Porsche Tennis Grand Prix announces ‘One Point Challenge’ with Elena Rybakina and Bundesliga football player

The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix has confirmed the launch of its own ‘One Point Challenge’, following the growing popularity of the format introduced earlier this season at the Australian Open.

The exhibition-style event will take place alongside the main WTA tournament in April in Stuttgart, bringing together established tennis players and athletes from outside the sport in a single-point knockout format.

Elena Rybakina has been announced as one of the headline participants, alongside Germany’s Laura Siegemund, as the tournament looks to replicate the engagement generated by the Australian Open’s ‘One Point Slam’. That event saw top players such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner face amateur opponents, with a $1 million prize pool adding further visibility to the concept.

In Stuttgart, the format will again mix professional tennis players with non-tennis athletes, with Bundesliga goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow confirmed as a participant. The 31-year-old, currently playing for VfB Stuttgart, will switch environments for the day, moving from football to tennis on April 13, which coincides with the start of the main draw at the clay-court event.

The ‘One Point Challenge’ in Stuttgart is directly inspired by the ‘One Point Slam’ staged at the Australian Open earlier this year. That event featured a single-point elimination format, where professional players competed against amateur participants in quick, high-stakes exchanges. Amateur Jordan Smith emerged as the winner, in what was widely viewed as a successful experiment in fan engagement.

By adopting a similar structure, Stuttgart aims to build on that momentum while adapting it to its own context. The inclusion of players such as Rybakina, a former Stuttgart champion, adds competitive credibility, while the presence of Bredlow introduces a cross-sport dynamic that broadens the appeal beyond traditional tennis audiences.

Rybakina’s involvement also comes shortly after her run at the Miami Open, where she reached the semifinals before losing to Aryna Sabalenka. The Kazakh, who won the Stuttgart title in 2024 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Marta Kostyuk, will return to Germany looking to combine competitive preparation with participation in the exhibition format.

Alongside Rybakina and Siegemund, the main Stuttgart draw is expected to feature a strong field, including multiple top-10 players. The ‘One Point Challenge’, however, provides a separate narrative within the tournament week, linking Stuttgart to a format that has already demonstrated its capacity to generate attention during the early part of the season.

Stuttgart is one of the WTA 500 events that brings together the most stars, serving as a key tournament in the clay-court swing calendar. The defending champion is Jelena Ostapenko, who defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the 2025 final (6-4, 6-1). The World No. 1, for her part, will also be present in search of finally winning a title that has proven particularly elusive — having reached the final four times, but still without lifting the trophy.

Among the former champions returning to Germany are Ostapenko (2025), Elena Rybakina (2024), Iga Swiatek (2022, 2023), and Laura Siegemund (2017). It will be a high-level draw, featuring seven top-10 players and a total of 14 players ranked inside the top 20.