After a wait of more than 100 days, Jannik Sinner still knows how to win a tennis match.
The top-ranked player made a solid return from his three-month doping ban by beating 99th-ranked Mariano Navone 6-3, 6-4 before an adoring home crowd at the Italian Open on Saturday.
It was Sinner’s first match since he won his third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January. He said it took him all of three games to get his competitive focus back.
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“Amazing feeling. I have waited quite long for this moment,” Sinner said. “I am very happy to be back.”
There weren’t too many signs of rust, and it didn’t take long for Sinner to start crushing his groundstrokes on or near the lines. When the Italian broke for 3-1 in the first set, the crowd inside Campo Centrale sang “Ole, ole, ole, Sin-ner, Sin-ner.”
But Sinner acknowledged that he had doubts over whether he would regain the form that he had before his ban.
“It’s normal to have doubts. Would be strange to don’t have any doubts. Would sound very arrogant, no?” Sinner said. “I had doubts before going on court today. I have doubts now what’s going to happen in the next match. But we have to live with doubts because it means that you really care, that you want to improve, that you want to show yourself, that you want to do something special.”
Many fans in the sold-out crowd of 10,500 were dressed in orange, Sinner’s theme color. And there were plenty of signs that said “Bentornato Jannik” (“Welcome back Jannik”).
The victory extended Sinner’s winning streak to 22 matches, dating to October.
“It went very well at times,” he said. “Could be better, yes, but in any case it doesn’t matter about the result today. It has been a remarkable day for me.”
In February, Sinner agreed to the three-month ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency that raised some questions, since it conveniently allowed him to not miss any Grand Slams and to come back at his home tournament.
The settlement was made after WADA appealed a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to fully exonerate Sinner for what it deemed to be an accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid in March 2024.
Many fellow pros feel Sinner was treated too lightly.
But the crowd at the Foro Italico night session was fully behind Sinner, who has remained Italy’s most popular athlete despite his suspension.
When Sinner unleashed a backhand approach winner up the line early in the first set — the game in which he eventually broke Navone’s serve — one Sinner fan yelled, “Destroy him.”
Another sign in the crowd translated to “Make our hearts beat.” One more referred to this week’s election of a new pope just down the road at the Vatican, joking that “After three months of conclave, Habemus Papam!” — using the Latin words that are announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica when a pope is elected.
“The crowd was incredible,” Sinner said. “They always give me strength to continue even in tough times. So it was a very, very special moment.”
His only real lapse came late in the second set when he failed to consolidate a break and dropped his serve. But he broke again in the next game and then served the match out.
Sinner hit twice as many winners as Navone, 21-10, but he had more unforced errors, 24-19.
“It’s very difficult to have the right feedback when you don’t have any matches,” Sinner said. “But exactly that’s what I need. Now I think the best practice is the match itself.”
Sinner will next face 93rd-ranked Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong, who beat 25th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-0, 6-2.
The last Italian man to win the Rome title was Adriano Panatta in 1976.
“Hopefully I can play here one or two matches more to see where I am at, which would be my main goal,” Sinner said.
