Jannik Sinner was back in action with a winning effort at the Terra Wortmann Open on Tuesday, the world No. 1 dispatching Yannick Hanfmann, 7-5, 6-3.

Sinner was playing his first match since losing an incredible five-setter to Carlos Alcaraz in the finals of Roland Garros, but the defending champion made a seamless transition from clay to grass in Halle with a 90-minute victory on OWL Arena.

The reigning US and Australian Open champion saw his 20-match Grand Slam winning streak end in Paris but Sinner nonetheless earned a new ranking milestone on Monday, passing Novak Djokovic for the fourth-longest first stint atop the ATP rankings.

In search of his first major title away from hard courts, the 23-year-old is looking to better his 2023 semifinal finish at Wimbledon, having lost last year in the quarterfinals to Daniil Medvedev.

Sinner led Hanfmann 2-0 coming into his first-round match, their last meeting coming on grass at last year’s Wimbledon Championships.

Though the hometown favorite had the benefit of two additional matches from qualifying, it was Sinner who ultimately got the upper hand after a tight opening set, claiming the lone break in the 12th game to earn the lead.

The Italian nabbed another break in the sixth game of the second, serving the match out to clinch his first win of the grass-court season in exactly an hour and a half. In total, he struck a clean 27 winners to just 16 unforced errors.

Sinner will have a trickier second round in store as he’ll face Alexander Bublik for a spot in the last eight.

Bublik enjoyed a Grand Slam breakthrough earlier this month at Roland Garros; despite playing on his least favorite surface, the Russian-born Kazakh stormed into the quarterfinals with Top 10 victories over Alex de Minaur and Jack Draper

. Though Sinner ended Bublik’s run in straight sets, Bublik has traditionally posted stronger results on grass and is coming off a 6-4, 6-4 win over Alexandre Müller in the first round.