Sinner and Fritz motivated by the $6M Six Kings Slam in Arabia

Some tennis fans wonder why the best players, who complain about the sport’s tight schedule, add a mid-season exhibition like the Six Kings Slam to their agenda. This tournament starts on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia. Taylor Fritz has millions of reasons to participate. Specifically, six million.

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

Taylor Fritz

Fritz is one of the six men programmed to 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 any real tournament to the champion. The recent payment of 5 million dollars from the US Open to the female and male individual winners set a record in the Grand Slam. This event is part of the kingdom’s recent advances in tennis, and vice versa, including the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the ATP Next Gen Finals in Jedda, and the Public Investment Fund’s sponsorship of tour rankings. Figures like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have criticized 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, according to reports; the last one standing receives 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 told you it’s not a motivation. Every player here will try to win as many matches as possible. It’s like any other exhibition, except there’s a little more motivation here.

Jannik Sinner

Sinner withdrew from his last match, a week and a half ago at the Shanghai Masters, due to severe leg cramps. However, on Tuesday he claimed to be 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 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. After a day off on Friday, the winners of the semi-finals will face each other on Saturday to close the tournament. Djokovic holds a record of 24 Grand Slam trophies, Alcaraz has six, and Sinner, four; each has also been ranked number 1. Fritz was runner-up to Sinner at the 2024 US Open. Zverev is a three-time major finalist, including losses to Sinner at this year’s Australian Open and to Alcaraz at last year’s French Open. Tsitsipas was twice runner-up to Djokovic at the Slams.