Intro:

Second seed Kei Nishikori of Japan reached the second round of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle after a hard-fought win over Austria's Dominic Thiem on Tuesday (June 16th).

Script:

Day 2 of th ATP grasscourt tournament in Halle saw second seed Kei Nishikori face rising star Dominic Thiem.

Nishikori broke early on to lead 5-3 and looked to be in control of the 21-year-old Austrian.

Thiem would break back and actually held three set points at 6-5, yet a tie-break followed which Nishikori won 7-4.

Thiem kept in touch with Nishikori early in the second, yet there wasn't much he could do with shot like this.

With Nishikori up 6-5 and match point the Japanese star took control at the net to see off Thiem.

Nishikori now faces Dustin Brown in Round 2.

Afterwards the number two seed said he was happy with his start to the grasscourt season.

"Yeah, very good win for me to play first match of the grass court season. I think it was a good start, you know it was a tough match against Dominic so great to win like this."

Elsewhere, fourth seed Gael Monfils also progressed into the second round after a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lukas Rosol the man who beat Nadal at Wimbledon back in 2012.