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Tennis
After Golf, Football, Basketball, now the Arab world decides to Boss Tennis.
Saudi Arabia shows the power of Oil Money :
They have launched the Six Kings Slam at Riyadh. A 3 day Tennis tournament between 16th to 19th October 2024. Since the ATP rule prohibits players from competing on 3 consecutive days in the calendar, 18th Oct has been kept as a rest day.
Now let's come to the financials. Every player is assured of $ 1.5 Million even if he loses the very 1st match and goes home. Just to put in perspective, Daniil Medvedev, who had just won 3 games (0-6, 3-6) against world no 1 Jack Sinner, pocketed $ 1.5 M for the 3 games before heading home.
The winner of the title will take home, yes, you heard it right, an insane amount of $ 6 Million after 3 days of labour. Once again to put in context, this prize money is nearly double that of what a current Grand Slam Winner is earning after 2 weeks of gruelling contests and 7 consecutive wins in best of 5 sets contests ($ 3.8 Million).
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Interestingly, this is not an ATP tournament. So there is no ranking points on offer. Besides, it is being launched at the closing stage of an already crowded season where players are supposed to be dead tired and fatigued. And yet, who all have entered the inaugural edition of the Six Slam competition? Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz , Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune.
In contrast, just think about a competition like Maharashtra Open (Started as Maharashtra Open, renamed as Tata Open) in a Country like India with a pretty rich history and past pedigree in Tennis, fair share of Grandslam winners, 1.5 Billion people, extremely high tennis following, knowledge and fandom. A tournament that has been hosted by India 27 times (inaugural edition at Delhi followed by 21 times at Chennai and 5 times in Pune) has lost even the ATP 250 series status, the lowest in the ATP series, from 2024 to the Bank of China Open in Hongkong.
What does all of this tell us?
Arab World and Arab Money are reigning supreme in the world of sport. Tennis is the latest addition to the jewels of their crown.
By - Ambika Prasad Mahapatra
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