Roger Federer beat Florian Mayer 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-1) to reach the Stuttgart grass semifinals with another tennis record. The world No. 3 moved ahead of Ivan Lendl to stand sole second in career match wins as he earned his 1,072 victories to place behind Jimmy Connors (1,256) in the table. 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 Russian Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Federer is playing for the first time in a month after dealing with the back pain which forced him to skip the French Open. Federer advanced with 15 aces in 80 minutes to stand 13-4 on the season. Thiem's success in only his 10th career ATP-level grass match. But the ATP No. 7 said he has achieved more this week than he had imagined. “It's not nice to play Roger on any surface. he is the best on grass. Against him, I have no expectations.”
