Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune are walking away with a hefty paycheck from the Six Kings Slam, even though they both lost on the first day. They were part of a group of six players, including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, and Jannik Sinner, who signed up for this exhibition event.
Djokovic and Nadal didn’t have to play in the first round; they went straight to the semifinals. Maybe it’s because they’re legends with amazing careers or perhaps it was just part of their deal to join. Meanwhile, Sinner faced off against Medvedev in the tournament’s opening match.
The Italian player was expected to win easily since he had beaten Medvedev seven times out of eight before. And that’s exactly what happened! Sinner crushed Medvedev 6-0, 6-3 without much trouble at all. Fans probably wished for a longer game.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ru Daniil Medvedev | 28 | 6,485 | 27 - 8 |
Alcaraz took on Rune in another match that day. Rune had recently added Lars Christensen back into his coaching team for the third time in two years—talk about coaching chaos! But whatever they worked on didn’t help against Alcaraz; he won effortlessly and set up an exciting clash with Nadal next.
Unexpected Earnings:
Even though these were just exhibition matches, Rune might be worried about how far behind he is compared to top players like Alcaraz and Sinner as we head into 2024. The games themselves were short: Medvedev lasted only 69 minutes against Sinner while Rune’s defeat took 72 minutes versus Alcaraz – both shorter than some epic finals we’ve seen recently!
Fans might think it’s strange that losing can still bring such big rewards. Yet despite their quick exits from competition at this event held in Saudi Arabia—the money makes up for everything else!
Medvedev and Rune will each pocket $1.5 million despite their early losses—just $300k less than Taylor Fritz got as runner-up at this year’s US Open! If you break it down by time spent playing tennis during those matches: Medvedev earned roughly $21k per minute while Rune made about $20k per minute!
This shows how much cash can flow into sports when backed by countries like Saudi Arabia which has also ventured into other areas such as golf lately too… Whoever wins next year’s Six Kings Slam will get an unbelievable prize—a whopping $6 million—for winning three matches! Can you imagine?
What do you think about athletes getting paid so much even if they lose?
