Sinner immediately ok on grass: Hanfmann beaten in Halle, now there's Bublik

Halle (Germany), June 17 – The return to victory is a done deal. Not that there were any great fears in the first round in Halle, but Jannik Sinner he must have had a few sleepless nights after his defeat in the final at Roland Garros, at the end of those five and a half epic hours battling with Alcaraz. And then, the world number one yesterday lost in doubles with Lorenzo Sonego in his debut in Germany, essentially extending his runs on the court to two without winning: very unusual, for a champion like him. Jannik beat Yannick...Hanfmann 7-5 6-3. It wasn't a monotonous match, because the home opponent has a nice touch and showed off a remarkable mettle on the center court. So much so that the Italian only scored the break in the tenth game that allowed him to take home the first set. And the opponent had two break points in the second set. But the Alto Adige's serve was a guarantee today, with 84% of the points on the first serve, which came in with 71%. Ten aces were then scored in the fast match, in which Sinner didn't disdain going to the net, scoring 9 points out of 13. Now Jannik meets his brilliant friend in the second round Alexander Bublik, the Kazakh who had worried him in Paris, in a set, joking at the end of the match on social media: "I almost got him", he wrote. Curiously, the only victory of the giant number 45 in the world in the five previous matches was on the grass of Halle, two years ago. Worth noting Flavio Cobolli's success against the Brazilian Joao Fonseca: 5-7 7-6 7-6 the score in favor of the 23-year-old Roman number 24 in the world. The 18-year-old South American number 57 showed truly remarkable flashes, but this Flavio is flying. And the Top 20 is right there, not far away. 

With his fourth career victory on grass, Cobolli awaits Humbert or Shapovalov in the second round.