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 observed.

The inaugural Tie Break Tens event took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 5 December 2015 and was won by Kyle Edmund.^[2]

A second edition of Tie Break Tens took place on 23 October 2016 in Vienna at the Erste Bank Open 500, with Dominic Thiem defeating Andy Murray in the final.^[3]

It is a short-format version of tennis, similar to other alternative forms of traditional sports, such as T20 Cricket and Rugby Sevens ^[4]

Match 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). A coin toss 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 continuing 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.

Tournament Format

Tie Break Tens tournaments consist of six players divided into two groups of three. For the first stage of the tournament, a round-robin match format is played in each group, with the top two players in each group progressing to the semi-finals.

The winner of each group is determined by the most number of match-wins. However, if the players are tied for wins, the players who won their matches by the biggest point differential would progress. For example, a score of 10-6 would rank higher than a score of 13-11. If the point differential is the same, then match-time will be reviewed, and the players who won matches in the shortest amount of time will progress.

In the semi-finals, the winner of one group plays the runner-up in the other group, and vice versa. In the final, the semifinal winners play against each other to determine 1st and 2nd position in Tie Break Tens. The two semi-final losers face each other to determine 3rd and 4th positions.

2015 - London

The inaugural Tie Break Tens ^[5] event took place on the 5th December, 2015 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The event 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 event,

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 Results 2015 (Royal Albert Hall, London)

	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^[6][7]

2016 - Vienna

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

Tie Break Tens Results 2016 (Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna)

	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]

TV Coverage

Tie Break Tens 2015 was broadcast live on SkySports 3.^[2] 14 other TV Channels covered the event around the world, including Dubai Sports, SuperSport and Canal +. The event was also covered by CNN Open Court,^[12] presented by Pat Cash and Soccer AM.

Tie Break Tens 2016 was broadcast live on Sky Sports 3 in the UK, ORF in Austria, on BeIN Sports in the USA and Canada, TVE in Spain, and live-streamed on Facebook Live (with 812,000 views as of October 26) ^[13] and Tennis.com.^[14] Eurosport carried delayed highlights and the BBC Sport website carried short video highlights.^[15]

Sponsors

The inaugural Tie Break Tens event in 2015 was sponsored by Betway.^[16] The 2016 event in Vienna was partnered by Tennis.com ^[17]

References

1. Island, The. "Exciting new concept in tennis | Tie Break Tens | Tennis". Tie Break Tens. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
2. "Andy Murray beaten by Kyle Edmund in inaugural Tie Break Tens final". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
3. "Andy Murray misses out on hefty prize losing to Dominic Thiem at exhibition event". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
4. "Tie Break Tens: How to put together a successful tennis tournament | Tennis | The Sport Review". The Sport Review. 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
5. "Kyle Edmund beats Andy Murray". Tie Break Tens. 2015-12-05. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
6. "Tie Break Tens Order of Play". Tie Break Tens. London. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
7. "Opening Tournament Results". Tie Break Tens. London. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
8. Sporting, Life (2016-10-04). "Tie Break Tens Returns In Vienna". sportinglife.com. Sporting Life.
9. Mail, Online (2016-10-23). "Andy Murray misses out on £204,000 jackpot as Dominic Thiem wins Tie Break Tens event in Vienna". Mailonline.com. Mail Online.
10. "Vienna - Order of Play". Tie Break Tens. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
11. "Thiem Takes Tie Break Tens Title With Final Victory Over Murray" (PDF). Tie Break Tens. Vienna. 23 October 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
12. Mac and Murray test a new fun format - CNN Video, retrieved 2016-10-17
13. "Tie Break Tens | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
14. "Broadcasters - Tie Break Tens". Tie Break Tens. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
15. "Tie Break Tens: How Andy Murray missed out on $250,000". BBC Sport. 2016-10-24. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
16. "Betway to sponsor Tie Break Tens tennis tournament". iGaming Business. 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
17. "Tie Break Tens | Vienna 23rd October 2016". Tie Break Tens. Retrieved 2016-11-28.