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Janic Sinner And Taylor Fritz Reached the semi-finals after an unsuccessful first day of the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia. the sinner was beaten Stefanos Tsitsipas Semi-final ticket cut by 6-2 6-3 novak djokovic Only 59 minutes were needed to defeat the Fritz alexander zverev and created a situation of conflict carlos alcaraz On Thursday.
Both Tsitsipas and Zverev will leave for home exhibition of six players After reportedly receiving $1.5 million just for appearing in one match. The overall champion will win an additional $4.5 million, making the three-day event the largest prize pool of the tennis season. Zverev earned about $250,000 more for his 59-minute loss to Fritz than he did for his runner-up finish at the Australian Open in January, and he was paid about $25,000 per minute for his one match at the Six Kings Slam.
Zverev’s performance was particularly disappointing, however, as the German appeared to be struggling with a right shoulder injury throughout the match. The world number three was short on power and frequently served into the middle of the service box, 20 kph slower than his season average. Fritz has now won seven matches in a row against Zverev – but it will not count towards the official head-to-head record – and did not need to shift out of second gear to win 6-4 6-3 in front of a silent crowd in Riyadh.
Defending champion Sinner was making his first appearance since Retiring after his third round match In Shanghai and in the second quarterfinal against Tsitsipas, he continued to race to a 5–0 lead, repeatedly hitting the Greek’s one-handed backhand with his forehand.
Tsitsipas has a 6-3 win record against Sinner coming into the exhibition, but the match-up is no longer a good one for the former world No. 3. Tsitsipas emerged with some credit by keeping Sinner’s winning margin to just five games lost, but it was another one-sided victory that ended after 76 minutes.
“Of course, we’ve played several times already,” Sinner said. “As we become better players and we know each other’s games a little bit more, I also know a little bit more tactically how to prepare for a match. I just tried to be pretty aggressive, especially in the return games. I felt like I was serving pretty well in the key moments.”
If you include their meeting in last year’s Six Kings semi-finals, Sinner will be on his way to his seventh consecutive win against 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic. Sinner has won both the French Open and Wimbledon semi-finals against the 38-year-old this season.
“It’s a huge honor to play against a legend like Novak again,” Sinner said. “It’s great that he is still playing at the highest level of our game. He is a great role model. He is still hungry to win big titles and that is why he still keeps playing. Hopefully it will be interesting tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Sinner questioned the “unusual” court surface in Riyadh, which was extremely bouncy on kick-serves but flat and slow during some rallies. “It’s a very unusual indoor court,” Sinner said. “It’s a very interesting situation that we have to deal with here on the court because it’s quite bouncy, with the new balls it’s quite fast and with the used balls it gets slower.”