{"id":172833,"date":"2025-09-27T11:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172833\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:01:07","slug":"jannik-sinner-snubbed-as-novak-djokovic-and-carlos-alcaraz-get-top-billing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172833\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner snubbed as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz get top billing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The richest prize in tennis will be up for grabs as the biggest names in men\u2019s tennis gather in Saudi Arabia for the second edition of the Six Kings Slam next month, with defending champion Jannik Sinner<\/a> likely to feel a little hard done by after the draw was confirmed.<\/p>\n

Sinner won last year\u2019s inaugural Six Kings Slam<\/a>, as he beat his great rival Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the final to claim mega prize money of $6m.<\/p>\n

The Italian recovered from losing the opening set of the final to score a first win of the season over Alcaraz, beating the Spaniard 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This win did count on their official head-to-head record as it was only an exhibition event, but it was the biggest payday of Sinner\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

You may think that success would have earned Sinner top billing in this year\u2019s Six King\u2019s Slam, but the organisers have revealed Sinner will have to play an extra game than Alcaraz if he wants to cash in again by winning the richest prize in tennis.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic \u2018has no thoughts of retiring and will play in 2026 and 2027\u2019, says leading coach<\/a><\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner\u2019s fired physiotherapist at centre of doping row reveals recent \u2018private\u2019 chat<\/a><\/p>\n

The ANB Arena in Saudi Arabia\u2019s capital will host six of the biggest names in tennis, as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic<\/a>, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas take to the court, with all the action being streamed live and exclusively on Netflix to its 300 million+ subscribers.<\/p>\n

While Alcaraz<\/a> and Sinner are undoubtedly the best two players in tennis after sharing the last eight Grand Slam titles between them, Sinner has been relegated to a side show performer after Djokovic earned a bye in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Djokovic\u2019s gravitas as the most successful male player of all-time may have encouraged the Saudi organisers to give the Serbian a free ticket to the next round.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sinner will need to play three matches to win the cash jackpot, starting with a match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.<\/p>\n

The Greek star is a replacement for the injured Jack Draper and there are some doubts over whether he will be fit to play himself in the Six Kings Slam, amid suggestions that he faces a six-week lay off to recover from an injury problem.<\/p>\n

Tsitispas may be tempted to play in Saudi Arabia even if he is not fully fit, with Daniil Medvedev picking up his $1.5m appearance fee last year after losing quickly against Sinner. That meant the Russian was paid $21,739.13 for every minute he was on court in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

The draw for this year\u2019s event ensures Djokovic and Alcaraz will need to win just two matches to claim the $6m bonus prize, with a potential clash between Alcaraz and Sinner lined-up for the final.<\/p>\n

If Sinner beats Tsitsipas, he will take in Djokovic in the semi-finals and Alcaraz will face the winner of the match between Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n

American Fritz will be a big favourite to beat Zverev, as he has a fine record against the German and secured a comfortable win against him in the Laver Cup earlier this month.<\/p>\n

2025 SIX KINGS SLAM DRAW<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz vs Alexander Zverev<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner vs Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/p>\n

Semi-finals<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic vs Sinner\/Tsitsipas<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz vs Fritz\/Zverev<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Alcaraz, Swiatek, Sinner, Sabalenka push for more money and reform as Djokovic notably absent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The richest prize in tennis will be up for grabs as the biggest names in men\u2019s tennis gather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-172833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}