Six Kings Slam: Sinner, Alcaraz title favourites after big wins

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are now favourites to meet in the Six Kings Slam final after their dominant performances in the quarters on Wednesday.

Sinner dispatched Daniil Medvedev 6-0, 6-3 in just over an hour to book his spot in the semi-finals, where he will meet 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

“It was a very good performance considering I arrived a couple days ago,” said Sinner, who came to Riyadh off the back of a fourth Masters 1000 crown in Shanghai.

Soon after, Alcaraz powered past Holger Rune 6-4, 6-2 to set up an all-Spanish semi-final against the soon-to-retire Rafael Nadal.

After the victory, the world No.2 revealed that despite Nadal being his idol, he will not be holding back on Thursday.

“He was my idol. He’s still my idol,” Alcaraz said.

“It’s a shame he announced he’s retiring.

“A really important person for my life. For my career.

“He was one of the reasons I wanted to become a tennis player.

“I’m going to go full power.

“The player he is, the legend he is, it doesn’t matter that he stayed away from tennis three or four months.

“He’s going to be back as strong as ever before.

“I’ll try to play good tennis if I want to beat him.

“I’m going to go full, without fear.”

In a reflection of how much the guard has shifted in tennis over the past 18 months, both Alcaraz and Sinner are heavy favourites in their respective semi-finals.

Sinner is paying just -333.33 at Bovada to defeat Djokovic, with the Italian having won three of the past four matches between the two.

Djokovic is at some of the highest odds tennis betting sites have paid for him to win a match in the past decade, returning a long +240 for victory.

Alcaraz is an even shorter -833.33 to defeat Nadal, who is paying +450 for victory over his compatriot.

Regardless of how Thursday’s semi-finals unfold, all four players will play another match in Riyadh, with the final and third-place playoff both occurring on Saturday.

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