Sports
Saudi Arabia’s coveted Masters 1000 tennis tournament has stalled as Six Kings arrives in Riyadh
One by one, they pull up at the St Regis Hotel in Riyadh.
Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune have arrived — only Novak Djokovic is yet to join the biggest stars in men’s tennis in accepting flowers, taking tea and talking with Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA).
They are the show and they are here in the Saudi capital for another. One of the richest exhibitions in tennis history, a $15million (£11.9m) bonanza the kingdom has called the ‘Six Kings Slam‘. The winner will take home $6m. Just being there earns over $1m.
Two weeks later, the WTA Tour will arrive for its season-ending finals, another $15million payday for the top eight women’s singles players of the year and the best women’s doubles teams. The ATP Next Gen Finals, an event featuring the top eight men in the rankings aged under 21, will come to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second biggest city and commercial center, in December.
For the rest of the season, this Gulf nation will assume the role of the heart of the tennis universe, as unlikely as that might seem for a country where people barely play the sport and important tournaments have never taken place. After years of pushing, everything looks ready for Saudi Arabia’s billion-dollar move to become a major force in tennis to take off — with one major hitch.
After months of back-and-forth negotiations and due diligence between the kingdom and the entities that control tennis, the proposal for a major, mixed, 1000-level tournament (one rung below the four Grand Slams) to be held in Saudi Arabia in January or February is still at least three seasons away, a loose gesture at seismic change only slightly more fleshed out than it was a year ago when it set the sport aflame.
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The biggest asset of Saudi Arabia’s three-headed push into tennis remains just an idea, with uncertainty on both sides over the tournament’s size, timing and financing. There remains no guarantee it will come to fruition. There has been no decision on who will participate or how much it will all cost, according to people briefed on the discussions who remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak publicly about them.
The proposal has become such a question mark that it barely figured in meetings between the ATP and WTA Tours and the four tennis associations that control the Grand Slams at this year’s U.S. Open. Months of discussions between Saudi sports leaders and ATP executives — closely watched by WTA leaders — have failed to bring an agreement on even the most basic tenets of a tennis tournament:
- When should such an event take place?
- Will it be for just the top 56 men, or will it be a larger draw?
- Will it be a mixed event, as the Saudis would prefer, bringing the tournament on par with other 1000-level tournaments, such as Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome — some of the most prestigious of their kind?
Mounting complaints from players about the length and logistics of the sport’s current schedule have further complicated the discussions. Tour officials know this is not the moment to announce a new mandatory tournament, especially one that could shorten an off-season that most agree is already too brief.
Moreover, the answers to the questions above will significantly affect how much money the event might produce, and how much Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) wants to invest in the venture through its sports unit, SURJ Sports Investment. The grand promises of 12 months ago have contracted.
The PIF has partnered with the ATP and WTA Tours on large sponsorship deals. (PIF / Getty Images)
“It wasn’t at the forefront of the discussions because it doesn’t make sense,” said one of the people involved in the Grand Slam meetings at the U.S. Open. “We’re making the assumption that this is nothing to worry about.”
With their coup de grace still up in the air, the Saudis have opted for a more considered approach, people familiar with their plans say — an approach that lends this next month or two of tennis an air of provisionality. Saudi officials are resistant to talking about any grand plans they might have for tennis because they don’t know where those plans might go.
They will test the waters with their biggest and most expensive exhibition — the Six Kings Slam offers one of the biggest monetary prizes in tennis history.
Then the women will arrive for their tour finals, allowing the country to gauge interest and help determine how hard the kingdom should push to invest in tennis during the next decade. The Saudi contract with the WTA runs through 2026, allowing all parties to feel out each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
How many people will attend? Will the infrastructure hold? Will the media impressions roll in? The plan is to see how these events unfold, before pressing ahead with commitments for new ones.
That stance is starkly different from the Saudis’ actions this year. In rapid succession, the nation’s various sports and entertainment units announced new initiatives that made it one of the largest investors in tennis.
Three separate entities have pursued tennis investments without much coordination, though outsiders often lump them together.
In rapid succession during the past year, the GEA unveiled this Six Kings Slam, and the PIF announced major new sponsorship deals with the men’s and women’s tours, which included naming rights to the official rankings. The Ministry of Sport of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) and the WTA Tour then announced a three-year deal to host the tour finals. Nadal was announced as an STF ambassador, helping promote tennis in the country and add legitimacy to its tennis interests in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Representatives of the PIF held talks with executives of Sinclair Broadcast, which owns the Tennis Channel, about acquiring a major stake in the network. According to people involved with those talks, who spoke anonymously to protect relationships, negotiations broke down when Sinclair raised the asking price from $750million to more than $1billion.
These moves raised Saudi Arabia’s tennis profile, but its potential new tournament at the start of the season was seen as the most important of its tennis investments — and its most divisive. It bid for that event through PIF and SURJ, but the financial ramifications almost paled compared to the existential angst coursing through tennis at the news of the kingdom’s pursuit of the tournament. It would cement Saudi Arabia’s place at the center of the sport, bringing with it an extensively criticized human rights record.
Upon the spring announcement of the country’s deal to host the WTA Finals, Human Rights Watch said, “Torture and imprisonment of peaceful critics of the government continues. Courts impose decades-long imprisonment on Saudi women for tweets.”
Former players, including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, publicly criticized “partnering a country with a history of repressive laws against women, that criminalizes homosexuality and free speech, and that in 2018 murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident journalist who had travelled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to get documents he needed for a marriage license,” as The Athletic wrote in April.
When Saudia Arabia’s pursuit of tennis first came to light, at Wimbledon last year, it prompted the Grand Slams to pursue a counter-offensive that amounted to an attempted takeover of the sport.
Saudi Arabia’s moves into tennis have roiled the organisations behind the Grand Slam tournaments. (Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images)
Tennis Australia had the most to lose. Any tournament in the early part of the year would significantly impact tuneup events in Australia and New Zealand before the Australian Open.
Led by Tennis Australia, the Grand Slams banded together to propose a new format for the entire season, with roughly 14 tournaments included in a so-called ‘premium tour’ for roughly the world’s top 100 players.
The move was an attempt to cleave the biggest non-Grand Slam tournaments from the men’s and women’s tours. The Grand Slams’ organisers also aimed their efforts at players, who have long complained about their arduous schedule’s duration.
In response, the ATP and the WTA pushed ahead with their lucrative sponsorships with Saudi Arabia. Those deals produced hundreds of millions of dollars in much-needed revenue for the tours, some of which will filter down to the players as prize money and bonus payments. Then, at this year’s Indian Wells, the Grand Slams moved to present their plan to the power brokers of tennis, but could not deliver something fully fleshed out. That idea too stalled, smothered by the inertia and fragmentation at the heart of tennis’ corridors of power.
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Since then, top players have been airing their complaints about the schedule again, especially the tours’ decision to extend the length of several of the mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments from seven to 12 days, essentially making them two-week events.
Those complaints have ratcheted up in recent weeks. Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1, complained of exhaustion throughout the summer. Carlos Alcaraz, the sport’s biggest young star, predicted the current schedule “is going to kill us in some way” in a news conference at the Laver Cup, another exhibition event.
Adding another event before the Australian Open would leave players feeling obliged to hit the ground running rather than playing themselves into form in Australia and New Zealand, where they can adjust to the time zone and climate in the weeks leading up to one of the year’s four most important tournaments.
With the tours unable to deliver what the Saudis were hoping for, plans for the new event and the Saudis’ biggest foothold in the sport remain a work in progress. That has allowed sports officials in the kingdom to approach the upcoming tennis events as a lab experiment.
What happens beyond that remains a mystery.
What happens during the next month, however, from how the players experience the event to whether locals and tourists fill the stadium, will dictate what happens down a still-unfinished road.
(Top photo: Adam Pretty / Getty Images)
Sports
Brooke Slusser sparks liberal social media meltdown by speaking about SJSU transgender volleyball scandal
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Left-wing social media users launched a volley of insults at 23-year-old Brooke Slusser in recent days.
In response, dozens of high-profile women’s rights activists have come to the former San Jose State University volleyball player’s defense.
Slusser has addressed the critics herself in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“I would just say people that don’t know my life or my trauma don’t have room to say how good or bad my time at SJSU was. I hope they never have to understand going through something as awful as that,” she said.
She has also acknowledged the responses in a series of TikTok posts, as she has become more active on the platform this week to speak about her alleged experience at SJSU.
The online hate campaign started after Slusser shared details about living arrangements in the same apartment with transgender volleyball teammate Blaire Fleming while at San Jose State university, in an interview with Fox News Digital.
During the interview, she said, “You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” and alleged SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players were also looking for a final tenant.
The fallout of the interview has prompted high-profile activists, lawmakers and even an actor to speak out, taking a side behind or against Slusser.
Many critics echoed the sentiment that “nothing bad” happened to Slusser, despite the fact that the anxiety from the situation ultimately led to her developing an eating disorder and not being able to complete her college degree.
Former “Glee” actor Kevin McHale even appeared to mock Slusser’s appearance.
A coalition of “save women’s sports” activists rushed to Slusser’s defense, with OutKick host Riley Gaines, XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova and former ESPN star Sage Steele leading the charge to defend Slusser from the pro-trans detractors.
“Brooke has every right to feel violated. This is a violation of her personal space and boundaries. She was lied to. She would not have agreed to room with or play with a man,” Sey wrote in response to one critic.
Navratilova wrote in response to that same critic, “Brooke has every right to be mad. Try again with the punishment wish…”
Slusser finds herself at the center of a sports culture war flashpoint at a time when the conflict over her school’s handling of her transgender former teammate has reached a political impasse.
‘HORRIBLE’ MOMENTS EXPOSED FOR UNR VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS WHEN THEY WERE ROPED INTO THE SJSU TITLE IX SCANDAL
After the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced at the end of January that an investigation into the university for its handling of a trans athlete and other players concluded that the school violated Title IX, SJSU and the California State University system declined to resolve the violation.
Instead, SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson announced Friday that the school and the California State University (CSU) system are suing the federal government to challenge the investigation.
“Because we believe OCR’s findings aren’t grounded in the facts or the law, SJSU and the CSU filed a lawsuit today against the federal government to challenge those findings and prevent the federal government from taking punitive action against the university, including the potential withholding of critical federal funding,” Teniente-Matson said Friday.
“This is not a step we take lightly. However, we have a responsibility to defend the integrity of our institution and the rule of law, while ensuring that every member of our community is treated fairly and in accordance with the law. Our position is simple: We have followed the law and cannot be punished for doing so.”
The school is also requesting that OCR rescind its findings and close its investigation.
Teniente-Matson affirmed the university’s commitment to defending the LGBTQ community in the announcement.
“Our support for the LGBTQ members of our community, who have experienced threats and harms over the last several years, remains unwavering. We know the attention the university has received around this issue and the investigative process that followed have been unsettling for many in our community,” the university president said.
Among ED’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. The department claims “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
Slusser alleged in a November 2024 lawsuit against the Mountain West that she and former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose were made aware of a meeting between Fleming and Colorado State women’s volleyball player Malaya Jones on Oct. 2, 2024, during which Fleming discussed a plan with Jones to have Slusser spiked in the face during a match the following night.
Slusser’s own lawsuit partially survived motions to dismiss last week as well.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews dismissed all the plaintiffs’ charges against the Mountain West Conference but did not dismiss charges of Title IX violations against the CSU system.
Crews deferred his ruling on whether to dismiss those charges until after a decision in the ongoing B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected in June.
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Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
The CSU provided a statement to Fox News Digital in response to Crews’ ruling.
“CSU is pleased with the court’s ruling. SJSU has complied with Title IX and all applicable law, and it will continue to do so,” the statement said.
The outcomes of the lawsuits by and against SJSU on this issue could ultimately set a consequential precedent for the future of women’s sports in America.
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INDIAN WELLS — Jessica Pegula never needed tennis.
She simply kept showing up for it anyway, through the long and often anonymous slog of the professional tour.
Now 32 and the oldest player in the top 10, Pegula is having her best season start yet.
The fifth-ranked American reached the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in January, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. She followed that by capturing the Dubai 1000-level tournament, just a rung below the majors.
She is 15-2 so far in 2026, tied with Victoria Mboko in match wins and second only to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (17-3), who she defeated 6-2, 6-4 in the Dubai final.
Pegula is guaranteed to emerge from this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as the top-ranked American, overtaking No. 4 Coco Gauff, if she reaches the final.
Jessica Pegula kisses the Dubai trophy after defeating Elina Svitolina in the finals on Feb. 21.
(Altaf Qadri / Associated Press)
First, she will have to get past No. 12-seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, her fourth-round opponent on Wednesday. Bencic has not dropped a set in four previous meetings with Pegula.
“That will be a challenge for me,” said the characteristically even-keeled Pegula after defeating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the third round on Monday.
A late bloomer, Pegula has taken the long road.
She failed to qualify for Grand Slam main draws in 12 of 14 attempts from 2011 to 2018, and didn’t reach the third round at a major until the 2020 U.S. Open at age 26. All three of her Grand Slam semifinal runs — along with her 2024 U.S. Open final — have come after she turned 30.
Pegula said this week that her patience and persistence stem from “always being a little more mature for my age even when I was younger.”
“I think as I’ve gotten older, your perspective changes as well,” she added.
Pegula, whose parents are principal owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, acknowledges that her wealthy family background can cut two ways.
Financial security offers freedom to push through the sport’s early years on tour, when results are uncertain and the grind is relentless. That same cushion might make it easier to walk away if the climb becomes too frustrating.
Jessica Pegula plays a backhand against Donna Vekic during their match at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
(Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Pegula says her motivation to pursue tennis came well before her family’s fortune grew.
“I’ve been wanting to be a professional tennis player and No. 1 in the world since I was like 7,” she said in a small interview room after beating Ostapenko this week.
“It’s a privilege, but at the same time I don’t want to do myself a disservice of not taking the opportunity as well,” she explained. “I’ve always looked at it that way.”
In the last few seasons, that maturity on the court has dovetailed with a growing leadership role off it.
Pegula has served for years on the WTA Player Council and was recently tapped to chair the tour’s new Tour Architecture Council, a working group tasked with examining the increasingly demanding schedule and structural pressures players say have intensified in recent seasons. The panel is expected to explore changes that could reshape the calendar and player workload in coming years.
Pegula said she hadn’t put up her hand to be involved but agreed after several players approached her to take the lead role — though she declined to say who they were.
“I think maybe as you mature … you realize how important it is to give back to the sport,” she said last week.
Life has also provided grounding and a wider lens.
Pegula’s mother, Kim, suffered a serious cardiac arrest in 2022, a situation she discussed in detail in a moving 2023 essay for “The Players’ Tribune.”
The Buffalo native and Florida resident also married businessman Taylor Gahagen in 2021. Gahagen helps “holds down the fort” at home with the couple’s dogs and travels with her when possible. He is with her in Indian Wells.
“I have an amazing support system,” Pegula says.
Despite winning 10 WTA singles titles, achieving a career singles high of No. 3 in 2022 and the No. 1 doubles ranking, Pegula’s low-key demeanor means she flies a bit under the radar.
She’s not one for fashion statements, outlandish antics or attention-seeking initiatives, her joint podcast with close friend Madison Keys notwithstanding.
Instead, Pegula tends to go about her business quietly, relying on a calm temperament and a methodical style that wears opponents down over time.
She gets the job done — the Tim Duncan of the women’s tour.
“She’s just all about lacing them up and competing between the lines, and then trying to be as big an asset as she can to her peers off the court,” says Mark Knowles, the former doubles standout who has shared coaching duties with Mark Merklein since early 2024.
“I think one of her great attributes is she’s very level-headed,” Knowles adds. “She doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low.”
Her tennis identity echoes her steadiness.
Instead of bludgeoning opponents with power, the 5-foot-7 Pegula beats them with savvy, steadiness and tactical variety. A careful student of the game, she studies matchups and patrols the court with a composed efficiency that incrementally drains big hitters and outmaneuvers most rivals long before the final score confirms it.
Keys calls that consistency her “superpower.”
“She doesn’t lose matches that she shouldn’t lose,” the 2025 Australian Open champion said this week.
Because of injuries in the early part of her career, Knowles says Pegula might have less wear-and-tear than other players her age. And he and her team have prioritized rest and recovery, which included the decision to skip the tournament in Doha last month following her tiring Australian Open run.
On brand, there was no panic in Pegula after dropping the first set in her two matches so far at Indian Wells. As she’s done all season, she steadied herself to earn three-set wins.
Bucket-list goals remain, however. Chiefly, capturing a Grand Slam title.
Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Jelena Ostapenko during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Monday.
(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Pegula jokes that she briefly interrupted a run of American female success when she fell in the 2024 U.S. Open final to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. But seeing close friend and teenage phenom Keys capture her major in Melbourne last year — after many wondered if her window had passed — hit closer to home.
“I think Madison winning Australia just motivated me even more,” Pegula says.
Although Pegula believes she is among the best hardcourt players in women’s tennis, that confidence hasn’t translated into success in the California desert. She has reached the quarterfinals just once in 10 previous appearances in Indian Wells.
“Why not try and add that one to the resume?” says Knowles, noting that she had never won the title in Dubai until last month. “She’s playing still at a very high level.”
Pegula says the key to keeping things fresh is maintaining her love of the game by continuing to improve and experiment with new ideas, a process that keeps her engaged mentally and eager to compete.
“I’m not afraid to kind of take that risk of changing and working on different things,” she says, “which just keeps my mind working and problem solving.”
For a player who never needed tennis, she remains determined to see how much more it can give her.
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Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo made NBA history on Tuesday night.
Adebayo scored 83 points, all while setting league marks for free throws made and attempted in a game for the Miami Heat in a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards. It is the second-highest scoring game for a player ever, only to Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game.
“An absolutely surreal night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the game.
Adebayo started with a 31-point first quarter. He was up to 43 at halftime, 62 by the end of the third quarter. And then came the fourth, when the milestones kept falling despite facing double-, triple- and what once appeared to be a quadruple-team from a Wizards defense that kept sending him to the foul line.
He finished 20 of 43 from the field, 36 of 43 from the foul line, 7 for 22 from 3-point range.
After the game, he was seen in tears while he hugged his mother, Marilyn Blount, before leaving the floor after the game.
“Welp won’t have the highest career high in the house anymore,” Adebayo’s girlfriend, four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, wrote on social media, “but at least it gives me something to go after.”
MAGIC’S ANTHONY BLACK MAKES INCREDIBLE DUNK OVER FOUR DEFENDERS IN HISTORIC NBA GAME
Bam Adebayo #13 of the Miami Heat celebrates during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center on March 10, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
The NBA’s previous best this season was 56, by Nikola Jokic for Denver against Minnesota on Christmas night. The last player to have 62 points through three quarters: one of Adebayo’s basketball heroes, Kobe Bryant, who had exactly that many through three quarters for the Los Angeles Lakers against Dallas on Dec. 20, 2005.
He wound up passing Bryant for single-game scoring as well. Bryant’s career-best was 81 — a game that was the second-best on the NBA scoring list for two decades.
Adebayo scored 31 points in the opening quarter against the Wizards, breaking the Heat record for points in any quarter — and tying the team record for points in a first half before the second quarter even started.
He finished the first half with 43 points, a team record for any half and two points better than his previous career high — for a full game, that is — of 41, set Jan. 23, 2021, against Brooklyn.
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Adebayo’s season high entering Tuesday was 32. He matched that with a free throw with 5:53 left in the second quarter, breaking the Heat first-half scoring record.
Adebayo’s 43-point first half was the NBA’s second-best in at least the last 30 seasons — going back to the start of the digital play-by-play era that began in the 1996-97 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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