Saudi Arabia Grand Slam greats’ tennis show

Article posted by Coliseum, February 8^th, 2024

Image: King Abdullah Sports City (Facebook)

Saudi Arabia will host a new elite tennis exhibition featuring tennis greats Novak Djokovic (Serbian tennis player) and Rafael Nadal (Spanish tennis player) with three other Grand Slam winners in October, the country’s General Entertainment Authority has announced.

‘REUTERS’ stated that Carlos Alcaraz (Spanish tennis player), Jannik Sinner (Italian tennis player), Daniil Medvedev (Russian tennis player), and Holger Rune (Danish tennis player) will also play at the ‘Six Kings Slam’, which will form part of the Saudi cultural and entertainment festival Riyadh Season, organizers said.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)-based the General Entertainment Authority, formerly the General Authority for Entertainment, is a Government department in Saudi Arabia that regulates the entertainment industry of the country.

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The Riyadh Season is an annual entertainment and sports festival in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. It takes place from October to March and includes 7,000 events across 14 zones. The festival was launched in 2019 as part of Saudi Vision 2030, a national effort to increase tourism.

Saudi Vision 2030 is a Government program launched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which aims to achieve the goal of increased diversification economically, socially and culturally, in line with the vision of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

‘REUTERS’ further stated that with Sinner having recently won the Australian Open, Dane Rune is the only player on the six-man roster without a Grand Slam title.

Spaniard Nadal, who signed up as an Ambassador for the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation last month, said he was looking forward to the event.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)-based the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) is the governing body for tennis in Saudi Arabia. The STF’s mission is to develop and promote tennis in the country, and to foster a vibrant tennis community.

“After some other tennis players have done so, I am very excited to play for the first time in Riyadh,” the 22-times Grand Slam champion said in the press release.

While exhibition events in the Gulf are nothing new, they are usually played during breaks in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) season or after it has finished. The ATP has a full schedule in October, including mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments in Shanghai (China) and Paris (France).

London (UK)-based the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour (worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men), the ATP Challenger Tour (a series of international men’s professional tennis tournaments) and the ATP Champions Tour (a men’s tennis tour intended for the former tennis professionals, who have since retired from mainstream professional tennis touring).

Saudi Arabia will also host the season-ending Next Gen Finals for men’s under-21 players in Jeddah from 2023 to 2027, the ATP announced last August.

The Next Generation ATP Finals is an annual men’s professional exhibition tennis tournament organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for the best 20 years of age players of the season.

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