Carlos Alcaraz admits Saudi Arabia prize money was ‘good motivation’ for him
Carlos Alcaraz has responded to Jannik Sinner’s claims that he did not play in Saudi Arabia for money, with the Spaniard admitting that he feels differently to his rival.
Alcaraz is currently in Paris for the final Masters 1000 event of the year, and spoke to media in his pre-tournament press conference yesterday.
One of the topics that came up for Alcaraz was his participation at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, just over a week ago.
The four-time major winner received $1.5million just for competing in the event, while Sinner earned the largest cheque in tennis history of $6million for beating Alcaraz in the final.
A couple of days ago, Sinner claimed that money was not his motivation for playing in the Saudi capital, but Alcaraz has revealed that it played a significant part in his decision.
“I don’t play for money.” 🙅♂️
Jannik Sinner reflects on receiving the biggest prize in tennis history at the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh. 💰#RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/daLllDeSZj
— Eurosport (@eurosport) October 27, 2024
“Well, I mean, if I say: ‘I went there just for fun or to play and forget the money, I’m gonna lie’,” said Alcaraz. “I mean, every person works for that, as well. You know, that’s how life is about.
“I love playing tennis. You know, 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 it was the highest prize money ever in history, so that was a good motivation, at least for me.”
Alcaraz currently sits at No.2 in the ATP rankings, but trails World No.1 Sinner by a considerable 3,300 points.
Despite this, Alcaraz has actually beaten Sinner in their three meetings against each other this year, with their most recent match coming in the Beijing final.
With that in mind, Alcaraz has revealed that he wants more consistency next year, praising Sinner for his impressive 2024 season.
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, it doesn’t matter that I have beaten Jannik three times. Probably I didn’t play good tennis in some tournaments,” explained Alcaraz. “You know, my percentage of wins this year is really, really high, but Jannik is another level this year, so over the 91% of wins this year. So just few players have done this before.”
The Wimbledon champion continued, “But I think every player is looking to be more consistent during the year. You know, in every tournament that you’re going to play, you want to go far or as far as you can.
“That’s my goal for next year. In the tournaments that I didn’t play well or I didn’t go as far as I wanted, I just try to do it. I will try to not lose in the first rounds that probably this year I have lost in the first rounds.”
Alcaraz will hope to close that gap on Sinner this week in Paris, beginning his campaign against Chilean Nicolas Jarry later today.
Inside the baseline…
Carlos Alcaraz’s honesty is admirable, as Jannik Sinner’s comments did not seem to be believed, given that there was little other incentive to play the exhibition in Riyadh other than money. Sinner has only lost six matches on tour in 2024, with half of those coming to Alcaraz. However, Sinner has managed to reach the latter stages of more tournaments than Alcaraz, particularly on hard courts where he has been by far the best player this year, with two majors and three Masters 1000 titles on the surface.
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