Alex Trelinski
SIX of the world’s top male tennis players including Spain’s Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, will play in the richest-ever exhibition tournament starting in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
The winner will take home €6 million- almost twice as much as the US Open champion’s prize money which is the biggest Grand Slam pay cheque.
The other players involved in the Six Kings Slam are Novak Djokovic, world number one Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune.
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There are seemingly no complaints from the stars over busy tournament schedules with so much money on offer in Riyadh.
The competition was originally slated for February, but the organisers were keen to get Rafa Nadal- who retires next month- after he suffered an injury in Brisbane the previous month that forced him out of the Australian Open.
The Mallorcan was also controversially named as a tennis ambassador for Saudi Arabia in January in deal brokered with the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF).
He hasn’t competed since playing doubles with Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympics and has been given a direct spot in the semi-final.
Wednesday sees the quarter-finals with Sinner-Medvedev and Rune-Alcaraz starting at 6.30pm.
On Thursday, at the same time, the winner of the first match will face Djokovic and the winner of the second, will take on Nadal.
Friday will be a rest day, due to the ATP rule that prevents players from playing exhibitions three days in a row.
Sunday(from 5.30pm), sees the third-fourth place play-off followed by the final.
