Stuttgart Open News

The 23-year-old world number 30, who beat second seed Karen Khachanov in the previous round, looked at ease on the grass court of the Wimbledon warm-up event, despite having won his two tour titles to date on clay.

Kvitova, a semi-finalist in Paris in 2012, made a strong start to the clay court season by winning the title in Stuttgart and reaching the quarter-finals in Madrid.

Osaka was due to take on eighth-seed Anett Kontaveit in the semifinals of the tournament.

Bulgarian Dimitrov, the world number 12, has now reached only one quarter-final since winning his last of two titles this year back in February.

Federer, building up for an assault on an eighth Wimbledon title, hadn't played since March and skipped the entire clay court season.

She will learn on May 16 whether she will be given a wild card for the main draw at the French Open where she has twice been champion.

Having started her comeback with a world ranking of zero on Wednesday, due to her ban, reaching the semi-final means Sharapova has already moved up to 260th in the world.

The 30-year-old five-time Grand Slam winner has yet to drop a set in Stuttgart and powered past Estonia`s Kontaveit, ranked 73rd, for a 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final win in one hour, 23 minutes.

Sharapova was given a wildcard to play in Stuttgart tournament, where she has been champion three times, a move which drew a barrage of criticsm from rivals who believed she was receiving preferential treatment.

Dominic Thiem came through a pair of rain delay distractions to stun top seed Roger Federer 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 on Saturday for a place in the Stuttgart gass final.

Federer wisely skipped what was the wettest and coldest French Open in decades to let back pain subside, with tournament organisers saying he has trained in Switzerland and is arriving fit.

They face second-seeded French pair of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in the final.