6 Kings Slam is an exhibition tennis event, founded by Saudi Arabia and will be held for the first time in 2024. The event takes place in Riyadh, during the Riyadh Season.
Saudi Arabia has offered a very attractive prize money for the Six Kings Slam to convince six of the best ATP Tour players to participate.
The inaugural Kings Slam was also the last time tennis fans got to see Rafael Nadal in action after the 22-time Grand Slam winner confirmed his retirement following the Davis Cup finals in November.
The tournament is not recognised by the ATP Tour and does not carry ranking points. The organisers will award cash to the winner, while each player is also guaranteed a fairly high income.
Accordingly, just for participating in the event, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune each received 1.5 million USD. The champion will receive 6 million USD.
This is the event with the highest prize money, because compared to other tournaments, Sinner received 2.1 million USD for winning the Australian Open and 3.6 million USD for winning the US Open, while Alcaraz received 2.6 million USD and 3.4 million USD for winning the French Open and Wimbledon.
When does the 6 Kings Slam take place?
The 2024 Kings Slam will begin on October 16 and run through October 19. Although it is only a three-day event, ATP rules do not allow players to compete on three consecutive days. Therefore, October 18 will be a rest day.
Competition format of 6 Kings Slam
The 6 Kings Slam follows the format of a traditional tournament, but starts with the quarterfinals with 2 matches. The Riyadh Season gave Djokovic and Nadal semifinal berths and placed them in 2 separate main draw brackets.
The two semi-final losers will play in the third-place match, but only the champion will receive the final prize money.
Match schedule
Quarterfinal 1 - October 16: Jannik Sinner vs Daniil Medvedev
Quarter-final 2 - October 16: Carlos vs Holger Rune
Semi-final 1 - October 17: Novak Djokovic vs Quarter-finalist 1 winner
Semi-final 2 - October 17: Rafael Nadal vs Winner of quarter-final 2
Final, Third Place Match - October 19.
Where is the tournament taking place?
6 Kings Slam 2024 will take place at the main venue of Riyad Season 2024, called The Venue, at Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The venue was purpose-built with audio-visual technology for the Kings Slam 6 tournament, with a capacity of 8,000.
Why Rune join?
Of the participating players, Rune is the only one who has not won a Grand Slam. Riyadh Season does not have any requirements for deciding who will participate in the 6 Kings Slam if they are not Grand Slam champions, so they chose to invite Rune.
The 21-year-old Danish player is currently ranked only 14th in the world, but many believe Rune will be a future Grand Slam champion.
Rune has never reached a Grand Slam semi-final, let alone a final. The Monaco-born player's best career result is reaching the quarter-finals of the 2022 and 2023 French Opens, as well as Wimbledon in 2023.
