Somewhere between Big Bash and WWE: Tennis has found an unlikely golden goose born from chaos

On Wednesday night, the Australian Open had a second go at its 1 Point Slam idea and landed a concept that could become an annual tradition for the tournament going forward.

It's unclear what they were hoping it would be, but it landed somewhere between the Big Bash League and WWE, with a sprinkling of a game show you'd find buried on Netflix, funded by a YouTuber.

Tennis Australia has clearly wanted a bespoke short-form of the game to incorporate into the summer for a while now.

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Fast4 Tennis was their first real crack at it, launching in 2014 with the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal all involved.

But the 1 Point Slam actually captured some of the chaos and energy they were likely striving for with Fast4, something akin to T20 cricket on a condensed scale.

Distilling tennis down to just one point levelled the playing field and allowed for state-level battlers, celebrities and other athletes to get involved realistically, culminating in New South Welshmen Jordan Smith defeating a woman ranked out of the top 100 in Joanna Garland for the $1m prize.

It was the fairytale ending you could only dream of and something that will only raise onlookers' desire to be involved going forward.

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American star Taylor Fritz tweeted during the broadcast that he took a "massive L" choosing not to be involved. "This looks like so much fun," he posted.

And that's the essence Tennis Australia captured on Wednesday night. A real prize created genuine stakes, but those involved still had a good time.

Aussie star Alex de Minaur was also clearly loving it, tweeting his support for Smith in the aftermath.

How they tweak the concept going forward will be interesting as it still clearly needs refining.

The top seeds were happy to be involved, but nobody at home really wants to see Jannik Sinner or Naomi Osaka win $1m.

You need these top players to be the marquee headliners of the event, but at the end of the day they're worth tens of millions of dollars already.

This led to an NBA All-Star Game level of awkwardness at stages where the top players didn't want to seem like they were trying too hard... Except for Nick Kyrgios, who clearly wanted to win it all.

An adjustment could be cutting back on the total amount of top tennis stars involved to limit the likelihood of one winning.

Throw in a few more cross-code athletes, wildcard level players like Garland, who became a fan favourite as she knocked out Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev, and a few retired tennis greats wouldn't go astray either.

These contestants were easily the highlight of the night.

Whether it was Smith and Garland's run through the field or Marat Safin effortlessly gliding across the court at 45 and winding back the clock.

Or champion jockey Damien Oliver somehow advancing through to face no.10 seed Alexander Bublik, leading to one of the funnier visuals of the night.

The 196cm tall Kazakhstani played a straight and polite bat when asked by host Clint Stanaway whether he'd ever heard of the Aussie jockey, before a nervous rally saw him advance.

Chinese celebrity Jay Chou, who has nearly 11m followers on Instagram and is actually 46, rocked up in a jacket and sunglasses to arguably the loudest ovation of the evening, before failing to lay racquet on ball and breaking his sunnies.

Karl Stefanovic celebrating as he advanced off his opponent faulting, Andy Lee talking smack to Osaka, who had absolutely no idea how to respond ... That's the sort of chaos that they should be aiming for going forward.

Slash a couple of the top-seeded players for more tour battlers, cross-code athletes and random celebrities.

And while you're at it, slash half an hour from the run time. There's absolutely no reason this event should run longer than a Christopher Nolan movie.

Have the top-seeded players, celebrities and cross-code athletes teed up to donate the $1m to charity should they win, but allow for another Smith-Garland scenario where a regular guy could walk away a millionaire.

A box of $1m cash with CEO Craig Tiley's face on the bills summed up the vibe on Wednesday night. And shout out to whoever had to trudge out to Officeworks and get those printed with a straight face.

Nobody could get the timing of paper-scissors-rock right throughout the night. Replace that with a coin flip (with Tiley's face on the coin, perhaps).

Nobody wanted to serve. You had the best tennis players of a generation so scared they wouldn't land a serve in play (they were instantly eliminated if they missed one) they were immediately deferring responsibility to their opponent.

The only player who wanted to serve throughout the whole night was Queensland state representative Alec Reverente, and he walked away with a brand new car.

There's no doubt Tennis Australia is onto a winner here. The buzz generated on social media alone will tell you that, despite what your cynical friend at work is probably saying.

Now for the hard bit. Not cooking the golden goose. Trim the fat with the run time, keep it to a once-a-year showcase before the grand slam starts and keep it light and fun.