Kei Nishikori battles past Dominic Thiem in Halle

Kei Nishikori has defeated Dominic Thiem in straight sets to reach the second round in Halle.

The second seed was pushed hard by the talented Austrian before eventually prevailing by a 7-6 7-5 scoreline.

Nishikori found himself under severe pressure during the opening set as he faced a total of nine break points, but after restricting Thiem to just the one break, he edged through in a tie-break.

The second set was equally tight with the pair sharing the opening 10 games, but Nishikori struck in the final game of the set to earn his place in the last 16.

The world number five will now play Dustin Brown, who earned a surprise victory over Andreas Haider-Maurer on Monday.