Jannik Sinner won the the Six Kings Slam title but he flubbed the answer to the question of playing the event, saying “I don’t play for money,” after taking the richest purse in tennis history of $6,000,000 for just two matches plus another $1,500,000 just to show up.
Alcaraz, who lost to Sinner in the Riyadh final on Saturday, wouldn’t dismiss the real reason everyone went: Money. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Holger Rune, and Daniil Medvedev also collected.
“If I say, I mean, I went there just for fun or to play and forget the money, I’m gonna lie,” Alcaraz said Monday at the Paris masters. “Every person work for that, as well. You know, that’s how life is about.
“I love playing tennis,” he said. “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 is the most highest prize money ever in the history, so that was a good motivation, at least for me.”
Alcaraz will open play Tuesday in Paris where he’s never made the semifinals in three previous trips.
“I haven’t played good tennis here in this tournament. Probably at the end of the year, I have been tired, or yeah, as I said last year, I had to understand that the season is still going after September,” Alcaraz said.
“And I think I did prepare really well this year. So I don’t know, you know. The calendar is super tight, super demanding, as well. So coming to the last tournament of the year, probably I have been tired the last year, didn’t play as well as I wanted, but coming to this year, I think I’m feeling different.
“I know what I have to do. I have been doing great work lately. So I think I’m ready to do good results or at least go farther than last year, that I think is not really difficult.”
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