Carlos Alcaraz admits Saudi Arabia prize money was ‘good motivation’ for him

Carlos Alcaraz admitted Saudi Arabia prize money was a good motivation for him. Alcaraz acknowledged that he plays for the love and fun of the game but he is not going to lie that money was not a motivation for him when he took a flight to Riyadh.

Recently, World No.1 Jannik Sinner said he doesn’t play for money despite bagging a whopping cheque of $6 million after winning Six Kings Slam. Alcaraz, on the other hand, received $1.5 million just for taking part in the event, which lasted for four days.

“I love playing tennis. You know, most of the time I don’t think about the money. I just play for love or for fun. But you have to be realistic. You have to think that you want to earn money, you know, and that’s it,” Alcaraz told reporters Monday. “In Arabia is the most, highest prize money ever … so that was a good motivation, at least for me.”

On the other hand, Alcaraz is all set to take part in the Paris Masters but hasn’t had a great record at the tournament.

“I haven’t played good tennis here in this tournament. Probably at the end of the year, I have been tired … as I said last year, I had to understand that the season is still going after September,” he said. 

“The calendar is super tight, super demanding, as well. So coming to the last tournament of the year, probably I have been tired the last year, didn’t play as well as I wanted, but coming to this year, I think I’m feeling different.”

Alcaraz added he wants to be more consistent in the 2025 season and showered praise on Sinner for his fine record in 2024.

“Yeah, for sure. I mean, it doesn’t matter that I have beaten Jannik three times. Probably I didn’t play good tennis in some tournaments,” explained Alcaraz. 

“You know, my percentage of wins this year is really, really high, but Jannik is another level this year, so over the 91% of wins this year. So just few players have done this before.”

Alcaraz will take on Nicolas Jarry in the round of 32 in the Paris Masters on Tuesday.