STUTTGART, Germany - German top seed Alexander Zverev took out American third seed Ben Shelton with a 7-6(8) 7-6(1) victory in the semi-finals of the Stuttgart Open on Saturday to set up a showdown with Taylor Fritz.

This win marked Zverev’s first appearance in a grass-court final in eight years. The last time he accomplished that was at the ATP 500 event in Halle in 2017, where he lost the championship match to Roger Federer. The year before, the German star also reached the final there but was defeated by Florian Mayer.

Top-seed Alexander Zverev reached the semifinals of the ongoing Stuttgart Open, overcoming Brandon Nakashima in the quarterfinals on Friday.