HALLE (Dispatches) - Eighteen-time major champion Roger Federer has picked up his first win of the grass-court season by thrashing Japan's Yuichi Sugita in the first round at Halle .

The Swiss top seed, who skipped the entire clay-court schedule in order to be fully fit for Wimbledon, brushed aside lucky loser Sugita 6-3, 6-1 in just 51 minutes.

Federer, who won his first Grand Slam title since 2012 at the Australian Open in January, lost the first match of his return to German veteran Tommy Haas in Stuttgart last week.

But the world number five was back to his imperious best, as he broke in the fourth game en route to the opening set.
***Switzerland's Roger Federer celebrates beating Japan's Yuichi Sugita in Halle, eastern Germany on June 20, 2017