Six Kings Slam: Jannik Sinner's epic win over Carlos Alcaraz takes home record-breaking prize money

The inaugural edition of the Six Kings Slam featured the dream final that any tournament and tennis fan could hope for today between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. After watching Novak Djokovic take the third-place match against Rafael Nadal—what has been the rivalry of the last 20 years alongside Roger Federer—we have now seen the rivalry that will dominate the major events for a long time to come.

The first two games were closely contested, easily resolved by the server. In the third, Carlitos pressed and started with an advantage on the scoreboard, but Sinner came back with one of his main weapons, his serve. This tool didn’t work for the Murcian, and the world number one seized the opportunity to be the first to break his opponent's serve.

He went up to 4-1, but Alcaraz managed to turn it around, breaking at the first opportunity that presented itself and then tying it up at 4-4. After a few competitive games in which the returner had no break options, Carlitos took the set to a tie-break with a game in which he faced no challenges and won without any problems.

In the tie-break, the four-time Grand Slam champion started much better, being the first to have a mini-break in his favour and going up 5-2. However, he lost three points in a row, especially one on serve at 5-4 due to an easy forehand hit too centrally that Sinner returned beautifully. Nevertheless, he won the last two, claiming the final point on the return after a great rally.

The second set saw both players maintaining the same intensity, and it wasn’t until the third game that Sinner reacted to break the Spaniard’s serve and then confirmed it on his own serve to take a 3-1 lead.

Alcaraz immediately applied pressure and recovered the break to tie the score at 3-3 in a match being played at a pace that no one would believe was an exhibition. Unfortunately for the Wimbledon champion, from that moment on, Sinner was relentless with his serve and on the return, managing to break his opponent's serve to close the set 6-3 and level things up at one set apiece.

The parity observed in the early sets remained intact in the final set, with both players holding their serve relatively comfortably. This continued until the eighth game, where the Italian began to apply pressure on the return, creating two break points that Alcaraz ultimately conceded with a double fault.

The break was the final boost of confidence for the world number one, who wouldn’t miss with his serve and won the final by taking the third set 6-3.

The best players of the moment did not disappoint in Riyadh, playing a phenomenal match to delight the fans. In a fantastic season finale, Sinner takes home another trophy and avenges his defeat to Alcaraz in Beijing. It’s quite possible that this was not the last chapter of the European rivalry this year, as both are shaping up as contenders in the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals.