Kei Nishikori won his first round match at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle against Frenchman Lucas Pouille in three sets on Monday (13th June).

The first round at Halle saw Kei Nishikori and rising star Lucas Pouille.

Nishikori came off a disappointing clay court season with a number of near title misses, the Japanese was in trouble here in Holland.

He lost the first set on a tie break to the 22-year-old Frenchman.

Yet a double break in the second gave the World No.6 a 6-1 set to level up the match.

And then a solitary break in the decider was enough to earn an edgy win for Nishikori.

He'll await Brian Baker or Florian Mayer in the next round.

Nishikori admitted afterwards it took time to acclimatise to his first grass game of the season.

"Well yeah, it's always a tough, tough match specially for me first match of the grass court season, so it wasn't easy. Also he started well, he started returning well and serving well so it wasn't easy to play a solid match. But even though I lost the first set I stayed focused and in the second and third I played better. So I'm happy to win the first match today."