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Former tennis star Andy Roddick chimed in on the newly announced 10th Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia. This is the first expansion of the elite series since the ATP Masters 1000 tournament's inception in 1990. Riyadh, which recently hosted the Six Kings Slam and will soon also host the WTA Finals, is expected to be the venue when the event's first edition gets going in 2028.
On Friday, alongside co-host Jon Wertheim, Roddick shared his views on the non-mandatory tournament, questioning whether it would be able to attract top players such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. This would mean that the players will hold leverage when it comes to negotiating the appearance fee.
"These appearance fees are going to be massive, and the players have a lot of leverage right now because there's no chance that Saudi is going to want to have this Masters 1000 and then not have Sinner and Alcaraz show up, and then not have, you know, whoever else show up, right?" Roddick said (4:17) on his podcast.
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Roddick also broke the inside news that confirms players are on the better side of the negotiating table of appearance fees.
"I've been texting with an agent friend of ours who has been on the show before," Roddick added. "He says it's absolutely open season on appearance fees for this non-mandatory tournament. To me, they're celebrating that as like, 'Oh, listen, we're coachable, this is cool, we're going to just create a new set of rules.'
"This is going to be chaos. This is going to be the Wild West as far as appearance fees, which is good for the players."
The recently concluded Six Kings Slam had a massive appearance fee of $1.5 million and it was not an ATP event. On top of that, the winner, in this edition, Jannik Sinner, took home an additional $4.5 million after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the finals.
Key details regarding the Saudi Arabia Masters 1000 tournament
According to Reuters, the Saudi Arabia Masters 1000 tournament will feature a 56-player singles main draw and the schedule will be completed over a single week. Because it is a non-mandatory tournament, players can decide if they want to come and play in Riyadh.
The Times expects the prize pool to be around £5.5 million, which is standard across all Masters 1000 tournaments. Plannings are reportedly in place to build a world-class tennis facility in Riyadh.
It remains to be seen whether top-ranked players like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner still choose to come and play in the Middle East when there isn't enough on the table for them to give their time.
