German tennis star Alexander Zverev continued his poor form with another defeat against his nemesis Taylor Fritz. The world number three lost in the first round of the lucrative and highly competitive exhibition tournament Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia, with Fritz winning 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
German tennis star Alexander Zverev continued his poor form with another defeat against his nemesis Taylor Fritz.
The world number three lost in the first round of the lucrative and highly competitive exhibition tournament Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia, with Fritz winning 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
This marked Zverev's seventh consecutive loss to the American. However, the Hamburg native can console himself with an appearance fee of $1.5 million. Had he won the tournament in its second edition, he could have earned an additional $4.5 million.
Fritz remains in contention for the jackpot and will now face world number one Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the semi-finals.
Jannik Sinner or Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas will play men's grand slam record-holder Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.
Zverev, who has recently suffered early exits in a string of ATP tournaments, started poorly, losing his first service game. That was enough for Fritz to secure the first set in under 30 minutes.
In the second set, Zverev suffered an early break at 1-2, which he was unable to recover from.
The Six Kings Slam offers no ranking points, no significant title, and no prestige, but it does provide an extraordinary amount of money for the six invited top stars. The winner receives more in Saudi than the prize money for winning one of the four grand slam tournaments.
The matches are streamed by Netflix, opening up new marketing opportunities.
Critics view the tournament as part of so-called sports-washing, with Saudi Arabia trying to use tennis to distract from its human rights violations and improve its global image.
Category: General Sports
