World No. 1 Jannik Sinner arrived in Halle (Westfalen) a few days early to prepare for his first lawn tournament of the year.
Before heading to the practice courts, he snacked on the cake that was presented to him by tournament director Ralf Weber and offered a few words to the media.
As defending champion of Halle’s ATP 500 Terra Wortmann Open, Sinner stated the obvious. “My goal, of course, is to compete for the title again and win the tournament. But the competition is impressive.”
His victory in Halle last year provided the first grass court title of his career. In two tiebreak sets, he defeated Hubert Hurkacz in the final.
Whichever player makes the final this year will face a different opponent, as Hurkacz was forced to withdraw before the tournament began due to injury.
Sinner’s campaign in Halle actually began in the doubles which, unusually, commenced on the first day of the tournament instead of the usual midweek slot. The scheduling provided Sinner with an opportunity for match play on the Halle grass before his first singles match the next day.
The doubles match was played on Court 1, where huge queues formed at each entrance. Many fans waited nearly the whole match to get in as seats eventually became free. Given the interest in seeing Sinner play, especially on Kids’ Day, the crowd would have filled Centre Court – where 2023 singles champion Alexander Bublik played before a sparser crowd than the one willing itself onto Court 1.
Sinner teamed with compatriot Lorenzo Sonego against veteran Russian Karen Khachanov and young gun American Alex Michelsen.
For a while it seemed the Italians were on their way to an easy win after taking the first set 6-2 and leading 3-0 in the second. But their opponents levelled up and at 5-5, Sinner’s errors meant his serve was broken to love. After Khachanov / Michelsen held, a 10 point tiebreak was required to separate the teams.
As Sonego’s errant netplay lost points for his team, Michelsen came alive at the net with sharp winning volleys and he led his team all the way to the finish line.
So Sinner’s first match ended with a loss, but in the singles event he started with a comfortable win against German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, 7-5 6-3.
The next day, Sinner’s second round was a different story. His opponent was Bublik, ranked 45 and unseeded. They played an outstanding match.
Bublik began by losing serve, not least through two double faults. Sinner was steady and kept the lead for 6-3 in 27 minutes.
Something stirred in Bublik as his brilliant side emerged. With a mixture of courage and good luck, he blazed his way through the second set. When a 205 km first serve was a fault, his second serve of 197 km was a winner.
Bublik broke serve in the sixth game and throughout the set served nine aces and hit 20 winners to force a decider. As the match progressed, the pro-Sinner crowd warmed to the remarkable skills of his opponent.
In the third set, he continued on his merry way – breaking Sinner again, this time in the seventh game with a flashing forehand past Sinner at the net; drop shotting at will and serving more aces towards his match total of 15.
“It’s a special win for me,” Bublik explained after the match. “I’d never beaten a No. 1 before.”
It was at Roland-Garros that they played their last match prior to Halle, where Sinner beat Bublik in the quarterfinals for the loss of only six games, including the third set to love.
But it seems they took different things away from their time in Paris. Bublik appears to have gained confidence from his excellent run to the quarters, whereas Sinner was still feeling the physical and mental effects of the epic final he played and lost.
“The truth is, it wasn’t easy to compete here after Paris,” Sinner acknowledged.
Nonetheless, he got in some grass court practice at Halle and will have next week off from tournament play, which will hopefully refresh him for Wimbledon.
Title photo by Vanessa Taylor