Sinner's return could push Alcaraz to greater heights

It was one of those matches even a scriptwriter wouldn't write.

- FLO CLIFFORD

Jannik Sinner, the home hero, marching through Rome. Adoring crowds. A raucous atmosphere. And the world No 1 back on his perch.

While he was allowed to train during his doping suspension, it seemed reasonable to expect him to lack his usual sharpness on his return to competition. That was evident on some occasions – notably a surprise 1-6 first-set loss in his semi-final against Tommy Paul – but not on others. As he eviscerated Casper Ruud, the most recent Masters 1000 champion and a natural clay-courter, it was like he had never left.

Sinner has one of the most complete games on the tour, but it is his mental strength that sets him aside. The news of his positive doping tests at Indian Wells last year emerged on the eve of the US Open. Amid a media firestorm and open revolt by many of his competitors – on social media at least, if not to his face – he maintained his composure and bulldozed his way to the title. Similar circumstances surrounded his Australian Open title defence, with a legal case against Wada on the horizon and a potentially career-ruining two-year ban. His run in Melbourne was quiet and ruthless, business as usual from one of the tour’s most methodical characters.