Halle R2 previews and picks: Nishikori vs. Brown, Monfils vs. Kukushkin

Kei Nishikori and Gael Monfils will be bidding for places in the Halle quarterfinals on Thursday. They are set for respective meetings with Dustin Brown and Mikhail Kukushkin.

(WC) Dustin Brown vs. (2) Kei Nishikori

Nishikori is a stellar 35-8 on the season but he has not quite recaptured the magic of his 2014 run to the U.S. Open final as he heads into second-round action at the Gerry Weber Open on Thursday. The world No. 5 owns two titles (Memphis and Barcelona) and is coming off a quarterfinal appearance at the French Open. Nishikori kicked off his grass-court swing on Tuesday by battling past Dominic Thiem 7-6(4), 7-5.

Up next for the second seed is a first-ever meeting with Brown, who got a wild card into the Halle main draw and defeated Andreas Haider-Maurer 7-5, 6-2 on Monday. The 114th-ranked German has not done much this year, but he can be dangerous on grass. At this event last summer, Brown upset Rafael Nadal before losing an epic 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(16) thriller to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarterfinals. The underdog has to get into the net because he cannot hang with Nishikori from the baseline, and the surface will help him do that. Still, Nishikori’s strong return of serve will ultimately be the difference.

Pick: Nishikori in 2

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Mikhail Kukushkin vs. (4) Gael Monfils

Monfils and Kukushkin will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers on Thursday. Their only previous encounter came at the 2012 Australian Open, where Kukushkin held off a Monfils comeback attempt to prevail 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 1-6, 6-4. The 59th-ranked Kazakh is a modest 12-14 for the season, but he opened in Halle with a solid 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-5 victory at the expense of Jiri Vesely. He is looking for his first quarterfinal since finishing runner-up in Sydney the second week of the year.

Grass has never been a favorite of Monfils, who is coming off a decent fourth-round showing at the French Open. But he seems to be craving lots of practice on the green stuff in advance of Wimbledon, as he also played last week in Stuttgart (reached the semifinals before succumbing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal). Monfils kicked off his Halle campaign by disposing of Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday. He seems to be focused enough and comfortable enough on the surface to take care of business without too much trouble.

Pick: Monfils in 2

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