Jannik Sinner's title defense kicks off with a convincing one-hour win in Cincinnati Open

Jannik Sinner earned a straightforward victory in his return to the courts at the Cincinnati Open, easily defeating Daniel Elahi Galan in just over an hour. The world No. 1 played his first match after winning the title at Wimbledon and showed that he has not lowered his pace with the change of surface to hardcourts.

Sinner had the mission of starting his title defense campaign in Cincinnati and he delivered as expected. The Italian conceded only a handful of points on his serve and was infallible on his return, securing a victory without breaking a sweat that takes him to the third round.

This is only the second Masters 1000 tournament that Sinner has played so far this season, reaching the final in his only other participation in this category this year, at the Rome Open, where he fell to Carlos Alcaraz in the final.

The Italian has a record of 27 wins in 30 matches played this season and will look to continue increasing his record when he faces the winner between Sebastian Baez and the 30th seed Gabriel Diallo, who will face off later this same day.

The start was devastating for Sinner, who gave no opportunities to his opponent on serve. The Italian was relentless and far superior to Galan, securing two consecutive breaks and three consecutive service games at love. Sinner won 20 of the first 23 points played in the match, taking a 5-0 lead against a Galan who had only scored points in one of the games.

The Colombian managed to hold his serve for the first time in the 6th game, closing the gap to 1-5, and then had his first points on return, where he even had a break point in his favor, but he failed to convert it. The 4-time Grand Slam champion stepped on the accelerator and closed out the set 6-1, having won 71% of the points played so far.

The superiority of Sinner in the match was more than evident, and he started the second set without lowering his pace. An early break and then a great service game gave him a quick 2-0 lead. The third game was the most contested of the match, with a Galan who came back from 15-40 down and saved up to five break points before holding his service game and staying alive. However, these were the only moments where the world No. 144 could keep up with Sinner, and only for a few minutes.

The world No. 1 regained control of the match with his serve in the following games and secured two more consecutive breaks to take the set 6-1. The Italian did not have to sweat too much to take the set after 34 minutes and the 6-1, 6-1 victory, after just one hour and one minute.

Sinner has now played 30 matches this season, in what is only his 6th tournament, with a record of 27-3 so far. The Italian won titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, in addition to reaching the finals at the Rome Open and Roland Garros. The only tournament in which he did not reach the final was at the Halle Open, when he suffered a surprising defeat in the second round to Alexander Bublik, the eventual champion of the tournament.

Nevertheless, Sinner has had a remarkable year, despite the three-month suspension he faced between February and March. The Italian missed up to four Masters 1000 tournaments in that period, but it was not enough for his pursuers to threaten to take the world No. 1 spot while he was off the courts. For now, he remains as the No. 1—even with a wide lead over Carlos Alcaraz—although he will have to achieve good results this week if he wants things to stay that way, considering that he is defending the title in Cincinnati and the US Open, while Alcaraz is barely defending points next month.