Roger Federer beat Florian Mayer 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-1) Friday to reach the Stuttgart grass court semifinals, claiming another record in the process. The world No. 3 moved ahead of Ivan Lendl to stand second in career match wins with his 1,072 victories putting him behind Jimmy Connors (1,256). Federer dispatched Germany's Mayer for the seventh time without a loss as he advanced into a final-four showdown with Austrian Dominic Thiem, who recovered to defeat Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Federer is playing for the first time in a month after suffering with back pain which forced him to skip the French Open. "The feeling was better, I felt I was playing up and down the court more, coming to the net and seeing things a bit better," Federer said. "My serve was more consistent and accurate and I played two good tie-breakers. I'm very pleased, this was a step up from the last match." Federer's last Stuttgart appearance was a decade-and-a-half ago when the event was an indoor Masters. He advanced with 15 aces in 80 minutes to stand 13-4 on the season. World No. 7 Thiem said he has achieved more this week on grass than he had imagined. In other quarterfinal German seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5. Rain washes out Nottingham play No matches were completed at the Nottingham Open Friday as rain washed out play at the women's grass-court tournament. In the only match that got on court, Alison Riske led Anett Kontaveit 5-3 in the quarterfinals when play was called off for the day. That match is scheduled to resume Saturday. The other quarterfinal matches are top-seeded Karolina Pliskova vs. Ashleigh Barty, No. 4 Monica Puig vs. Tamira Paszek, and Saisai Zheng vs. Tara Moore. The semifinals will also be played Saturday, weather permitting. Bencic advances No. 1-seeded Belinda Bencic reached the quarterfinals of the Ricoh Open with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Varvara Lepchenko Thursday, her second difficult match in the grass court tournament where she reached the final last year. Bencic, coming off a two-month injury layoff, was taken to the three sets by Alison Van Uytvanck in her first-round match and had to rally from a set down against Lepchenko in her second round to reach a quarterfinal against fellow Swiss Viktorija Golubic, who beat Risa Ozaki 6-4, 6-2. "I don't think it was a really good match from my side, but all I could do myself was just to fight and keep going," Bencic said. "I'm just hoping to improve." Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic lost 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4 to Evgeniya Rodina and No. 4 Jelena Ostapenko lost 7-5, 6-2 to Kateryna Kozlova. In the men's draw, two-time champion and No. 1-seeded David Ferrer beat Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-4 in his first grass court match of the season and No. 3 Ivo Karlovic beat Igor Sijsling 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5). Ferrer moved into a quarterfinal match against seventh-seeded Gilles Muller, who beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-1. Murray brothers lead Britain's Olympic charge Andy and Jamie Murray will lead Great Britain's bid for more Olympic tennis glory after the brothers were officially named in the squad for the Rio Games Friday. After memorably winning gold in the men's singles by thrashing Roger Federer in the Olympic final at Wimbledon four years ago, world No. 2 Andy Murray will defend the title in August and also has hopes of a medal in the men's doubles with his brother. Team GB tennis leader Iain Bates revealed Andy Murray will stay in a hotel outside the Olympic village with the rest of his backroom team to replicate his preparations for Grand Slams, while the other British squad members will be in the village. Joining the Murrays in the British squad for the women's events are world No. 18 Johanna Konta and Heather Watson. Wawrinka to work with Krajicek for Wimbledon World No. 5 Stanislas Wawrinka has added former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his coaching team for the grasscourt season, the Swiss player said Friday. Big-serving Dutchman Krajicek, Wimbledon winner in 1996, will join Wawrinka at London's Queen's Club next week as the Swiss tunes up for this month's grasscourt grand slam. Krajicek will join Wawrinka's existing coach Magnus Norman and assistant Yannick Fattebert. Canadian Milos Raonic, ranked nine, recently announced he would work with triple Wimbledon champion John McEnroe during the grasscourt season. — Agencies
