Carlos Alcaraz was brutally honest (Image: (Image: Getty)
Carlos Alcaraz recently appeared in the Six Kings slam in Saudi Arabia, but the Wimbledon and French Open champion had a clear reason why he went
Carlos Alcaraz has admitted to playing in the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia for the money.
The Wimbledon and French Open winner was one of six players to be competing in the ultra-rich Middle Eastern country. Alcaraz, 21, competed against Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Holger Ruune, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner for a whopping £4.6m prize pot.
Alcaraz lost to the latter in the final 7-6, 3-6, 3-6. Nevertheless, he still departed the country with a £1.15m payday, while Sinner left with the full £4.6m.
Despite earning a higher prize than any of the four Grand Slams, Sinner insisted he participated in the country so he could take on the best players in the world. Alcaraz, on the other hand, had a rather different view point.
Sinner recently said: “I don’t play for money, it’s very simple. Sure, $6million (£4.6m) is a lot of prize money, but I went to Riyadh because there were probably the six best players in the world, and you can measure yourself against them.”
When posed with the same question, Alcaraz’s reasoning was clear as he showed his true colours. He said: “Well, I mean, if I say: ‘I went there just for fun or to play and forget the money’, I’m gonna lie.
“I mean, every person works for that, as well. You know, that’s how life is about. I love playing tennis. You know, most of the time I don’t think about the money.
“I just play for love or for fun. But you have to be realistic. You have to think that you want to earn money, you know, and that’s it. You know, in Arabia it was the highest prize money ever in history, so that was a good motivation, at least for me.”
World No. 2 Alcaraz has admitted he needs to up his game despite recent victories over Sinner, including a semi-final win at Roland Garros. Before their clash in Riyadh, Alcaraz had beaten Sinner in their last three tour-level meetings.
He also saw off the Italian in the semi-final of the French Open. While he admits he always shows his best tennis against Sinner, he needs to raise his level in the other match.
He added: “Yeah, for sure. I mean, it doesn’t matter that I have beaten Jannik three times. Probably I didn’t play good tennis in some tournaments. You know, my percentage of wins this year is really, really high.
“But, Jannik is another level this year, so over the 91% of wins this year. So just few players have done this before. But I think every player is looking to be more consistent during the year. You know, in every tournament that you’re going to play, you want to go far or as far as you can.
“That’s my goal for next year. In the tournaments that I didn’t play well or I didn’t go as far as I wanted, I just try to do it. I will try to not lose in the first rounds that probably this year I have lost in the first rounds.”
