The Six Kings Slam exhibition tournament gets underway in Ryiadh on Thursday evening. World number 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner will take on Danil Medvedev in the inaugural match. The winner will face Olympic champion Novak Djokovic.
Sinner won seven titles at the Australian Open, Rotterdam, Miami, Halle, Cincinnati, US Open and Shanghai and. The Italian star has a win-loss record of 65-6 this year. He lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the China Open final in Beijing, but he bounced back by winning his third Masters 1000 title of the season in Shanghai beating four-time champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
Medvedev has not a title this season and reached two finals this year finishing runner to Sinner at the Australian Open and to Alcaraz at Indian Wells. He also advanced to the semifinal in Miami, Wimbledon and in Beijing, the quarter finals in Madrid, at the US Open and in Shanghai. He lost to Alcaraz in the semifinal in Beijing and to Sinner in the quarter final in Shanghai.
Sinner and Medvedev are 7-7 in their head-to-head series, but Sinner has won seven of their last eight matches after trailing 6-0 in their first matches. Sinner beat Medvedev 6-1 6-4 in their most recent head-to-head clash. They have faced each other five times. Sinner came back from two sets down to beat Medvedev in the Australian Open final and beat his Russian rival in the Miami Open semifinal and in the quarter finals at the US Open and Shanghai Masters 1000.
Medvedev beat Sinner in the quarter final in five sets by the scoreline of 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-3 to reach the semifinal at Wimbledon.
Sinner has lost just three hard-court matches and was beaten by Alcaraz twice over this surface in Indian Wells and Shanghai.
Alcaraz vs Rune
World number 2 Carlos Alcaraz will clash against Holger Rune in the second quarter final match. Alcaraz leads 2-1 in his three head-to-head matches against Rune. Alcaraz beat Rune 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-4 in their previous head-to-head match at Wimbledon. The winner of this match will clash against Rafael Nadal, who will retire from tennis at the end of this season.
Alcaraz has a record of 51 wins to 10 defeats on the ATP Tour this year. The Spanish player won two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, a Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells and the China Open title, where he beat Sinner in three sets. In his most recent tournament at the Shanghai Masters 1000 he beat Shang Juncheng, Yibing Wu and Gael Monfils before losing to Tomas Machac 6-7 (5-7) 5-7 in the quarter final. He also lifted the Laver Cup for Team Europe and led Spain to the Davis Cup quarter final.
Rune has a record of 38 wins to 21 losses this year. The Danish player reached the final in Brisbane, the semifinals in Montpellier, Acapulco, Cincinnati and Tokyo, the fourth round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He beat Matteo Berrettini and Jiri Lehecka in Shanghai before losing to Taylor Fritz 1-6 2-6
