Thomas Berdych beats Lorenzi for place in St Petersburg semifinals

Third seed Thomas Berdych booked his place in the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open with a strong 6-4, 6-3 win over Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi on Friday.

Earlier, Canadian Milos Raonic’s reign as the champion ended after he suffered a second-round defeat to Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny.

Wimbledon finalist Raonic, sixth in the ATP rankings, fired 13 aces but to no avail as 2004 champion here Youzhny battled back from a set down to win 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

Youzhny will take on Germany’s Alexander Zverev, fifth seed here, who beat Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-3, 7-5.

Serb Viktor Troicki, seeded seventh, cruised into the last-eight with a 6-4, 6-4 win over a compatriot Dusan Lajovic, while eighth seed Joao Sousa of Portugal beat Russian wildcard Andrey Rublev 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-3.

Goffin in cruise mode Metz: Second seed David Goffin eased into the ATP Metz Open quarter-finals but French third and fourth seeds Lucas Pouille and Gilles Simon were made to struggle on Thursday.

Belgian Goffin, the world number 14, beat Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-4, 6-2 in his second-round clash and will play France’s Nicolas Mahut, who beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4, in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Pouille, the world number 18, needed almost two hours to see off his world number 112 ranked compatriot Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. Meanwhile world number 28 Simon prevailed over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Osaka in semis; Muguruza flops Tokyo: Japan’s Naomi Osaka produced another explosive performance to beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich and reach the Pan Pacific Open semi-finals.

Osaka will face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the last-four after her shock three-set 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over top seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain.The 18-year-old Osaka reached the last-four of a WTA tournament for the first time after a 6-3, 7-6 victory in Tokyo.

On the other side of the draw, second seed Agnieszka Radwanska booked her place in the semifinals as the Pole overpowered Puerto Rico’s Rio Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig 6-2, 6-3. She next plays former world number one Caroline Wozniacki after the Dane beat Poland’s Magda Linette 6-4, 6-3.

Sania-Strycova enter final Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova defeated unseeded pair of Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Spain’s Maria Jose Martina Sanchez 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to book their spot in the final.

The second seeds had won against Japan’s Miyu Kato and China’s Yifan Xu 6-2, 6-2 in their quarter-final encounter.

They will next face the winners of the match between China’s Chen Liang and Zhaoxuan Yang and third seeded Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears from the United States.