The King Returns

Looking back at Sinner's journey to the "top" of the ATP rankings, the "king" has won 9 major titles in 1 year. This is an impressive achievement for a player who has just turned 23, but perhaps Sinner's destructive performance at the ATP Final is worth discussing. A tournament for the 8 highest-ranked players on the ATP rankings, but "number 1" did not let any opponent taste victory even in 1 set and knew how to use the word "terrible" to describe Sinner's performance at this tournament. At the 2024 Davis Cup, Sinner showed that he "plays doubles as well as singles" when Sinner showed a good combination with Matteo Berrettini, helping Italy defeat the Netherlands to win the Davis Cup for the second consecutive time.

However, in 2025, "disaster" came to the world number 1 tennis player right at the beginning of the year. Initially, the Italian tennis player was cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and the Independent Tribunal later concluded that this three-time Grand Slam champion was not at fault or was only negligent in doping. However, on February 15, Sinner received a 3-month suspension from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). And so Sinner was banned from competing until May 4, 2025. Luckily for Sinner, before being banned from competing, he had managed to defend his Australian Open title, so the gap between Sinner and the rest of the rankings was almost unchanged and difficult for anyone to catch up until he returned. The 23-year-old tennis player returned to compete at the Italian Open in his home country and will participate in the second Grand Slam of the year, the French Open, which is about to start.

As expected by Sinner's fans, his return at the Rome Master was truly impressive. In the first match of his return, in front of the cheers of more than 10,000 spectators, Sinner easily defeated Mariano Navone, ranked 99th in the world. The world No. 1 won the first set 6-3 after breaking in game 4. In the second set, Sinner won 2 breaks in between, with Navone breaking his serve once. The world No. 1 still easily closed the second set with a 6-4 victory. In the second match, Sinner continued to win against Jesper De Jong. Despite struggling in set 1, Sinner still defeated his opponent in set 1 and won overwhelmingly 6-2 in set 2, thereby winning 2-0 overall to advance to round 4.

The Italian player's opponent in the fourth round is Francisco Cerundolo, the 17th seed of the tournament, considered the nemesis of the Top 10, especially Cerundolo has defeated the world number 2 player Zverev in all 3 confrontations. However, Sinner is not afraid when facing Cerundolo. In the first set, it seems that Sinner has not yet caught up with the rhythm, so the match is tense, but Sinner still managed to win in the tie-break series. However, in the second set, Sinner easily defeated the player who is playing very well on the clay court with a score of 6-3.

Entering the quarterfinals, Sinner’s path to the championship in his comeback will have to overcome 3 matches ahead. However, with his current form, it is difficult for any player to stop the return of the “king”. And perhaps Sinner will remain on the “throne” of world tennis alone for a long time.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/nha-vua-tro-lai-130172.html