Sugita stuns French Open runner-up Thiem in Halle

HALLE: Japan’s Yuichi Sugita (pic) shocked Dominic Thiem to send the Austrian out in the second round of the Halle Open 6-2, 7-5.

Third seed Thiem, French Open runner-up to Rafael Nadal earlier this month, was joined on the sidelines of the pre-Wimbledon tuneup by Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori, a 6-2, 6-2 loser to Karen Khachanov on Wednesday.

In 2017, the 36th-ranked Russian also beat Asia’s top player in the second round at Halle, when Nishikori was forced to quit with a hip injury.

Thiem switched over to grass this week and came to the court with a first-round win in northern Germany at a venue styled as a smaller replica of the All England club’s iconic Centre Court at Wimbledon.

“Sugita played really well, and gave me little chance to attack,” Thiem said. “I was missing a few percentage points on my game.

“I was not great on returns and was strug- gling on serve. He completely deserved the victory.”

The Japanese will be playing a grass court quarter-final for the second time in his career when he takes on American qualifier Denis Kudla, who defeated Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4.

Against Thiem, who leads the ATP with 36 match wins this season, Sugita kept up the pressure on his rival’s serve, forcing the Austrian to save 10 of 13 break points before dropping serve in the last game.

Thiem will return to Austria for five days of rest and fly to London in midweek.

However, he remains unconcerned with the state of his grass game after also losing in Halle in the second round a year ago before reaching a career-best Wimbledon fourth round.

”Last year I played the same as I did this year and played well at Wimbledon. I would have rather done much better,” added Thiem.