"I’d love to hear that from them": Taylor Fritz, Jannik Sinner admits $6 million prize money primary motivation behind playing in Six Kings Slam

Italy’s Jannik Sinner and America’s Taylor Fritz make a rare admission about the attraction of money in the Six Kings Slam. The second edition of the exhibition event will be held from October 16 to 19 in Riyadh, with six top players participating.

Italy’s Sinner will be defending his title as he lifted it last year after beating the current world number one, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, with a score of 6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–3. Along with Sinner and Alcaraz, the other four players to take part in the event will be former world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia, America’s Taylor Fritz, Germany’s Alexander Zverev, and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The prize money on offer will be $6 million. There has been a lot of debate in the tennis world about players deciding to play exhibition events, especially at a time when so many of them complain about the demanding schedule. Recently, Serbia’s Djokovic, after being knocked out of the Shanghai Masters following a straight-sets semifinal defeat to Poland’s Valentin Vacherot with a score of 6-3, 6-4, also called for more unity among players to convince the authorities of the tough schedule.

“As a player and someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough,” said Djokovic. “Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make the comments and they complain, and then they go away. And then if something is wrong, after a certain amount of time they come back again. But you have to invest the time, you have to invest energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody, yourself, to dedicate yourself to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players’ interest.”

Italy’s Sinner and America’s Fritz have now been quoted in a report ahead of the competition, in which they openly admitted that money played a huge role in their decision to take part. Sinner was quoted in a report by NBCSport, where he claimed that the tournament remains an exhibition one, but with so much money involved, there will be extra motivation for the players.

“The money is nothing we’re trying to hide,” said Sinner. “We know how much is at stake here, and it would be a lie if I told you it wasn’t a motivation. Every player here will try to win as many matches as possible. It’s like any other exhibition — except here there is a bit more motivation.”

Sinner’s last appearance was at the Shanghai Masters, where he was forced to retire from the third round contest after having too many cramps in tough conditions. Talking about his physical condition, Sinner stated that both mentally and physically, he believes he is in good shape. “I recovered. We took a few days off to rest and now we’re ready for the rest of the season,” said Sinner. “Mentally I’m in good shape … and will give 100%.”

In the same report, the 2024 US Open runner-up, Fritz, was quoted, responding to critics by asking them to name one event where players can win up to $6 million in prize money for playing only two or three matches. “I’d love for them to show me a tournament where you can go play three matches — well, for the top two seeds, two matches — and potentially make $6 million,” said Fritz. “I’d love to hear that from them.”

The tournament’s format is an interesting one, as two players have already directly qualified for the semifinals: Alcaraz and Djokovic. The two other semifinalists will be the winners of the first-round matches. The first match will be between defending champion Sinner and Greece’s Tsitsipas. The winner of the match will face Djokovic in the semifinal. The other quarterfinal will be between Fritz and Zverev, and the winner of that match will face Alcaraz in the last-four clash.