Set to take place during October, the 6 Kings Slam is the latest Saudi Arabia foray into tennis and will see
Novak Djokovic and
Rafael Nadal headline an exhibition tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with a mind-blowing amount of prize money compared to the normal tour.
Just for appearing alone over the course of the few days, players will receive $1.5million. It also includes
Carlos Alcaraz,
Jannik Sinner,
Daniil Medvedev and
Holger Rune as the other top names involved, all but the Dane are former or current Grand Slam champions.
The winner will receive $6million as per The Telegraph. It is the next sign of intent from Saudi Arabia who have made big moves in boxing as of late staging some of the biggest fights on bumper cards putting promotional differences aside. This tournament is ran by the same entity and will be part of the so called Riyadh Season after Djokovic and Alcaraz faced off in an exhibition also last Christmas in the Kingdom.
Nadal also recently signed as an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation and is all set to establish a new Rafa Nadal Academy in the country. They will also be hosting the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah until 2027. Further murmurings also consider the WTA Finals likely to head there despite strong protests from tennis legends in Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. As well as other figures wondering how it will work with laws surrounding women and even homosexuality if Daria Kasatkina for instance qualifies.
But it will also affect the men in this case for this tournament with the Shanghai Masters likely to have at least a few of its top names not play. With dates not confirmed, it could also see the Paris Masters have the same issue.