The Six Kings Slam is going to be a very lucrative event for the six ATP players involved. Just by showing up, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Daniil Medvedev were paid $1.5 million. Whoever wins the exhibition will earn $6 million. Casper Ruud, a constant in the top ten of the ATP, was not invited.

This might be because Ruud has never played in Saudi Arabia as he has always turned the opportunity down. The Norwegian feels that there are too many human rights complaints against the kingdom, so he doesn’t go. That doesn’t mean his chance won’t change in the future.

Let’s be real, too. While tennis fans don’t want to question the integrity of our favorite players, there is little doubt that if the potential to earn a lot of money wasn’t involved, maybe players such as Nadal and Djokovic wouldn’t go. Nadal has missed several tournaments in his final season, but he did not say no to the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh.

Of course, professional tennis players play the sport to earn a living. Can one be blamed for saying yes to an event, even one that is an exhibition, that could pay them $6 million? That is a lot of money to turn down. Ruud still might have, however, due to his questions about the Saudis’ reported human rights violations. Still, he sees the hypocrisy of playing in China, which also has reported human rights violations, but not Saudi Arabia.

Ruud told SpilXperten, “I didn’t get an offer from the Six Kings Slam, but I have had offers in the past, and I have chosen not to go. (Saudi Arabia) is obviously a controversial country in terms of many things, but there are other countries that are controversial as well that we go to and play in. You can definitely discuss China and human rights in China, but we go there every year.”

Again, Ruud has played in China. This includes playing in the Shanghai Masters in recent years. The difference might be that the ATP has sanctioned a Masters 1000 tournament in China but has not done so in Saudi Arabia.

Ruud continued by saying, “There was a lot of talk about Peng Shuai and what happened to her, and it’s just to say that if you want to put Saudi Arabia as a controversial country, there should be other countries as well that should be mentioned and we don’t mention those…I know what I am going to say will probably be described as sportswashing, but it seems to me that (Saudi Arabia’s) new leader Mohammed bin Salman wants to do something and especially a lot of things in sport.”

It does seem inevitable that the ATP will give in and sanction tournaments in Saudi Arabia just as they have in China. The WTA already has as the tour will play the year-end finals in Saudi Arabia in November. Money has more power than some would like to think.

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