Jannik Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz to become the King of all the Kings in Arabia! With this emphatic triumph at the Six Kings Slam, the Italian superstar has now earned a staggering $6 million, and guess what? That’s the highest prize money cheque in the history of the sport. Despite being the most popular tennis player in the world, Roger Federer was never offered this much money. That’s quite astonishing isn’t it for someone as young as Sinner!

What is this Six Kings Slam, though? Well, this exhibition tournament was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 16,17 and 19. Several tennis stars including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, and Holger Rune took part in this event. Previously, we’ve seen Saudi Arabia’s heavy investments in the racquet sport drew a fair bit of criticism from some tennis legends like Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. They raised their concerns over the Kingdom’s record of human rights abuses. What really then pushed these superstars to attend this mega-event?

As per several reports, each of these six players was guaranteed a staggering $1.5 million for their participation and the winner was set to take home $6 million. Although there are no ranking points, or H2H matches to count in this event, the amount is quite huge and surely very much lucrative! Quite unprecedented for an exhibition event to offer this much, isn’t it? Although Roger Federer’s current net worth is around $550 million and he has a career earnings of $130 million in total, he has never been offered this much prize money in any event.

Jannik Sinner is just 23 years old while Carlos Alcaraz is 21! To see such gigantic prize money at this young age depicts how far the sport has grown from the ‘Big 3’ era! Both Sinner and Alcaraz split the four Grand Slam titles of this season in between them. Carlos Alcaraz won $2.6 million for winning the French Open this year. Then he won $3.42 million for his Wimbledon title. On the other hand, Jannik Sinner won $2.1 million dollars by winning his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne. After that, Sinner won $3.6 million after securing his second major title at the 2024 US Open.

We’ve put up these numbers in order to compare how big the prize money is at the Six Kings Slam in comparison with the Grand Slam tournaments. According to various reports, Riyadh’s winning purse represents 66% of Carlos Alcaraz‘s total 2024 on-court winning of $9,036,407. While on the other hand, it’s just a little short of 50% of Jannik Sinner’s previous total of $12,032,935 on-court earnings in the 2024 season. What did these two superstars of the racquet sport say after taking part in the ‘big-money’ match?

Jannik Sinner spotted recreating the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal moment with Carlos Alcaraz after the match

Jannik Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz by 6(5)-7,6-3,6-3 in the final. After this match, when both the players stood beside each other to pose for a photo shoot with the trophies in their hands, Sinner was seen picking out the confetti from Alcaraz’s hair. What an adorable moment it was for the tennis fans and it reminded them of a similar incident featuring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal from the 2009 Madrid Open final.

What did Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz say after this match? Both these players have time and again revealed how they push each other to become the best in business. Even this time was no exception! Speaking on their rivalry Sinner said, “We try to push ourselves to the limit. I wake up in the morning trying to understand the ways to beat him.” He wished that this rivalry would last long in the middle of some tough competitors who are currently roaming around them to snatch their crowns. What did Carlos Alcaraz say about his rivalry with the Italian?

Alcaraz also wished that this rivalry would get better and better over the years. He said, “I want to say I’m grateful to have him around on tour. Thanks to him I push myself to the limit. I give my 100% every day to be a better player. It’s a pleasure every time I share the court with him.” Fans also hope this rivalry lasts long, but can they ever match the levels of Federer-Nadal both in terms of total prize money and career titles?