FAST4 Tennis is the innovative format developed by Tennis Australia and launched in Sydney by Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt in 2015.
In a nutshell, it’s a clash where the first player to four games wins the set. There are also twists on the scoring and tweaks designed to speed up play, such as ‘lets’ (when the ball from a service hits the top of the net) always counting as a valid serve.
This January, Team Australia (Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, captained by Lleyton Hewitt) takes on Team World (Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori, captained by Wally Masur) in a FAST4 Tennis showdown. Team World and Team Australia will play two best-of-five FAST4 Tennis singles matches with one set of FAST4 Tennis doubles to decide the winners in the case of a tie.
The showdown takes place at the brand new 8,000 seat ICC Sydney Theatre, the futuristic multi-purpose event space in Darling Harbour. The night kicks off at 6.30pm with a live set from Gold Coast DJ duo the Stafford Brothers before the tennis action begins at 7.30pm.
The Stafford Brothers will entertain the crowd throughout the night, while fan voting paddles will allow the crowd to have their say on everything from a line call to which song they’d like to hear next.
FAST4 Showdown AUS v WORLD is an all ages event but children 14 and under must be accompanied by an adult.