THE world’s number one tennis player, Carlos Alcaraz, will be battling it out in Saudi Arabia this week to win the sport’s biggest financial prize- €5m.
It will be the second staging of the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Riyadh and though players complain about the excessive tennis schedule, they’ve found time to boost their coffers towards the end of the season.
Alcaraz, 22, from El Palmar, Murcia has been training at home during the last fortnight after winning the Japan Open in Tokyo.
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He suffered a left ankle injury during the tournament and because of that, opted to miss the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai.
The Riyadh organisers give €1.2 million to each of the six players- just for turning up.
They then hand out an extra €3.8 million to the event winner.
Alcaraz and Djokovic get exemption status through to the semi-finals for winning the most Grand Slams.
So for winning just two matches, either could fly home with €5 million.
The Wednesday quarter-finals will be between Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz and then Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas- deputising for the injured Jack Draper.
The semi-finals will be played on Thursday and the final plus third and fourth place decider on Saturday.
The players have to rest on Friday as the ATP does not allow them to play exhibition matches over three consecutive days.
Alcaraz will face the winner of Zverev-Fritz in the semi-finals.
The rest of the Spaniard’s schedule will see him at the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 (October 27 to November 2), the ATP Finals in Turin (November 9 to 16) and representing Spain in the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna (November 18 to 23).
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