Sinner and Fritz motivated by millionaire prize at Six Kings Slam

Some tennis fanatics are wondering why the best players, who often complain about the sport’s tight schedule, are adding events like the Six Kings Slam, which kicks off this Wednesday in Saudi Arabia. For Taylor Fritz, the answer is clear: millions of reasons. Specifically, six million.

I would love for you to show me a tournament where you can play three matches (or two for the top two seeds) and potentially win $6 million. I would love to hear it.

Taylor Fritz

Fritz is one of the six tennis players who will participate in the second edition of the Six Kings Slam. Among them is Jannik Sinner, who returns after taking the top prize last year in Saudi Arabia, a sum greater than that offered by most regular tournaments. To put it in perspective, the US Open recently awarded $5 million to the individual winners of the women’s and men’s divisions, setting a record in the Grand Slams. This event is part of Saudi Arabia’s growing investment in tennis and vice versa, including the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, and the Public Investment Fund’s sponsorship of the tour rankings. Legends like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have expressed criticism about the sport’s ties 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; the champion takes a bonus that raises their total to four times that amount, with the matches broadcast live on Netflix.

Money is not something we try to hide. We know how much is at stake here, and it would be a lie if I said it wasn’t a motivation. Every player here will try to win as many matches as possible. It’s like any other exhibition, only here there’s a little more motivation.

Jannik Sinner

Sinner, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open and the US Open, withdrew from his last match, a week and a half ago at the Shanghai Masters, due to severe leg cramps. However, he assured that he is fine. I recovered. We took a few days off to rest and now we are ready for the rest of the season. Mentally I am in good shape and I will give 100%. Sinner will face Stefanos Tsitsipas on the first day, while Fritz will face Alexander Zverev. The winner of the Fritz-Zverev match will play against Alcaraz on Thursday, and the winner of the Sinner-Tsitsipas match will face Novak Djokovic. After a day of rest on Friday, the winners of the semi-finals will face each other on Saturday to close the tournament. Djokovic holds the record of 24 Grand Slam titles, Alcaraz has six and Sinner, four; all have been number one in the world. Fritz was runner-up against Sinner at the 2024 US Open. Zverev is a three-time major finalist, including losses to Sinner at this year’s Australian Open and Alcaraz at last year’s French Open. Tsitsipas was twice runner-up against Djokovic in Grand Slam tournaments.