World No. 1 Sinner set to spark his grass campaign at Halle Open

Jannik Sinner returns to the courts and will debut as the world No. 1 at the ATP 500 Halle Open, kicking off his grass swing. The Italian received a welcome cake from the organization to celebrate his achievement as the new leader of the ATP ranking while preparing for his debut against Tallon Griekspoor (No. 23).

The 22-year-old tennis player was eliminated in the semifinals of the French Open by the eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, but Novak Djokovic's early exit in the quarterfinals prevented the Serb from defending the title, allowing Sinner to reach the top of the ranking for the first time in his career.

The young Italian took advantage of his free days after Paris to travel to Sexten, Italy, and reconnect with his family. Sinner was honored in his hometown and shared a celebration with his loved ones, as detailed by Tennis.com: “It was nice to share this moment with my little hometown. It was actually a funny story because I was supposed to do something with the kids after Australia.”

“We set the date already for this, so I went home after Roland Garros when I also became No. 1. So we celebrated everything together. But it was more about spending time with the younger kids, having a connection. And it was nice to see my friends, my family, the kids. It was a good feeling,” Jannik Sinner said.

The new world No. 1 was welcomed warmly in Halle, where he was given a cake shaped like a 1, with the inscription "Welcome to Halle Jannik Sinner."

Sinner commented in a press conference on the difficulty of switching surfaces from clay to grass: "The first day you have to make the movements on the surface and it's difficult, especially when you play the first rounds against players who have played on grass before. They have some feeling, but this is a place where they believed in me, they gave me a wild card in the qualifiers in the past. So I'm happy to come back here and I hope I can show good tennis right away.”

Sinner will debut on Tuesday against the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (No. 23). The Italian leads the head-to-head 4-0, including two wins this year at the Rotterdam Open and Miami Open. Interestingly, he ended up winning the title in both