HALLE, June 18, 2015
The final four second round matches from the bottom half of the draw took place on Day 4 at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.
Second seed Kei Nishikori defeated German wild card Dustin Brown in their first tour meeting, winning 7-5, 6-1. The world number 5 saved the only break point he faced and capitalized on four of his own. Nishikori sealed victory in 68 minutes.
“I’m very satisfied with my performance today. It’s not easy to play Dustin and I did that very well today.” Nishikori analyzed. Brown took a positive view on his overall performance in the tournament: “I was able to get through most of my aims for quite a long time. In the end you just have to recognize that he was the better player. He returned tremendously and gave me practically no chance to play serve and volley – that was his success in the first set. He was getting more aggressive and played an extremely stable game.”
The 25-year-old Japanese will take on Jerzy Janowicz in the quarterfinals. The world number 51 from Poland celebrated his first win over Halle’s last year runner-up Alejandro Falla in their second encounter. Janowicz won 70% of his first service points to gain a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory in one hour and 57 minutes.
Andreas Seppi, who is making his sixth Halle appearance, beat fifth seed Tommy Robredo, winning 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. The 31-year-old Italian won 72% of his first service points to gain his first victory over the Spaniard within their last five tour meetings, the first since Oeiras 2013. Seppi advanced to his third quarterfinals of the season and was understandably happy.
“It was an extremely hard match like the other ones I had played against him. I’m very glad to have won the match and therefore to have reached the quarterfinals. And I’m satisfied with my performance and happy to play more matches here in Halle,” the Italian said.
Seppi will take on Gael Monfils next. In Halle’s final match of the day, the 28-year-old French defeated Mikhail Kukushkin for the first time in their second tour meeting. Monfils, who lost to the Kazakh at the Australian Open 2012, lost his service only once in today’s encounter to reach the quarterfinals after one hour 23 minutes, winning 7-6, 6-4.
