Jannik Sinner makes winning return to action in Halle over Yannick Hanfmann

Jannik Sinner was back in action with a winning effort at the Terra Wortmann Open on Tuesday, the world No. 1 dispatching Yannick Hanfmann, 7-5, 6-3.

Sinner was playing his first match since losing an incredible five-setter to Carlos Alcaraz in the finals of Roland Garros, but the defending champion made a seamless transition from clay to grass in Halle with a 90-minute victory on OWL Arena.

"It's a very nice feeling," Sinner said of the atmosphere in his post-match press conference. "There's positive energy. I said last year that it's a very special tournament because it was the first time I played as No. 1, and I'm coming back here as No. 1.

"A lot has happened in a year and I'm not the same player I was a year ago, and hopefully it will be the same again in a year's time. I think the most important thing is always to improve as a person, but also as a player, and just to be a normal tennis player."

The reigning US and Australian Open champion saw his 20-match Grand Slam winning streak end in Paris but Sinner nonetheless earned a new ranking milestone on Monday, passing Novak Djokovic for the fourth-longest first stint atop the ATP rankings. In search of his first major title away from hard courts, the 23-year-old is looking to better his 2023 semifinal finish at Wimbledon, having lost last year in the quarterfinals to Daniil Medvedev.

Sinner led Hanfmann 2-0 coming into his first-round match, their last meeting coming on grass at last year’s Wimbledon Championships. Though the hometown favorite had the benefit of two additional matches from qualifying, it was Sinner who ultimately got the upper hand after a tight opening set, claiming the lone break in the 12th game to earn the lead.

"I don't think there are any easy matches here," Sinner said. "He qualified very well. I think he showed today that he can play very, very well on grass. I played against him at Wimbledon. It was a similar match because we both served as well as we could and you just have less control on these courts. That's quite normal when someone hits well and plays great tennis. He showed that today."

The Italian nabbed another break in the sixth game of the second, serving the match out to clinch his first win of the grass-court season in exactly an hour and a half. In total, he struck a clean 27 winners to just 16 unforced errors.

Sinner will have a trickier second round in store as he’ll face Alexander Bublik for a spot in the last eight.

"He is a very talented player," Sinner said. "It's his favourite surface. He beat me here and he has already won the tournament because of that. It will be a very difficult match. I think if he plays very, very well, it will be brutally difficult to break him. I have to stay very focused on my serve and then see what I can do. But yes, it will be a very, very exciting match. But let's see how it goes."

Bublik enjoyed a Grand Slam breakthrough earlier this month at Roland Garros; despite playing on his least favorite surface, the Russian-born Kazakh stormed into the quarterfinals with Top 10 victories over Alex de Minaur and Jack Draper. Though Sinner ended Bublik’s run in straight sets, Bublik has traditionally posted stronger results on grass and is coming off a 6-4, 6-4 win over Alexandre Müller in the first round.

"I think he's definitely one of the best servers we have on grass. And he can also play very, very well from the back. He can slice very well, stop balls. He can actually do everything. So let's see how the game goes. I'll just play as concentrated as possible and then we'll see."