Tie Break Tens 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-take-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. 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. 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. 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.
Format
A knock-out format is used, with quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
2015: London
The inaugural Tie Break Tens 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.
Tie Break Tens Tens took place at the Caja Mágica in Madrid on 4 May 2017.. 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.
Initially, 5 of the 8 players were confirmed: Novak Djokovic, Nick Kyrgios, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and former tennis player Lleyton Hewitt. 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. Source: Tie Break Tens
2018: New York
The women's only tournament was played on 5 March 2018 in New York City at Madison Square Garden. This was the first time the competition had been staged in the United States.
The men’s singles tournament was played on 5 March 2019 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. This was their first competition at Indian Wells.
Men’s singles
It was an 8-player men’s singles tournament including Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka, Gaël Monfils, Milos Raonic, Taylor Fritz, Rafael Nadal, Marin Čilić and David Goffin. The tournament was played in Stadium 2 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, in front of 8,000 people. Raonic won the $150,000 prize by defeating Wawrinka 10–6 in the final.
