How the Six Kings Slam 2025 decided the players and seedings for the event

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Some of the finest tennis players in the world will take a break from ATP Tour action this week to contest the Six Kings Slam 2025.

It’s a highly lucrative event, with the winner of Six Kings Slam taking home a huge prize of $6 million. Even those who simply take part will take home $1.5 million.

Jannik Sinner is aiming to defend his title from the inaugural Six Kings Slam from last year, but the likes of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz are looking to knock the Italian off his perch.

But, with only six players competing, you may be wondering how the roster is determined for the event in Riyadh. Here, The Tennis Gazette explains all, including how the seedings work.

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Six Kings Slam is an invite-only tournament

This year, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas are playing in the Six Kings Slam.

As with last year’s event, players are invited to play in the tournament at the discretion of the organisers in Saudi Arabia.

With massive money on offer and with the intention of raising the profile of tennis in the Middle East, organisers naturally want to bring in the biggest names.

Interestingly, Jack Draper was replaced by Tsitsipas this year after the Brit suffered an arm injury, prompting confusion among tennis fans as to why the world number 24 was given a slot. Tsitsipas has a chance to upset the balance this week, but it’ll take some doing against the best players in the world.

Last year, for the first-ever Six Kings Slam, we saw a line-up of Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Daniil Medvedev, while Holger Rune joined the pack as the only player yet to win a major event.

• READ MORE: Nick Kyrgios predicts if Carlos Alcaraz will overtake Novak Djokovic for major titles in his career

How the seeding works for Six Kings Slam

Alongside determining the roster for the tournament, organisers also have their own way of deciding the seedings for the event, which influences the match schedule.

Despite winning the tournament last year, Sinner is not seeded for Six Kings Slam 2025. Instead, the two seeded entries are Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, with the pair getting a bye for the quarter-finals.

As the current world number one, Alcaraz is given top billing for Six Kings Slam. Meanwhile, Djokovic gets the number two seed due to the number of majors he has won in his career (24) far outweighing Sinner’s record at major events (four).