After the flop of the Shanghai Masters 1000, Jannik Sinner returns in great form, winning on his debut in tournament with a stellar prize pool (but which has no value for the official ATP rankings) Six Kings Slam, which began tonight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The world number 2 he got rid of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas without too many problems, with a score of 6-2, 6-3. Now Sinner will face Serbian Novak Djokovic in the semifinal of the mini-tournament, which features only six players and is not part of the official ATP circuit. The former world number one, winner of 24 Grand Slam tournaments in his career, will therefore face the Italian, while in the other semifinal, the current world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, will face American Taylor Fritz, whom he defeated in the first quarter of the Six Kings Slam another player not exactly in his best form as Alexander Zverev with the score of 6-3 6-4.
To give you an idea of the prize money at a tournament like this, consider that the two losers from day one, Tsitsipas and Zverev, will still be able to console themselves with a generous $1,5 million each, despite not having won a single set during their brief stay in Saudi Arabia. As in the previous edition, this year's Six Kings Slam offers mind-boggling prize money: the winner will take home 6 million eurosIn short, no world ranking points, but plenty of entertainment and a cheque that makes the Riyadh exhibition one of the richest in the history of tennis. The tournament also marks a historic debut: for the first time, Netflix is the streaming platform that is broadcasting a tennis event liveThe platform, which already produced the docuseries Break Point, will offer all matches for streaming and on-demand, viewable on Smart TVs, computers, and mobile devices. This move confirms the American giant's growing ambition to expand into the world of live sports.
