Sinner Secures the Essentials Against Hanfmann and Begins Title Defense with a Win in Halle
Now the world No. 1 for over a year, Jannik Sinner must digest his loss in the Roland-Garros final against Carlos Alcaraz. For his first tournament after losing his first Major final in his career, the Italian must quickly adapt to grass to defend his title at the ATP 500 tournament in Halle. Sinner, who triumphed over Hubert Hurkacz last year, opened his campaign against qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.
The 33-year-old German, ranked 138th in the world, had managed to take a set off Sinner last year in the first round of Wimbledon and hoped to pose at least as much trouble for his opponent this time. After victories over Nishioka and Jarry in qualifying, Hanfmann earned the right to face the world No. 1 and gave it his all.
In the first set, which lasted nearly an hour, the German hung tough and won almost all of his service games without much trouble but faltered on the last one, allowing Sinner to take the lead.
Despite two break points in the second set, Hanfmann couldn’t capitalize, and the Italian, solid in this match (26 winners, 16 unforced errors), handled his grass-court debut this season well (7-5, 6-3 in 1 hour and 30 minutes).
In the round of 16, Sinner will face Alexander Bublik, who defeated Alexandre Muller earlier on Monday. The two met in the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros, where Sinner prevailed.
However, although Sinner leads their head-to-head 4-1, the Kazakh player’s sole victory against the three-time Grand Slam champion came in Halle two years ago—though Sinner retired from that match.
