all prize money is US$250,000 for each tournament. To date prize money paid out totals over US$1 million.

It is a short-format version of tennis, similar to other alternative forms of traditional sports, such as T20 Cricket and rugby sevens.^[2]

The inaugural Tie Break Tens tournament took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 5 December 2015. It was won by Kyle Edmund who beat Andy Murray in the finals.^[3]

Since then, tournaments have been played in Vienna, Madrid, Melbourne and New York, with the world's current top tennis professionals competing for the grand prize.

Rules

Tie Break Tens is played using traditional tie-break rules. Players win by reaching 10 points (provided that they have a clear margin of two points). Rock, paper scissors determines who serves first, and from which end of the court they play. The player who wins the toss, serves first. The other player then serves twice, and with the rest of the match continues with the players alternating serves every two points. Players change ends after every six points. Players are allowed an unlimited number of line-call challenges using review technology during each match, until an incorrect challenge is made. After this, no more challenges are allowed until the next match.

2015: London

The inaugural Tie Break Tens^[4] tournament took place on 5 December 2015 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. A round-robin format was used, with six players divided into two groups of three. It was staged in partnership with Champions Tennis and promoted by  IMG  with a winner-take-all prize of $250,000. Andy Murray, John McEnroe, Tim Henman, David Ferrer, Kyle Edmund and Champions Tennis qualifier  Xavier Malisse  participated in the competition. In the final, Edmund defeated Andy Murray 10-7 and took away the $250,000 prize, more than doubling his earnings for 2015.

	Group 1	Henman	McEnroe	Malisse	Match W–L	Point W–L	Differential	Standings
	Tim Henman		10–7	5–10	1–1	15–17	-2	2
	John McEnroe	7–10		7–10	0–2	14–20	-6	3
Q	Xavier Malisse	10–5	10–7		2–0	20–12	+8	1

	Group 2	Murray	Ferrer	Edmund	Match W–L	Point W–L	Differential	Standings
	Andy Murray		10–4	10–7	2–0	20–11	+9	1
	David Ferrer	4–10		3–10	0–2	7–20	-13	3
	Kyle Edmund	7–10	10–3		1–1	17–13	+4	2

	Semifinals					Final
	Q	Xavier Malisse	4
		Kyle Edmund	10
							Kyle Edmund	10
							Andy Murray	7
		Andy Murray	10
		Tim Henman	1

Source: Tie Break Tens^[5][6]

2016: Vienna

Tie Break Tens took place on 23 October 2016, the opening weekend of the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna.^[7] Andy Murray, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Dominic Thiem, Tommy Haas, Goran Ivanisevic and Marcus Willis competed.^[8] Dominic Thiem won, defeating Andy Murray 10-5 in the Final.^[9]

	Group A	Thiem	Tsonga	Haas	Match W–L	Point W–L	Differential	Standings
	Dominic Thiem		10–4	10–3	2–0	20–7	+13	1
	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	4–10		10–6	1–1	14–16	-2	2
	Tommy Haas	3–10	6–10		0–2	9–20	-11	3

	Group B	Murray	Willis	Ivanišević	Match W–L	Point W–L	Differential	Standings
	Andy Murray		10–3	10–7	2–0	20–10	+10	1
	Marcus Willis	3–10		8–10	0–2	11–20	-9	3
	Goran Ivanišević	7–10	10–8		1–1	17–18	-1	2

	Semifinals				Final
	Dominic Thiem	10
	Goran Ivanišević	5
					Dominic Thiem	10
					Andy Murray	5
	Andy Murray	10
	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	7			Third place match
					Goran Ivanišević	8
					Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	10

Source: Tie Break Tens^[10][11]

2017: Madrid

Tie Break Tens Tens took place at the Caja Mágica in Madrid on 4 May 2017.^[12]. It featured both men's and women's tournaments for the first time. Grigor Dimitrov won the men's title with Simona Halep taking the women's title.^[13]

Men's singles

Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, Lucas Pouille, Feliciano López, Dan Evans, Tomas Berdych, Jack Sock and Fernando Verdasco competed in the men's tournament. Dimitrov defeated Lopez in the final.

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
	Grigor Dimitrov		14
	Dan Evans		12
						Grigor Dimitrov		10
						Fernando Verdasco		8
	Lucas Pouille		6
	Fernando Verdasco		10
											Grigor Dimitrov		10
											Feliciano López		7
	Tomáš Berdych		12
	Jack Sock		10
						Tomáš Berdych		8
						Feliciano López		10
	Stan Wawrinka		1
	Feliciano López		10

Source: Tie Break Tens^[14]

Women's singles

Maria Sharapova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwańska, Johanna Konta, Simona Halep, Madison Keys, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Monica Puig played in the women's competition with Halep defeating Kuznetsova in the final.

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
	Madison Keys		10
	Svetlana Kuznetsova		12
						Svetlana Kuznetsova		10
						Agnieszka Radwańska		6
	Agnieszka Radwańska		10
	Garbiñe Muguruza		5
											Svetlana Kuznetsova		6
											Simona Halep		10
	Johanna Konta		2
	Simona Halep		10
						Simona Halep		10
						Monica Puig		5
	Monica Puig		10
	Maria Sharapova		6

Source: Tie Break Tens^[15]

2018 Series: Melbourne

Men's singles

The first Tie Break Tens competition of 2018 was played on 10 January at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia.^[16] It featured an 8-player men's singles tournament.

Initially, 5 of the 8 players were confirmed: Novak Djokovic, Nick Kyrgios, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka (withdrew, replaced by Milos Raonic) and former tennis player Lleyton Hewitt.^[17] Later, Dominic Thiem, Tomas Berdych and Lucas Pouille also announced their participation, thus completing the field. Tomas Berdych won the $250,000 prize defeating Nadal in the final 10-5.^[18]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
	Lleyton Hewitt		10
	Novak Djokovic		6
						Lleyton Hewitt		11
						Rafael Nadal		13
	Lucas Pouille		1
	Rafael Nadal		10
											Rafael Nadal		5
											Tomáš Berdych		10
	Tomáš Berdych		10
	Nick Kyrgios		8
						Tomáš Berdych		11
						Milos Raonic		9
	Milos Raonic		10
	Dominic Thiem		7

Source: Tie Break Tens^[19]

2018 Series: New York

Women's singles

The Women's only tournament was played on 5th March 2018 in New York City at Madison Square Garden. This was the first time the competition had been staged in the United States. It featured an 8-player woman's singles tournament including Serena Williams, Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Daniela Hantuchová, Elina Svitolina, Marion Bartoli, Shuai Zhang and Sorana Cîrstea.^[20]

It marked the return of Serena Williams playing her first singles competition since giving birth to her daughter.^[21]

Svitolina from the Ukraine won the $250 000 winner-takes-all prize defeating Zhang in the final 10-3.^[22]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
	CoCo Vandeweghe		10
	Daniela Hantuchová		7
						CoCo Vandeweghe		0
						Elina Svitolina		10
	Venus Williams		3
	Elina Svitolina		10
											Elina Svitolina		10
											Zhang Shuai		3
	Marion Bartoli		5
	Serena Williams		10
						Serena Williams		11
						Zhang Shuai		13
	Sorana Cîrstea		4
	Zhang Shuai		10

Media Coverage

Each Tie Break Tens tournament is broadcast live around the world. Some of the broadcast partners include; Sky Sports^[23], Dubai Sports, Canal +, DAZN, CNN Open Court,^[24] presented by Pat Cash, SuperSport, Teledeporte TVE, BeIN Sports, Dave^[25] ESPN 2 and ESPN 3.^[26]

Sponsors

Past and current sponsors of the tournament include Betway^[27], Tennis.com^[28], Mutua, Rolex, Mercedes, Estrella, Wilson^[29], TransferMate and Voss.^[30]

References

External links

• Official website