Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune will each receive an incredible sum for their participation in the Six Kings Slam despite both men losing on the event’s opening day.
Medvedev and Rune were among six players who signed up for the exhibition event. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, who announced his upcoming retirement from professional tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, and Jannik Sinner were the others.
Djokovic and Nadal received byes through to the semifinal, either out of respect for their incredible accomplishments over the years or because that was part of the agreement to get them to play.
Sinner and Medvedev played the first match of the tournament. The Italian was an overwhelming favorite heading into the contest after winning seven of his previous eight matches against the Russian.
The US Open champion utterly dismantled Medvedev from start to finish, triumphing 6-0, 6-3. It never came close to being a contest and wrapped up quicker than the fans would have hoped.
Alcaraz battled Rune in the other matchup on the opening day. The Dane had announced before the event that he was working with Lars Christensen for the third time, continuing the chaos in his coaching team for the last two years.
Whatever work Rune did with Christensen beforehand made no difference against Alcaraz. The Spaniard easily beat his fellow 21-year-old in straight sets to set up a meeting with Rafael Nadal.
Although it was just an exhibition match, Rune may be slightly concerned about being so far below the French Open champion’s level. He has undoubtedly slipped further behind Alcaraz and Sinner in 2024.
Medvedev’s defeat to Sinner lasted only 69 minutes, while Rune’s loss to Alcaraz was just 72 minutes long. Adding those matches together, they are still shorter than Alcaraz and Sinner’s epic China Open final a few weeks ago.
Nonetheless, the massive paycheck Medvedev and Rune will receive is undoubtedly a more than decent consolation prize and justifies their decision to travel to Saudi Arabia for the exhibition event.
Medvedev and Rune are set to obtain $1.5 million each for losing in the opening round. That is only $300,000 less than Taylor Fritz received for being the runner-up at this year’s US Open.
The amount is even more extraordinary when broken down by how many minutes each man was on the court. Medvedev earned $21,739 per minute he competed against Sinner, while Rune earned $20,833 per minute.
Those eye-watering sums demonstrate the financial muscle that can be put into tournaments when they are backed by national governments like Saudi Arabia’s, whose influence has expanded into other sports such as golf.
Whoever wins the 2024 Six Kings Slam will receive the largest paycheck in tennis history of $6 million. Collecting that amount for winning just three matches might feel scarcely believable for the champion when it happens.
This year’s Six Kings Slam is the first edition of the event, but the level of prize money being awarded indicates that Saudi Arabia’s influence is likely to grow further in the future.
