At worst, they will only have played a few hours to collect 1.5 million dollars. Or a few more hours to write a check for 6 million, destined for the winner. Be that as it may, the three-day blitz of the Saudi world tennis champions will go down in history as the highest paying tournament of all time. It’s not the latest great idea on the ATP circuit, which doesn’t even give a single point to the tournament. It is just a luxury exhibition funded by the weight of gold by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis in the global sports circus
This is Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s new foray into the big circus of professional sport after Formula 1, football and golf. This is not the first time in tennis as since last year Saudi Arabia hosted the ATP Next Gen Championships inherited from Milan in Jeddah, where the top eight tennis players under 21 compete – again without points to earn finals.
The six champions on stage
The tournament is called 6 Kings Slam on the agenda from 16 to 19 October: Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Holger Rune will be on stage. The elite of tennis past, present and future, with few flaws. Only Alexander Zverev is missing from the top 5, with the Dane Rune the only entrant outside the top 10 in the rankings – apart from the soon-to-be-retired Nadal – who would collect more than half of it in the event of a win final. all the prizes earned so far in his career (just over $10 million).
Smash tournaments slam
The «prize money» is truly out of the ordinary. In the two highest paying official tournaments of the year – Wimbledon and the US Open – the winner writes a check of 3.6 million dollars, while Roland Garros offers a prize of 2.7 million and the Australian Open of 2.2 million. In short, 6 million (unofficial) Riyadh is another order of magnitude. Only the ATP Finals come close to the 4.8 million dollars reserved for the winner, provided, however, that he finishes the tournament unbeaten, otherwise he will have to “settle” for 2.2 million. Among the shows, the only one that holds its own is the Laver Cup which has a prize pool of 2.25 million dollars to be shared between the 12 players of the European and World Teams.
The Hollywood promo
It wasn’t already clear from the tournament launch trailer that this was a major event that spared no expense to the Wahhabi kingdom. A Hollywood-style video with Alcaraz as a steel robot, a sinner as a Renaissance lord, Rune disguised as a Viking, Medvedev riding a bear, Nadal as a gladiator and finally a hooded Djokovic surrounded by wolves and snow. The five-minute short film was directed by Los Angeles production company Los Perez and features a high level of technology.