Tennis royalty met soccer royalty on the opening night of the ‘Six Kings Slam’ exhibition event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, as Brazilian forward Neymar was among the fans in attendance to watch Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner debut victorious in the competition.

Alcaraz and Sinner’s wins set up semifinal matches for 2024’s major winners with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, respectively, on Thursday, but that wasn’t the only highlight of the early stages of the three-day display.

Before the three days of competition in the Kingdom’s captial began, the six participants were welcomed to the city with tennis-ball themed flower bouquets, and tasty refreshments awaited them when they arrived earlier in the week.

On the eve of play, Nadal channeled his inner Neymar by flashing his soccer skills during a high-intensity practice. The 22-time Grand Slam singles champion will play Alcaraz in his first match since announcing that next month’s Davis Cup Finals will be the last tournament of his career, and it is a fitting clash. On the tournament’s media day, Nadal said that the “next generation” is already “amazing.”

“Carlos, Jannik, especially these two guys, are making special things,” he said. “I wish them all the best to keep growing in all the ways.”

They showed it on court, too, where Sinner dominated Daniil Medvedev and Alcaraz take on Holger Rune.

Sinner never trailed in a 6-0, 6-3 win over Medvedev, his fifth win over the 2021 US Open champion this year in all arena, in an opening match that lasted just 69 minutes.

This Sinner hot shot, flicked past Medvedev at the net, to close out a 21-rally drew particular applause.

Later in the day, Alcaraz eased to a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Rune, and said he was ready to bring “full power” against his idol Nadal in the semifinals, drawing cheers from the crowd.

“The player he is, the legend that he is, it doesn’t matter that he stayed away from tennis for … months, he’s going to come back strong,” Alcaraz said. “I’m going to go full, without fear.”

After his on-court interview, Alcaraz was joined by Neymar as his doubles partner in distributing autographed tennis balls. The Brazilian plays for the Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal, but looked at home on a tennis court as he grabbed one of Alcaraz’s racquets to hit balls into the stands.