Andy Murray delivers cutting remark about Six Kings Slam despite rave reviews for promo trailer
The trailer for the Six Kings Slam featuring the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner received widespread praise, but Andy Murray is not a fan as he believes “nobody cares” about the upcoming exhibition event.
Organisers of the tournament, which will take in Saudi Arabia from October 16-19, released a five-minute trailer over the weekend featuring the “cast” of Djokovic, Alcaraz, Sinner, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune.
In a promo that would have Hollywood scriptwriters and directors impressed, Alcaraz stars as the “Sand Man”, Sinner is the “Renaissance Artist”, Rune is a “Viking Warrior”, Medvedev the “King of Bears”, Nadal is the “Clay Warrior” and Djokovic is the “Leader of Wolves”.
World No 93 Liam Broady was one of those who waxed lyrical about the trailer as he wrote on social media: “Speechless as to how damn cool this promo is. Probably best I’ve ever seen in tennis. Would watch this movie. 10/10”
But former world No 1 Murray hit back on X as he indicated he is unlikely to watch the exhibition event, writing: “Except it’s not a movie and you won’t watch it because it’s an exhibition tennis event that nobody cares about ”
The draw for the lucrative tournament has already been made with tennis greats Djokovic and Nadal moving directly into the semi-final while the other four have to play quarter-final matches.
Medvedev and Sinner will battle it out for the honour of facing Djokovic in the last eight while the winner of the Alcaraz and Rune clash will take on Nadal.
The multi-million-dollar Six Kings Slam will offer massive prize money to the six participants with each player guaranteed an appearance fee of £1.2million while the winner will earn £4.8million.
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But the event has also been criticised with many believing it forms part of Saudi Arabia’s global “sportswashing” campaign to detract from the Middle Eastern country’s poor human rights records, especially for women and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested heavily in sports in recent years – including football and golf – and tennis has also joined its portfolio as Jeddah started hosting the Next Gen ATP Finals last year.
It will also stage the WTA Finals in Riyadh in October this year with many believing it is only a matter of time before the ATP Finals move to Saudi Arabia and Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner’s appearance in the Six Kings Slam will no doubt make the transition really smooth.
