Sinner and Fritz: $6 Million Motivates at the Six Kings Slam

For tennis fans, the participation of the best players in exhibition events like the Six Kings Slam, which starts this Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, is intriguing, especially when they complain about the tight sports calendar. However, for Taylor Fritz, the answer is clear: the economic appeal.

I would love for them to show me a tournament where you can play three matches — well, for the top two seeds, two matches — and potentially win 6 million dollars. I would love to hear that from them.

Taylor Fritz

Fritz is one of the six tennis players who will compete in the second edition of the Six Kings Slam. Among them is Jannik Sinner, who returns after winning the top prize in the previous edition in Saudi Arabia. This prize exceeds the earnings of any real tournament for the champion, even the $5 million that the individual winners of the US Open received, setting a record in the Grand Slam.

This event is part of Saudi Arabia’s growing investment in tennis, which includes the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, and the Public Investment Fund’s sponsorship of the tour rankings. Prominent figures such as Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have expressed criticism about the sport’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, due to concerns about LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. In the Six Kings Slam, each player is guaranteed an appearance fee of $1.5 million, and the winner takes home a bonus that raises their winnings to four times that amount. The matches will be broadcast live on Netflix.

Money is not something we are trying to hide. We know how much is at stake here, and it would be a lie if I told you it’s not a motivation.

Jannik Sinner

Sinner, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and was runner-up at the French Open and the US Open, assures that he is in good physical and mental shape. Sinner will face Stefanos Tsitsipas on the first day, while Fritz will play against Alexander Zverev. The winner of the Fritz-Zverev match will face Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday, and the winner of the Sinner-Tsitsipas match will play against Novak Djokovic. The semi-final winners will face each other on Saturday in the final. Djokovic has 24 Grand Slam titles, Alcaraz has six and Sinner four, and they have all been number one in the world. Fritz was runner-up to Sinner at the 2024 US Open. Zverev has been a finalist on three occasions in major tournaments, including losses to Sinner at this year’s Australian Open and Alcaraz at last year’s French Open. Tsitsipas has been runner-up to Djokovic twice in Grand Slam tournaments.