By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
World No 1 Jannik Sinner made a solid return from his three-month doping ban by beating Mariano Navone 6-3, 6-4 before an adoring home crowd at the Italian Open.
Sinner was met by a partisan capacity-crowd in Rome, having not competed since winning the Australian Open in January due to a three-month doping ban.
There weren’t too many signs of rust and it didn’t take long for Sinner to break his Argentine opponent on the way to a 6-3 first-set win.
Navone showed signs of fighting back in the second, with the pair trading three consecutive breaks before Sinner served out the set to claim a 6-3 6-4 victory – taking his win streak to 22, dating to October.
Sinner wrote ‘Che bello’ (How beautiful) on the camera lens at the end of the match, as chants of ‘Ole’ rang around the stadium.
The Italian said the reaction from the home crowd was the best he had ever experienced.
“It has been amazing to go again on court after such a long time, having a great support also in the last days,” Sinner said.
His parents were among 10,500 people who offered him a full throated welcome onto the Campo Centrale, but Sinner showed little emotion as he walked on hand in hand with a child mascot.
“From the first day I came here, it has been amazing. I was waiting for this moment quite a long time,” he added.
Sinner signed a lot of autographs this week as he practised with top-10 players like Taylor Fritz and Casper Ruud.
He has been greeted with great warmth and excitement – as the overwhelming majority of Italian tennis fans seem to feel a three-month suspension was harsh and are treating his return as a celebration.
Sinner tested positive for clostebol and was originally cleared of any fault by an independent tribunal.
Even though the doping agency did not dispute the steroid had entered his system because his physio had been using a spray containing clostebol to treat a cut on his own finger, it initially felt a ban of between one and two years would be appropriate.
Wold Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) later came to the conclusion a suspension of that length would be “unduly harsh” and so entered into negotiations with Sinner’s legal team.