How much money did Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas earn per minute for Six Kings Slam fiasco?
The first day of the 2025 Six Kings Slam failed to deliver, but Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas still went home with a lot of money despite their woeful performances.
Both came into the exhibition tournament in Riyadh struggling with form in recent months with Zverev last reaching a final in June and Tsitipas in February, while they were also under injury clouds.
In fact, the Greek hadn’t played since losing in the second of the US Open in late August as he had been struggling with a back injury and, although Zverev played at the recent China Open and Shanghai Masters, he had also been troubled with a back problem and various health issues.
Zverev was initially expected to challenge Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner this year, but he dropped off a cliff and is now a distant third in the ATP Rankings while Tsitsipas has fared even worse as he has exited the top 20.
With a lot of money being offered by organisers of the Saudi Arabia tournament, they ignored their injuries and form as they accepted invitations to compete in the six-player event.
But they were both humbled in their matches as Zverev went down in straight sets against Taylor Fritz while Tsitsipas was beaten by Sinner – also failing to win a set although he at least managed to break the Italian’s serve twice.
Dollars Earned By Zverev Per Minute
In case you forgot, each participant is guaranteed a $1,500,000 appearance fee with the tournament winner taking home an additional $4.5m for a total of $6m.
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Zverev, who has a 5-9 head-to-head record against Fritz, having lost the last six top-level matches against the American, was beaten 6-3, 6-4 in 59 minutes at the ANB Arena.
That means the German earned $25,424 per minute for his under-par efforts in Riyadh.
The match lasted 3,540 seconds so Zverev picked up $424 per second.
Tsitsipas Lasts At Least One Hour
The Greek at least has a winning record on the ATP Tour against Sinner as he leads their H2H 6-3, having also won their last encounter at the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters.
But there was no repeat of that performance in Saudi Arabia as the Italian won 6-2, 6-3 in 76 minutes.
Tsitsipas earned $19,736 for his hard work and $329 per second.
Although they both missed out on the $4.5m first prize, Zverev and Tsitsipas will consider it a good day’s work, especially with both already multi-millionaires in terms of career prize money earned.
The German is fifth on the all-time list with $54,811,304 while Tsitsipas has won $35,144,031, which puts him in 11th.
Hopefully day two will deliver as Carlos Alcaraz takes on Fritz in the semi-finals and Sinner meets Novak Djokovic.
