Carlos Alcaraz has defended the lucrative Six Kings Slam exhibition event as a relief from the tour grind after previously saying he would consider skipping ATP Tour events to prioritise his health due to a crowded schedule.
The men’s and women’s circuits, which run across 11 months with extended formats at several tournaments, have come under fresh scrutiny during the “Asian swing”, where extreme heat and humidity contributed to a spate of injuries and withdrawals.
The Professional Tennis Players’ Association filed a lawsuit against the sport’s governing bodies in March, calling the scheduling situation “unsustainable”.
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Highlights from the Japan Open final match between Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz
After winning the Tokyo title last month despite playing with an ankle injury, Alcaraz withdrew from the next event in Shanghai, saying he needed time to recover.
His decision to play in the lucrative Six Kings Slam, which offers a reported $1.5m (£1.1m) in appearance money with a winner’s cheque of $6m (£4.5m), has stoked plenty of criticism from fans but he believes critics are wide of the mark.
“It’s a different format, different situation playing exhibitions than official tournaments, 15-16 days in row, having such a high focus and demanding physically,” six-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz said.
“We’re just having fun for one or two days and playing some tennis, and that’s great, and why we choose the exhibitions.
“I understand (the criticism), but sometimes people don’t understand us, our opinions,” Alcaraz added. “It’s not really demanding mentally (compared to) when we’re having such long events like two weeks or two and a half weeks.”
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Alcaraz was frustrated during the Tokyo ATP final and clashed with the umpire during a break
The exhibition event has also tempted last year’s champion Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Riyadh exhibition event.
Zverev earned an eye-watering $431 (£320) for every second he spent on the court for his 59-minute 6-4 6-3 defeat to Fritz than he did for finishing runner-up at the Australian Open in January for his one match at the Six Kings Slam.
The US Open provides the biggest prize fund at £3.8m, followed by the Australian Open at £3.5m, Wimbledon at £3m and the French Open at £2.2m.
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Watch Carlos Alcaraz play four holes in forty seconds at the Open de Espana
Alcaraz, meanwhile, is back on familiar sporting territory, having joined forces with Ryder Cup stars Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry at the Open de Espana Pro-Am last week.
Alcaraz is a very keen golfer, with the Spaniard hitting the fairways on his days off at the US Open.
“It was a great experience,” he said. “I went to Madrid for a day to play with the professionals, to play with Jon and with Lowry. I try to make the most of my time while I’m taking some days off so it was great playing some golf with them.
“Learning from them really closely, seeing myself that I have a lot of things that I have to improve in golf. Seeing them hitting the ball, playing such an amazing level, I was impressed. Feeling an amateur, sometimes it’s great.”
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