{"id":928269,"date":"2026-10-14T21:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/928269\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:10:12","slug":"saudi-tennis-slam-with-alcaraz-djokovic-postponed-amid-houthi-attacks-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/928269\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi tennis \u2018slam\u2019 with Alcaraz, Djokovic postponed amid Houthi attacks | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament has been pushed from October to December by Saudi organisers.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 14 Oct 202614 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

An exhibition tennis tournament featuring the world\u2019s top men\u2019s players has been postponed for two months by the organisers in Saudi Arabia as the country reels from a spate of attacks by Yemen\u2019s Houthis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Turki al-Sheikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia\u2019s General Entertainment Authority (GEA), said on Wednesday that the exhibition Six Kings Slam tennis tournament had been postponed due to \u201corganisational and logistical challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

The announcement came shortly after the Saudi Pro League postponed three fixtures<\/a>, including one involving Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Al-Nassr, for \u201clogistical considerations, taking into account the mandatory minimum rest period between matches\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Six Kings Slam was due to hold its third edition later this month, with tennis stars including Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev due to take part alongside Taylor Fritz, Learner Tien and Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

The event, originally scheduled for October 21-24 and to be streamed live by Netflix, will now take place from December 27-30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Six Kings Slam tournament has been postponed due to logistical reasons and will now take place on December 27,\u201d al-Sheikh said on X, sharing a statement from the Riyadh Season entertainment programme.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, the three SPL matches involving teams based in Saudi capital Riyadh were postponed.<\/p>\n

The meeting between league leaders Al Hilal and Al Riyadh and the match between Al Ittihad and Al Shabab have been postponed to December 19, while the clash between Al Ahli and Ronaldo\u2019s Al-Nassr has been rescheduled for March 6, 2027.<\/p>\n

The SPL added, however, that the other matchweek nine fixtures \u201cwill be played according to the previously announced schedule with no changes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move comes two days after al-Sheikh promised<\/a>\u00a0that boxing\u2019s world title fight featuring Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d \u200c\u200cAlvarez and Christian M\u2019billi will go ahead this month.<\/p>\n

Alvarez vs M\u2019billi is scheduled for October 31 in the Saudi capital, which has repeatedly come under attack from Yemen\u2019s Houthis, but al-Sheikh sought to allay the doubts over the bout on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanelo reached out \u2060\u2060and told me he\u2019ll still fight in Riyadh this October, no matter what happens,\u201d al-Sheikh wrote in a social media post. \u201cHe [Alvarez] fears nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Al-Nassr\u2019s AFC Champions League match against Uzbek side Neftchi Fergana in Riyadh was delayed by an hour<\/a> after the coalition announced it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis towards the Saudi capital.<\/p>\n

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have launched a counteroffensive in Yemen to retake coastal territory from the Houthis in recent days, with missile strikes on airports and energy facilities<\/a> across the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s sporting programme has been heavily hit since the outbreak of the United States and Israel\u2019s war on Iran in late February.<\/p>\n

The Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix slated for April in Jeddah was cancelled.<\/p>\n

The WTA Finals were also scheduled to be held in Riyadh next month, but will instead take place at Indian Wells in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament has been pushed from October to December by Saudi organisers. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":928270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,143134,588,85,747],"class_list":["post-928269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-houthis","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}