The world number 1 is here

The mission to defend the title has begun: World No.
leader Jannik Sinner arrived in HalleWestphalia on Friday for the 32nd TERRA WORTMANN OPEN
- and with a clear intention. "My goal is of course to play for the title again and win the tournament. But the competition is impressive, the tournament is once again absolutely first-class," said the 23-year-old South Tyrolean, who was welcomed by tournament director Ralf Weber in front of the COURT HOTEL in the early afternoon.

Weber once again congratulated Sinner on his outstanding performance at the recent French Open, where the Italian had unfortunately lost to Spain's Carlos Alcaraz in the “final of the century” after missing three match points. "That was wonderful publicity for our sport. We are happy to have Jannik back here in the field, naturally as one of the big cup favorites," said Weber. Tournament director Ralf Weber traditionally welcomes our world number one with a special cake and honors him because he has held this title for 370 days.

Sinner now wants to quickly gain a foothold on the tennis greens in Halle and also get into the swing of things for the upcoming Wimbledon highlight. "I felt very comfortable in Halle last year. The atmosphere was fantastic, the enthusiasm of the spectators was huge," said Sinner, who won his first grass court title at Germany's top-class tennis competition in 2024. Sinner had had to work hard on his way to success in Halle, with three three-set matches alone to reach the final. Before Sinner triumphed in the final against Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in a tie-break thriller, he had beaten local hero Jan-Lennard Struff over the full distance in the quarter-finals - in a third-set tie-break.

Sinner came to HalleWestfalen last year as the newly crowned number 1 in the ATP world rankings, a position he defended until the 32nd TERRA WORTMANN OPEN. Sinner is currently around 2,000 points ahead of his closest rival, Carlos Alcaraz. The top rival for the tournament victory for Sinner is Germany's tennis front man Alexander Zverev, who would like to finally win one of his favorite competitions on the tennis tour at the ninth attempt.