Craig Tiley, director of the Australian Open, was not wrong when a few days ago he showed all his fear about the imminent arrival of Saudi Arabia in the world of tennis. “Anyone can come tomorrow and say: ‘We have an event with 100 million dollars in prizes, I’m going to bring the 32 best players in the world and each one is guaranteed two million.’. It’s a threat. “They can do it and nothing prevents them from being able to do it in January.”
That assumption that Tiley raised during an interview with the Australian Associated Press agency a few hours before the 2024 edition of the Australian Open ends is very similar to what Saudi Arabia announced this Monday: an exhibition in the middle of the ATP season with six of the best players in the world and with a prize money that takes the hiccups.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune will be the protagonists of the “6 Kings Slam”, as the tournament they will play in Riyadh in October has been named. The organization has not yet announced the dates, but looking at the calendar The only feasible thing is that it will be the week of October 14 to 20: The Shanghai Masters 1000 ends on the 13th and Vienna and Basel take place the week of the 21st, two fixed stops for the majority of the top ten. The format and days are also unknown, but it cannot go beyond three or four days.
And how do you get the best players to attend an exhibition in the middle of the season? Well, with a mountain of money. Saudi Arabia has already shown signs – such as the signings of Jon Rahm and Rafael Nadal – of the gigantic size of its portfolio and in this case it is not going to be left behind. As reported this Tuesday by The Telegraph on its website, The winner of the tournament will pocket six million dollars, while each participant is guaranteed a check for 1.5 million dollars. These figures represent a punch on the table. With these sums they can make the circuit begin to falter.
“I have never played an official tournament in Saudi Arabia and we will see what happens, but I have no doubt that I will end up playing there in the future”
Carlos Alcaraz
To put that amount into perspective, a couple of facts are enough. Sinner recently pocketed €1.9 million ($2.04 million) for his Australian Open title. He had to play seven best-of-five-set matches and pay for a three-week stay for himself and his entire team in Melbourne. If the Italian wins the Riyadh exhibition – remember that it will not be more than three or four days – he will earn three times as much.
But Australia – the Grand Slam that awards the fewest prizes – may not be the best example. Let’s go to Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament and the biggest one prize money distribute. With his 2024 title, Alcaraz took home an amount of 2.7 million euroshalf of what would be taken in Riyadh.
Negotiations for a Masters 1000
This new demonstration of power by Saudi Arabia comes at a delicate moment in the world of tenniswith constant rumors of a possible merger of the WTA and the ATP, Djokovic’s union gaining more and more power and the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup still looking for their place.
With the shifting sands non-stop, Saudi Arabia has arrived with a checkbook to turn everything upside down. He has been organizing exhibitions in December, during the preseason, for several years now. Djokovic and Alcaraz, for example, played a match at the end of December 2023.
The most that an official organizer has achieved – that is, a circuit tournament – has been the ATP Next Gen Finals in 2024, the Masters Cup for emerging players. But that’s just the first step. Already in 2023 he was about to organize the WTA Finals, the masters tournament, and It is no secret that his ambition is to buy the rights to a Masters 1000, the highest category of tournaments after the Grand Slam.Open de Australia, Roland Garros, Wimbledon y US Open.
The problem is how all the pieces of the puzzle can fit together: according to The Athletic at the beginning of November, the Gulf country would be interested in buying the license for the Mutua Madrid Open or the Miami Masters 1000, both owned by the giant IMG. However, In recent weeks the possibility of adding a tenth Masters 1000 to the calendar has grown strongly and place it in January before the Australian Open.
“Saudi Arabia has the power to host many tournaments. I have never played an official tournament there and we will see what happens, but I have no doubt that I will end up playing there in the future“said Carlos Alcaraz himself a few months ago. Indeed, that moment is getting closer every day.
Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympic Games on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
2024-02-06 16:38:51
#exhibition #Nadal #Alcaraz #triples #Australian #awards #Relief
