Jannik Sinner’s eye-watering £4.6million payday at the Six Kings Slam is almost half what the Italian has won on the ATP Tour this year. The lucrative Saudi Arabian exhibition event made its participants vastly richer last week.
Just by turning up to play at the tournament, the six tennis stars were given £1.15m. After beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final, Sinner landed a £4.6m cheque.
To place the money on offer into context, Alcaraz earned £2.7m for beating Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final earlier this year. The Six Kings Slam might not be a Grand Slam, or even an ATP-affiliated event, but the money on offer was able to attract tennis’ most high-profile players.
Sinner’s earnings on the ATP Tour this season, which has included Grand Slam successes at the Australian Open and the US Open, have amounted to around £9.25m. It means his prize money in Saudi Arabia is around half the amount he has earned in ATP events.
Six Kings Slam organisers would have been delighted with how their inaugural event played out, especially due to the money they pumped into making it a success. Fans were treated to an epic final between Sinner and Alcaraz, in addition to what is likely to be the last time Rafael Nadal and Djokovic will meet on a tennis court.
Sinner edged a thrilling showdown, winning 6-7 6-3 6-3. His rivalry with Alcaraz is set to dominate the next decade, with the 23-year-old admitting that the Spaniard is the first person he thinks about every morning.
“We try to push ourselves to the limit,” Sinner said. “I wake up in the morning trying to understand how to beat him. These kinds of rivalries and players always push us to our 100 per cent limit. I’m very happy about this today.”
“We understand each other very well. We travel a lot, we are I would say good friends, not obviously the best of the best,” he added.
“We also like to share every time we go on the court, we try to enjoy it. Until now every match was very good level-wise.
“Hopefully this rivalry will last as long as possible, but there are so many other great players who can jump in, which is so exciting. Let’s see what is coming in the future, nobody can tell.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk