PREVIEW | ATP Rome Open 2025 Day Four: Return of the Italian King as Jannik Sinner plays for first time since Australian Open

It is Saturday at the Rome Open and it is a big day for Italian fans in particular as two of their biggest heroes will take to the court with one in particular not playing since the Australian Open in Jannik Sinner. Our preview looks ahead to the action on Day Four on the ATP side.

Sinner is joined by Matteo Berrettini as well as Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz who all start their campaigns today. Yesterday it was the turn of Sinner's potential final opponent in Carlos Alcaraz, now it is the Italian king.

Jannik Sinner has had a long and arduous road in the past few months with the World No.1 for a start staying as such as Alexander Zverev in particular by his own admission not pouncing on the chance he got to become the top player.

Sinner decided to take a retrospective ban instead of having to go to CAS in order to potentially get banned for even longer. A contentious point for players and fans that he was allowed to take a three months off and then return.

But Sinner as he said himself recently wasn't even allowed to watch sporting events in stadiums and the only time he was publicly sighted was at fashion shows during Paris Fashion Week and also as he started training again.

So he will have some sort of rust when he does return especially on a surface that he is good at but doesn't have the pedigree even of some of the players involved today.

He has aimed to temper expectations before he starts his campaign but of course that can only do so much when he is the World No.1, the ATP has not moved on since he last played and has perhaps gone on a downturn and also he is playing in front of his home fans.

He has never played against Mariano Navone who came through against Federico Cina 6-3, 6-3 in his opening round. He will play at around 7pm local time.

But starting the day will be Matteo Berrettini who will face off against Jacob Fearnley in what could be a tasty tie. THe Italian has continued to have injury troubles in recent months withdrawing from Munich as well as Monte-Carlo with an abdominal problem in Madrid and a foot injury at his prior tournaments. He retired during round four of Madrid against Jack Draper.

He now faces another Brit in rising star Jacob Fearnley who will hope for a double Italian win after ending Fabio Fognini's Rome career. That will be up first on Campo Centrale.

On Pietrangeli, it could be upset watch as Felix Auger-Aliassime who took a gamble to play Estoril last week which did not pay off faces off against Thiago Seyboth Wild. While Frances Tiafoe takes on Sebastian Ofner.

But it is on Grand Stand where the other big names start to emerge as Taylor Fritz who lost in the Last 16 in Madrid to Casper Ruud will face Marcos Giron. The fourth seed will also play Geneva next time out after missing the early part of the clay court season with injury and will hope to fly the flag after most of the American contingent fell by the wayside last tournament.

Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton among others are also in action today but no player has managed to replicate what Shelton did earlier in the season in his Munich run to the final. A barren state for the Americans and it is an all-American tie to start with for Fritz.

Jakub Mensik also returns after he lost out in three sets to Francisco Cerundolo in Madrid. He will face wildcard Matteo Gigante aiming for further success in the vain of Jack Draper.

Then it is one of the early stars of the clay court season in Alex de Minaur who opens his campaign against Luca Nardi, the Italian wildcard who beat Novak Djokovic last year

A lot of the main ties come on the Super Tennis Arena as Andrey Rublev faces past Rome star, Fabian Marozsan. While in an interesting affair Casper Ruud off his title success in Madrid returns to face Alexander Bublik.

Then it is the aforementioned Cerundolo who made a splash last week in Madrid after being mainly a South American clay standout and will face another South American in Nicolas Jarry who defends final points from last year or he could plummet.

As also mentioned, multiple Americans are also in action including Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda among others. An action packed day awaits at the Foro Italico.