The Six Kings Slam exhibition competition has begun in Riyadh, the winner of which will receive a record prize of 6 million dollars in the history of tennis. The fee for the champion is almost double that of all Grand Slam tournaments, so no one should have motivation problems.
On the first day of play, the Italian Jannik Sinner defeated the Russian Daniil Medvedev (6-0, 6-3) and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz defeated the Dane Holger Rune (6-4, 6-2). Sinner will next face Serbian Novak Djokovic, while Alcaraz will fight compatriot Rafael Nadal, who is retiring from his career.
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New battle Medvedev – Sinner: Daniil in search of $6 million at the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia is a country that is slowly breaking into tennis. The WTA finals will be held in Riyadh in November. In men’s tennis, not everything is still so simple. So far the sheikhs have only held youth finals and exhibition tournaments, although in the foreseeable future Saudi Arabia should offer a new “Masters”.
Six Kings Slam, or “Slam of Six Kings” is a kind of rehearsal for future important competitions in Riyadh. The organizers gain valuable experience, including the negative aspects.
The tournament began with a colorful opening ceremony, but the start of the first match between Sinner and Medvedev left tennis fans confused. It’s all about the strange camera angle. He was too high above the court and too far from it. Many felt uncomfortable watching the match, prompting complaints on social media.
Type of broadcast of the match Jannik Sinner – Daniil Medvedev
Photo: Frame of the transmission.
Perhaps the organizers will listen to the comments and broadcast all the remaining matches according to the standards of the main ATP and Grand Slam tournaments.
“The typical camera angle at the Six Kings Slam appears to be filmed from a blimp high above Riyadh,” noted tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, echoing fans’ complaints.
Obviously, they did not have time to correct the situation immediately after the Sinner-Medvedev match. Rune had to see the confrontation between Carlos Alcaraz and Holger from the same uncomfortable angle
View of the broadcast of the match Carlos Alcaraz – Holger Rune
Photo: Frame of the transmission.
The organizers attracted eminent participants with generous prizes. As mentioned above, the winner of the tournament in Riyadh will receive $6 million, but all other players are guaranteed $1.5 million. Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune already received a check for this amount after the defeats of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
Rune’s departure from Alcaraz was quite expected. Holger, with all due respect, generally seems a bit superfluous in the list of participants. However, the request was drawn up at the beginning of the season. Then the 21-year-old Rune was supposed to overcome the crisis and at least consistently remain in the top 10 of the ATP rankings. It turned out exactly the opposite: the Dane fell from the top ten and is now the 14th racket in the world (and this is far from the limit of probable fall). Rune can be satisfied with the fact that he gave Alcaraz some resistance in the first set and won $1.5 million in 1 hour and 12 minutes.
The matchup between World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 5 Daniil Medvedev looked much more intriguing. Sinner, however, achieved a very easy victory: 6:0, 6:3 in 1 hour and 9 minutes. Medvedev had not received a “flyer” for more than four years, when in February 2020 he lost to his current coach Gilles Simon (4-6, 0-6) in the Marseille tournament. Daniil looked better in the second set, but Yannick still didn’t leave him any chance.
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Medvedev lost the wheel against Sinner in Riyadh. But he made $1.5 million in one hour.
Medvedev’s defeat was actively discussed on the Internet. In particular, many accounts calculated their earnings over a certain period of time. Medvedev received $1.5 million for the match, which lasted just over an hour. Every minute on the court, his account was replenished with $21,739, and per second he earned $362. A heated discussion about this broke out on the popular Tennis Letter account. Many fans were outraged by the high fees of Medvedev, who practically did not resist Sinner on the court.
A very controversial comment was made by the famous tennis journalist José Morgado. He appeared to criticize Medvedev, but at the same time considered that his earnings “were not that bad.”
“Yannick is a winning machine. And Medvedev did not appear on the court, but earned $1.5 million for his participation. “It’s not that bad,” Morgado wrote on social media.
Daniil Medvedev at an exhibition tournament in Riyadh
Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Of course, certain caveats need to be made. These are all formal calculations and practically meaningless. Medvedev was invited to the Six Kings Slam along with other superstars for a reason. This week marks Daniil’s 250th anniversary in the top 10 of the ATP rankings. He won the 2021 US Open and participated in the TBS final six times, and is one of the best tennis players of the last decade.
The prize money in Riyadh is considerable, but Medvedev deserves it thanks to his hard work over many years. Yes, his match with Sinner didn’t go well, but every player has bad days. In addition, Yannick is now simply unstoppable on the hard and fast court: in the last quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters he also quite confidently beat Daniil (6-1, 6-4) and then did not let Novak Djokovic (7: 6, 6:3) ) win at least one break point in the final. It will be interesting to see what Novak can do against Yannick in the upcoming semi-final in Riyadh.
Even in such a painful defeat, Medvedev can find a positive moment. Daniil has a good chance of reaching the final ATP tournament: he is currently in fourth place in the championship race with 4820 points. But officially a trip to Turin was still guaranteed. You need to get some points to clear all the questions. There is a good chance of achieving this at the next “five hundred” in Vienna (October 21-27). At the same time, Daniil will have the opportunity to win his first title after the Rome Masters in the spring of 2023. This is important from a psychological point of view, since Medvedev’s trophyless period has clearly been prolonged. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic will not play in Vienna. US Open finalist Taylor Fritz recently retired from competition. Medvedev’s main competitors in the fight for the title are Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and Alex de Minaur. The Russian is more than capable of beating everyone on the hard court.
By the way, Sinner decided not to go defend his title in Vienna largely due to participation in the Six Kings Slam. The editor of the Austrian newspaper “five hundred” Herwig Straka expressed his indignation over this matter.
“This exhibition tournament in Riyadh doesn’t make much sense. In general, I am not happy with these mid-season competitions. Obviously, holding the Six Kings Slam this week does not satisfy the Vienna tournament because it deprives us of some of the best players, including the current champion Jannik Sinner,” said Straka.
Recently retired three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray, even while performing on court, was skeptical of the idea of holding tournaments in Saudi Arabia (including exhibition ones). Andy was concerned about the human rights situation in the country, as well as the excessively high prize money, which he believed would create an even larger income gap between low-ranked tennis players and stars.
Andy Murray is not happy with the tournaments in Saudi Arabia
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Murray stayed true to himself and criticized Six Kings Slam before it even started. Andy spoke to British tennis player Liam Broedy, who was delighted by the epic trailer for the Riyadh tournament with vivid images of the participants.
“The difference is that this is not a blockbuster movie and you will not watch this tournament because it is an exhibition and no one is interested,” Murray wrote on social media.
Broedy was invited to commentate on the Six Kings Slam on Sky Sports, after which Murray took another swipe at him.
“Well it’s all clear to me now Liam Broedy,” Murray wrote, adding a money emoji to the post.
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Be that as it may, Saudi Arabia is actively entering tennis. This is an inevitable reality, which will not change even with criticism from a person as authoritative as Murray. Sheikhs can pay players large amounts of money. Is this bad or not? Fan opinions may be divided on this issue, but tennis players, who don’t earn as much as superstars in football, basketball and other sports, clearly don’t mind receiving substantial prize money without putting in exorbitant effort. And the Six Kings Slam tournament remains interesting for viewers, as the posters of Sinner – Medvedev, Sinner – Djokovic or Alcaraz – Nadal are difficult to ignore.
