Kohlschreiber and Raonic through to second round in Halle

Defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany booked his place in the second round of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle after defeating German wild card holder Dustin Brown in two tiebreaks 7-6 (4)  7-6 (4).

Next up for Kohlschreiber will be Lukasz Kubot of Poland, who overcame Finn Jarkko Nieminen also in straight sets 6-4  6-4.

Canadian Milos Raonic eliminated last year’s runner-up Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-5  7-6 (1), moving one step closer to setting up a quarterfinal encounter against the 5 times champion Federer.

Also through to the next round are Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny after defeating Robin Haase of Netherlands 6-3  6-2 and another German Cerdric-Marcel Stebe, who outsted Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-3  3-6  7-5.

Roland Garros champion Nadal is amongst this year’s contenders too as he decided to play in Halle instead of Queen’s due to tax reasons.

Tags gerry weber open Lukasz Kubot Milos Raonic Philipp Kohlschreiber Philipp Petzschner Rafael Nadal Roger Federer tennis news