Jannik Sinner made tennis icon ‘sick’ over prize money | Tennis

Former US Open champion Andy Roddick is a man who is not too keen on Saudi Arabia’s influence on professional tennis. In fact, Roddick had a scathing assessment of this month’s Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament, which saw Jannik Sinner defeat Carlos Alcaraz in the final.

This came after Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal in the third-place play-off in what was arguably the last meeting between the two greatest players of all time.

But although the tournament did not bring ranking points to the four players who took part, it broke records for prize pools.

World number one Sinner received £4.6 million for her eventual victory, the highest amount ever received by a player for winning a tennis tournament. In contrast, despite once being voted the best player in the world and also reaching the Wimbledon final three times, Roddick earned just under £16 million throughout his career.

And in one of the episodes Served with Andy Roddick podcast, the 42-year-old sarcastically asked if Sinner’s prize money bothered him. “I’m definitely not sick of the fact that he earned more than 25 percent of my career prize money in three days of exhibition tennis,” he joked.

The American also said that the tournament failed to capture his imagination. “Seriously, I never envy anyone for their choice,” he continued. “Listen, someone will pay you that amount of money and you’ll have to go do an awkward dance.

“It all looked completely unnatural. It just looked weird. I wasn’t interested in that. Even the Novak and Rafa thing, I don’t know, it was fine, it was like an exhibition, but without the charm of the Laver Cup, where you see the interaction between players and legends coming back.”

Saudi Arabia’s influence on world sport has grown significantly over the past three years and Roddick has reluctantly agreed that players will continue to travel to the Middle East for one-off competitions. “For better or worse, we’re going to see more of these things, these exhibitions with huge budgets,” he added.

“It’s easier to pay Sinner $6m (£4.6m) when you’re not responsible for 122 other players in a given tournament, plus doubles, plus X, Y and Z. It’s one court, it’s not a million courts, it’s not like that. expenses, and this is the government’s marketing budget.”

The ATP rankings are currently sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the NextGen ATP Finals will be held in Jeddah in December. Nadal is also currently an ambassador for the Saudi Tennis Federation.

Sinner, 23, has earned more than £9.2 million in the 2024 season alone, having won both the Australian Open and the US Open. That total could be increased significantly if the Italian wins the ATP Finals on home soil next month.