Tennis: a prestigious exhibition tournament postponed after the deadly attacks by the Houthis in Yemen

The Saudi organizer Ryad Season announced on Wednesday the postponement of the third edition, scheduled for the end of October, of the “Six Kings Slam” exhibition tournament, bringing together big names in tennis, after the deadly attacks by Yemen's Houthis against Saudi Arabia.

This edition, initially scheduled for October 21-24, was postponed to December 27-30, according to a Ryad Season press release shared on X by Turki Alalshikh, president of the General Entertainment Authority.

If the sporting stakes are limited, the tournament, richly endowed and which was to be broadcast on the Netflix platform, was to bring together six stars of the circuit, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, the German Alexander Zverev, the Americans Taylor Fritz and Learner Tien and the Australian Alex de Minaur.

Formula 1 GP in Jeddah canceled

Saudi Arabia has been engaged for several years in a policy of developing major sporting events on its soil. This strategy has, however, experienced ups and downs since the outbreak of the war between the United States and Iran at the end of February, and more recently by the conflict in Yemen between the Houthis supported by Iran and government forces supported by a military coalition led by Riyadh.

In April, the Formula 1 GP in Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea, had to be canceled, as did that of Bahrain. In tennis, the WTA Masters, which brings together the eight best players on the planet at the end of the season, will take place from November 8 to 15 in Indian Wells, in the United States, and not in Riyadh as initially planned.

Football is not spared either: the Saudi league announced on Tuesday the postponement of three matches of the 9th day of the championship scheduled for this week “for logistical reasons”, against a backdrop of intensifying attacks by Houthi fighters in Yemen.

The day before, the start of an Asian Champions League match between an Uzbek team and Al-Nassr, the club of Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, had to be delayed by an hour after the interception of a missile fired by the Houthis.