World No.1 Jannik Sinner made a stunning return to tennis after beating Argentina’s Mariano Navone in straight sets in the Italian Open 2025. On Saturday, May 10, Sinner took an hour and 38 minutes to win the match 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court. Returning after 104 days following his doping ban after winning the Australian Open, Sinner didn’t take much time to find his feet.

Sinner looked a tad out of sorts as he faced a break point very early in the opening set, but he managed to hold his serve after saving it. He upped his game to go 3-1 up and then extended the lead to 4-1. After the initial stutter, it took Sinner only 43 minutes to win the opening set.

Yet again in the second set, Navone had a chance to break, but Sinner showed nerves of steel to make it 2-2 after holding his serve. Later in the set, Sinner earned himself his second break point of the match to go 4-3 up. From there on, he didn’t look back and went past the finish line comfortably.

“Amazing feeling. I’ve waited quite a long for this moment. I’m very happy to be back. I was saying in Italian it’s very difficult to have the right feedback when you don’t have any matches. But that’s exactly what I need,” Sinner said in the on-court interview after the match.

“The best practice is the match itself. Happy about that. Happy about the win today. It’s been very difficult,” Sinner added.

Sinner outplayed his opponent on second serves, winning 68 per cent of points (17 out of 25) from them. He made 24 unforced errors, but made up for them with 21 winners, 11 more than Navone.

In the Round of 32, Sinner will lock horns with Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands, who defeated Spain’s Alejandro Davidovic Fokina 6-0, 6-2.