Australian Open 2023 tiebreak rules: Know all about the final set super tiebreaker rules to win the match

The Australian Open introduced final-set tie-breaks for almost all categories of matches at the Grand Slam in 2018.

In the men's singles event, if both players are level on six games each in the final set, a 10-point tie-break will determine the winner. The same goes for women's singles, and men's and women's doubles events, with the only difference being that men's singles plays a best-of-five sets match while the others play a best-of-three. Other than the final set, other sets in all the events of the Australian Open have a seven-point tiebreak where the first player/pair who gets to seven points while holding a two-point gap wins.

In mixed doubles, however, a concept called 'match tiebreaker' comes into play. In this situation, if both pairs have won a set each, there will be a 10-point tie-break instead of a third set to determine the winner of the match.

The Australian Open came up with the new tiebreak rules in 2018 and implemented them for the first time in the 2019 edition of the Grand Slam. It was the first Major to deploy a 10-point tie-break in the final set before the other three Majors followed suit in 2022.

Seven singles matches have been decided by final-set tiebreaks at 2022 Australian Open

Sebastian Korda and Hubert Hurkacz after their fourth-round match

So far, a total of seven singles matches at the 2023 Australian Open have been decided by final-set tiebreaks. Five of them came in the men's singles tournament, most notably the marathon clash between Andy Murray and Matteo Berrettini.

Murray started the tiebreak brilliantly and had a 5-0 lead before Berrettini showed some resistance. However, the Scot eventually won 10-6 to progress to the second round.

Other men's singles matches that were decided by final-set tiebreaks included the fourth-round clash between 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz and 29th seed Sebastian Korda, Benjamin Bonzi's win over 14th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, Ben Shelton's clash against Zhang Zhizhen and Lloyd Harris' first-round win over 17th seed Lorenzo Musetti.

Only two women's singles matches have been decided by final set-tiebreakers so far. The first of these came between Donna Vekic and Russian qualifier Olga Selekhmeteva in the first round, with the Croat winning 10-7 in the deciding tiebreak. The second match was between 13th seed Danielle Collins and Karolina Muchova, which the American won 10-6.

That fixture will always be remembered for Collins wrongly celebrating after getting to seven points without realizing she needed another three to win. With a few more days until the Australian Open ends, it will be interesting to see if more matches are decided by final-set tiebreaks during the business end of the tournament.