Bernard Tomic and Pablo Cuevas, the seventh and sixth seeds respectively, both crashed out on day two in Halle, whilst Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Gael Monfils progressed.

With Nick Kyrgios losing out in round one of Queen's yesterday to reigning French Open champion Stan Wawrinka, Australia's chances of seeing one of their own be victorious in Wimbledon at the beginning of next month took another hit today as Tomic was defeated in straight sets by the American Steve Johnson, ranked 51st in the world. 

Tomic has struggled with injuries lately, but started the year well and was on the verge of breaking into the top 20 before this defeat. A back problem at the French Open, that prolonged into Stuttgart last week, has seen him tail off recently, but Johnson's victory was still unprecendented. The Australian lasted just an hour and five minutes on court, defeated 3-6 6-7 in one of the shortest matches of the day.

Other quick encounters saw Monfils dispatch Lukas Rosol 6-3 6-4 in just a few seconds short of an hour, the Frenchman winning 78 per cent of his service points as his opponent gifted him points with five double faults, whilst Jerzy Janowicz's comprehensive victory over Cuevas also lasted an hour and five, the Pole winning by the same score as Monfils. He will now face last year's runner-up, Alejandro Falla, in the next round.

Arguably the pick of the day on paper was predicted to be Nishikori's clash with rising talent Dominic Thiem, and it lived up to the hype as the 21-year-old pushed the Japanese number one as far as possible, though he eventually came up short, losing 6-7 5-7. Nishikori's defensive play was admirable, with him saving nine out of ten break points as he went on to secure a place in round two, where he will face Dustin Brown after his victory yesterday.

Eighth seed Ivo Karlovic also advanced, beating Santiago Giraldo 6-7 6-4 6-4 in an enthralling encounter that saw the Croat pull off a wicked 28 aces. With 79 per cent of first serve points won, he was powerful and unstoppable, with Giraldo failing to even see a break point as a result. The 36-year-old's second round tie will certainly be intriguing, as he plays 18-year-old German wildcard Alexander Zverev, who put on a mature performance far beyond his years yesterday against 33-year-old Jarkko Nieminen.

Elsewhere, Ernests Gulbis and Sergiy Stakhovsky fought it out for the chance to play Roger Federer in round two, the reigning champion having come through victorious in three sets against Philipp Kohlschreiber yesterday. Stakhovsky played his part in another fantastic match, but was edged out by his opponent in just over 90 minutes by a 6-4 7-6 scoreline.

Veteran and former world number two Tommy Haas was hoping to give his home crowd something to cheer about after Kohlschreiber, perhaps their best chance of seeing a German winner here this year, crashed out, but he followed in his footsteps with defeat too. Andreas Seppi was his conqueror, the Italian starting to build up some momentum going into Wimbledon and hoping to better his best ever run in 2013, when he reached the fourth round. 

Berdych put on a comprehensive performance later in the evening, overcoming Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic in straight sets. The Czech got better as the match went on, despite endured a slight lapse in concentration at the beginning of the second set, and his lively play at the net was particularly impressive, with him clearly not lacking confidence at the moment.

Tommy Robredo also made it through today, the eighth seed defeating Ricardas Berankis in three sets, albeit not without having to play some of his best tennis, eventually coming out on top with a 6-4 6-7 7-6 scoreline falling in his favour. He will face Seppi in the next round - a match sure to be tight and entertaining.

The only other game of the day saw Mikhail Kukushkin defeat Jiri Vesely in three sets, the two meeting for the first time and producing some great tennis. Vesely let himself down with an unnecessary six double faults, but Kukushkin was far from his best, getting just 55 per cent of his first serves in. He made it through in the end, 6-1 6-7 7-5 the final score, but he will have to play much better when he meets Monfils later this week.

Tomorrow, round two begins with Florian Mayer facing Johnson, Zverev taking on Karlovic in the most intruging of the day's ties, and Berdych playing Borna Coric. Federer is in action against Gulbis later in the evening.

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About the author
Amee Ruszkai
Head of the Sunderland, Swansea City and women football sections at VAVEL UK. Email: [email protected]