Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will kick off their Halle campaigns on Thursday. They are set for respective openers against Dustin Brown and Joao Sousa.

(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (WC) Dustin Brown

Nadal will be right back in action four days after winning his ninth French Open title when he takes the court on Thursday at the Gerry Weber Open. The top-ranked Spaniard generally struggles–understandably so–making the extremely quick transition from clay to grass without a week in between. He has a single match victory in two previous Halle appearances, having most recently lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 2012 quarterfinals. Similarly, Nadal has made it past the Queen’s Club quarterfinals only once in five forays to that event (he won the title in 2008).

Up first for Nadal this week is Brown, whom the No. 1 seed has never faced. Brown did almost nothing on clay aside from a…