"It was something very nice": Jannik Sinner denies playing for money in Six Kings Slam

Italy’s Jannik Sinner has revealed that he did not participate in the Six Kings Slam exhibition event for money. The 23-year-old won the recently concluded exhibition where he defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.

The tournament also featured the likes of former world number one and 24-time Grand Slam winner Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Spain’s legendary tennis star Rafael Nadal, one-time Grand Slam winner Daniil Medvedev and Denmark’s Holger Rune. With that win, Sinner, who is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing men’s tennis in the singles category, won a whopping prize money of $6 million.

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The reigning world number one recently spoke to Eurosport where he explained that money was not the reason behind his participation in the competition. Sinner stated that the primary reason for his participation was to challenge himself against the five best players in the world. The San Candido-born, who has won two out of the four Grand Slams this year, further went on to state that he is satisfied with his performance in the tournament where he lifted the title and believes that the tournament performances will help him improve as a player in the future as well.

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“I don’t play for money,” he said. “It is very simple. Of course it’s a nice prize and everything but for me, I went there because there were possibly six best players in the world and then you can measure yourself with them. It was also a nice event because it was the first time I went to Riyadh. It was something very nice. Of course, when you come back as a winner, for me it was more that ‘OK I played the matches in the right way and this hopefully can improve me as a player, also for the future’, and that’s it for me.”