World No.1 and big favourite Jannik Sinner outclassed Australian Alex De Minaur 6-3, 6-4 in his ATP Masters debut in Turin on Sunday. In front of a sold-out Inalpi Arena, the Italian needed just one hour and 24 minutes to beat the world No. 8, who is new to the tournament which brings together the eight best players of the year.

Sinner, who hadn’t played since winning the Shanghai Masters 1000 just over a month ago before withdrawing from the Paris Masters 1000 due to illness, suffered only a minor scare when he lost his serve in the third game. But he immediately got back on track, winning four games in a row to take a 5-2 lead.

Powerful forehand

After winning the first set in 36 minutes on his first set point, he continued to use his powerful forehand in the second, taking his opponent’s serve in the fifth game to lead 3-2, then 5-3.

He concluded the match with an ace and a white service game. Sinner, 23, won seven titles in 2024, including his first two Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open and US Open).

He also became the first Italian to take command of the ATP rankings. His year was also overshadowed by his positive doping test for the anabolic steroid clostébol, for which he was cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia), before being caught out at the end of September by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which appealed and is calling for a suspension of one to two years.

The native of Alto Adige, a German-speaking region on the borders of Austria, has yet to win a title in Italy and is hoping to rectify this anomaly in his third appearance at the “Masters Tournament”, where he contested – and lost – the final in 2023 to Novak Djokovic, who withdrew from the 2024 edition due to injury.