Alexander Zverev suffered a very quick exit from Six Kings Slam. The World No. 3 was defeated in straight sets by Taylor Fritz, 6-3, 6-4, in a match that lasted less than an hour (59 minutes) as part of the quarter-finals. It was the seventh time in a row the German was defeated by the American, World No. 4, although this won't count for the records as Six Kings Slam is not an official ATP tournament.
In fact, some fans are arguing that Zverev simply didn't put much effort into the match, knowing that it wouldn't matter if he won the match: he would earn the same amount of money even as a finalist ($1.5m/£1.12m/€1.29m just for showing up).
The big fortune (an additional $4.5m/£3.4m/€3.86m to the initial fee) is reserved only for the winner, but in order to do that, Zverev would have to defeat Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday, and Sinner or Djokovic on Saturday, and the German probably knows he doesn't have the level to do that.
Tennis fans count how many dollars Zverev won per second against Fritz
Reactions on social media were as expected: many highlighted the incredible level Fritz has when it's time to face his immediate superior in the ATP rankings.
<social>https://x.com/mus1alav/status/1978510431552442653</social>
<social>https://x.com/sinverll/status/1978519816995516437</social>
However, others were more dubious, and suspect that Zverev simply didn't care, as long as he had his pay cheque, seeing how quickly the match was over, less than Tsitsipas losing to Sinner that same afternoon (6-2, 6-3, in 1 hour 16 minutes) or less than Medvedev against Sinner last year (6-0, 6-3 in 1 hour 9 minutes).
<social>https://x.com/Olly_Tennis_/status/1978524107042894242</social>
<social>https://x.com/TheTennisLetter/status/1978555049753121083</social>
Some even counted: Zverev won $431 per second of playtime. Do you think Zverev lost on purpose against Fritz to return home earlier at the Six Kings Slam?
In any case, the competition continues Thursday at 18:30 CET, 17:30 BST, with the debut of Carlos Alcaraz... with many pointing out how the Murcian he complained about the tennis calendar, but didn't hesitate in signing up for the Saudi exhibition event.