TV Guide: Points mean prizes in tennis, while Brits hope they’re not on thin ice

Now the serious business of the 1 Point Slam is over, the Australian Open can start. You may have seen that Jordan Smith, a tennis coach from Sydney, won £500,000 for winning a pro-am tournament in Melbourne this week in which each match lasted one rally.

The pros will have to reach the semi-finals to earn more money in the season’s first major. The last time Andy Murray got that far it took him 990 points, not the six that Smith needed. Novak Djokovic, who is going for his 11th title, is drawn to meet champion Jannik Sinner at that stage, while 22-year-old Carlos Alcaraz could become the youngest man to win the career Grand Slam (from today, TNT Sports).

Australia has now gone 50 years without a men’s champion of their own. Mark Edmondson was their last. Ranked No 212, he beat John Newcombe in a final that included a sudden storm as the temperature fell 15 degrees in five minutes. Ashleigh Barty, in 2022, is their only women’s champion since 1978. Annoyingly, they’re still good at cricket.

The NFL has reached the quarter-finals in the play-offs and there may still be a new champion. The Buffalo Bills, who lost four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s, played the Denver Broncos last night. If they’ve lost, hopes of a first-time win remain with the Houston Texans, who visit the New England Patriots tonight (Sky Sports Main and 5, 8.05pm). The Chicago Bears then host the LA Rams (Sky Sports Main, 11.30pm).

In some sports you get honours as soon as you retire or even straight after a big win depending how much the government needs some reflected glory. Torvill and Dean had to wait 42 years after they “Boléro-ed” the judges on the ice in Sarajevo to become Dame Jayne and Sir Christopher. With UK Sport setting an ambitious target of 4-8 medals at the Winter Olympics next month, we could again all be gripped by figure-skating. The Torvill and Dean of our day are Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who won bronze in the ice dance at last year’s World Championships. They are at the European Championships in Sheffield this week, performing a Spice Girls medley followed by their interpretation of Highland dances on ice (Today, BBC Two, 11am).

Britain has been a power in bowls since Francis Drake captured the Plymouth Hoe singles handicap in 1588, going on to beat Spain. The World Indoor Championships are being played in Norfolk and there has been only one overseas men’s winner (Australia’s Ian Schuback in 1992) since it started in 1979. The most recent non-British women’s champion was in 2012. If you are drawn to such seemingly gentle but precise combat, it’s on BBC Two at 1pm every day from tomorrow.

Photograph by Mike Egerton/PA Wire