Successful start for Dominic Thiem and Kei Niskhori in Halle

Shahida Jacobs
Add as a preferred source on Google

Third seed Dominic Thiem and Kei Nishikori sailed into the second round of the Gerry Weber Open on Monday.

Austrian Thiem, in action for the first time since finishing runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the French Open, beat former world top 10 player Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Former US Open finalist Nishikori overcame German qualifier Matthias Bachinger 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

“I think I played very solid this match today. He’s never an easy player, especially I think on grass, he can be dangerous,” Nishikori said.

“He was coming to the net really well and if he got that second set… you never know what is going to happen in the third.”

Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut also advanced as he beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second-round encounter against Robin Haase, who saw off Joao Sousa from Portugal 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

American Denis Kudla, meanwhile, beat Lukas Lacko from Serbia 6-4, 6-4 while Japan’s Yuichi Sugita overcame German Maximilian Marterer 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Related Articles