As Saudi Arabia heads toward the peak of its sportswashing strategy, it is setting new standards with an exhibition tennis tournament.
The timing is perfect. Things are comparatively quiet in the international sports world this week, with neither the Champions League nor a major ATP tournament on the calendar. So Saudi Arabia is inviting people to a tennis exhibition tournament that goes beyond the previous limits of such a format. From Wednesday to Saturday, the absolute elite will be in Riyadh: world number one Jannik Sinner, his pursuer Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune, as well as Grand Slam record champion Novak Djoković and even Rafael Nadal, who recently announced his retirement at the end of the year has announced. The 38-year-old explained dutifully that he was “very excited to play in Riyadh for the first time.”
The event is called “Six Kings Slam”. There are no world ranking points, but the five-minute promo video was astonishing because of its opulent design, as was the inaugural fee: the kingdom is offering a rumored 1.5 million US dollars each, and the winner is even expected to pocket six million – almost twice as much. what Sinner received for his triumph at the US Open.
The calculation is well known: Saudi Arabia has been increasing its investments in tennis for some time now, as it has previously done in football, boxing, golf and Formula 1. The aim is to distract attention from the violations of human rights, to improve its image and to expand its position of power . “If sportswashing increases my gross domestic product by one percent, then I will continue to do sportswashing,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made clear on the US broadcaster Fox News.
