The Six Kings Slam doesn’t merely invite tennis’ elite to compete; it manufactures a stage within the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center that, even without the precision of hawk-eye technology, reveals the increasingly blurred tensions between sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the aestheticism driven by a seemingly unlimited budget. The lines of thought in this article, like the lines of Saudi’s tennis courts, trace the ambitions of Riyadh Season and Vision 2030, highlighting tensions rooted in notions of invitation, exclusivity, and exhibitionism.
This is a tournament where the allure of invitational money – rumoured to be at least $1.5 million, with the winner walking away with a staggering $6 million – whispers in a shout that echoes louder than the actual grind and tone of competition. The players—Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev, Rune— in their acceptance and participation in this invitational stoke the struggle between tradition and innovation, competition and performance, substance and spectacle.
Congested Displays
The grand display invites the world to watch, but at its heart is an exclusivity—an invitation only event for the chosen few, leaving others outside this opulent, high-stakes performance. At what cost does this spectacle come? Does the glamour of the event, the financial rewards on offer, threaten to erode the traditions and history that anchor tennis? As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks to carve its mark on the global sporting map, the Six Kings Slam stands at the crossroads of sport’s evolution—where invitation, selection, and display merge in a delicate, enigmatic tension.
On the surface, the Six Kings Slam seems like a fan-centric celebration of tennis, marketed globally through an extravagant promotional trailer. However, the very nature of the event—a highly selective invitational—reveals its exclusivity. The six-player format contrasts sharply with the meritocratic structure of ATP tournaments, where players must earn their place through consistent performance.
Moreover, the event is strategically placed within a congested ATP calendar. With mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments in Shanghai and Paris becoming bookends, the Six Kings Slam slots in between them, forcing players like Sinner and Alcaraz to withdraw from ATP 500 tournaments in Basel and Vienna. This intrusion into the traditional tennis schedule signals a shift in priorities, where the lure of financial rewards is taking precedence over legacy-building and ranking points. For fans who have long held the Grand Slams as the pinnacle of the sport, this commercial encroachment may feel like a dilution of tennis’ historical significance.
Exhibition and Exhibitionism
Dennis Kennedy, writing in 2001 about the televisual boom of sports, observed that despite the increasing commodification and globalisation of sport, fans maintain a deep psychological connection to traditional events rooted in civic pride and communal ownership. In tennis, this has always centred around the Grand Slams—historic tournaments that have grown far beyond the confines of televised matches, becoming annual pilgrimages for fans. This, of course, is the ultimate goal for the presence of sport in Saudi’s overall Vision 2020 – to bring in tourists and eyes to the Kingdom. However, when done in the modality of exhibition, questions arise between substance, innovation and tradition.
The Six Kings Slam is not, however, just an exhibition in the traditional sense; its promotional efforts have dramatically stylised in such a way that verges on exhibitionism. This distinction becomes clear when analysing the event’s promotional trailer, where each of the six players is sensationalised in heightened, almost mythological roles. Carlos Alcaraz emerges as the “Sand Man,” a figure of elemental mystery, while Jannik Sinner is cast as the “Renaissance Artist,” a master of creativity and finesse. Holger Rune becomes the “Viking Warrior,” embodying raw strength and aggression, and Daniil Medvedev assumes the mantle of the “King of Bears,” a figure of dominance and might. Rafael Nadal reprises his identity as the “Clay Warrior,” a nod to his unparalleled prowess on the surface, while Novak Djokovic is framed as the “Leader of Wolves,” commanding respect and power.
Beyond Marketing
These dramatic portrayals are not merely marketing tools; they reflect a broader trend in sports where athletes are commodified and eroticised for mass consumption. In 2006, journalist Mark Simpson coined the term “sporno” to describe the growing intersection of sport and eroticism, where athletes’ bodies are marketed as much for their physical appeal as for their talent. The Six Kings Slam trailer is a perfect embodiment of this phenomenon. The players are no longer just athletes—they are hyper-masculine icons, cast as larger-than-life figures to captivate a global audience. The event becomes less about their tennis skills and more about the spectacle of their personas, blurring the lines between sport and entertainment.
However, this emphasis on spectacle can backfire, as seen during the event itself when fans watching the Medvedev vs. Sinner match were left frustrated by a bizarre camera angle. The main camera, positioned too high in the stands, made it difficult to follow the action, reducing the match to a distant, almost theatrical display rather than a competitive sporting event. This technical misstep underscores the tension between creating a visually grandiose spectacle and delivering a satisfying viewer experience.
The Six Kings Slam symbolically serves as a violent and isolated regurgitation of the broader transformation that Vision 2023 initiatives have calendared, seen by the regularity of football and boxing events, where financial power enables a spectacle to rival the traditions and challenge competitive integrity. Whether these exhibitions will ultimately enhance the sport or diminish its core values remains an open question. What is certain, however, is that the Six Kings Slam has already succeeded in redefining how tennis is marketed, consumed, and commercialised on the global stage.
