Riyadh Season organizers have postponed the Six Kings Slam, the richest exhibition in tennis, from October 21 to 24 to December 27 to 30.
It would have been the event’s third edition, slotted into the gap between the Shanghai and Paris Masters. It now lands in the week between Christmas and New Year.
Why It Moved
Houthi rebels bombed King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, October 10. Yahoo Sports reports the attack killed 13 people and injured more than 300. The Houthis said they carried out the strike.
The organizers’ statement did not spell that out. It said the decision reflects Riyadh Season’s commitment to delivering sporting events to the highest standards, following an assessment of organizational and logistical challenges and their potential impact on the quality of the audience experience.
That is corporate language for a security situation nobody wants to put in a press release.
The Field and the Money
The 2026 lineup was Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur and Learner Tien.
Each player collects a $1.5 million appearance fee simply for showing up. The winner’s bonus pushes the total take for the champion to roughly $6 million for three matches that count toward nothing.
Jannik Sinner won the first two editions in 2024 and 2025, beating Alcaraz in the final both times. He is out for the rest of 2026 with a knee injury sustained after winning Wimbledon in July, which is why he is not on this year’s list.
A December Date Is a Real Problem
The late-December window is the one stretch of the calendar top players actually use to rest and prepare. The Australian Open begins in mid-January, and the final week of December is when most of the top 10 are in training blocks rather than on planes.
Asking Alcaraz and Djokovic to fly to Riyadh for three exhibition matches eight days before the new season starts is a different proposition than asking them in October. The fee will probably carry it. Appearance money usually does.
Zverev, who clinched year-end No. 1 after Alcaraz lost in Shanghai, has the least reason of anyone to add a trip.
The Wider Fallout Is Bigger Than Tennis
The FIA cancelled the final 2026 World Rally Championship round in Jeddah. A decision on Formula 1’s Qatar race on November 29 and Abu Dhabi on December 6 is due later this month.
Golf’s Asian Tour is monitoring security ahead of next month’s Saudi International in Riyadh. The DP World Tour still plans its Middle East finale, including Abu Dhabi from November 5 to 8.
Boxing is going ahead regardless. Canelo Alvarez fights Christian Mbilli in Riyadh on October 31, and Dana White has said flatly that UFC 333 will be staged in Abu Dhabi on October 24.
What This Says About the Model
Saudi Arabia has spent years buying sporting events on the premise that the calendar will bend around the money. For the most part it has.
The Six Kings Slam is the first test of what happens when the events have to bend instead. An exhibition with no ranking points and no sanctioning body is the easiest thing on the calendar to move, which is exactly why it moved first while a boxing pay-per-view and a UFC card did not.
The effect on Saudi Arabia’s planned ATP Masters 1000 event from 2028 is unclear. That tournament will not have the option of relocating to the last week of December.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.