Maria Sharapova's winning run in Stuttgart ended by Angelique Kerber

Maria Sharapova’s 13-match winning run in the WTA Stuttgart Grand Prix has been halted by Germany’s Angelique Kerber.

The defeat was Sharapova's first in the German city after claiming the title in 2012, 2013 and 2014 on the back of 13 successive wins.

It also means the French Open champion will lose her world No 2 ranking to Romania’s Simona Halep next week.

Kerber, the world No 14, will face Sharapova's Russian compatriot Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-finals.

Sharapova, who skipped Russia's Fed Cup semi-final win over Germany with a leg injury last weekend, was on course for a comfortable win at one stage, leading by a set and 5-4.

But left-handed Kerber won three games in a row to sneak the second set 7-5 before eventually taking victory after two hours and 27 minutes.

Sharapova finished with 44 winners to 40 unforced errors, while Kerber was 22-20.

World No 4 Petra Kvitova also suffered a shock defeat in the second round in Stuttgart when she was beaten 6-3 7-6 (7-2) by unseeded American Madison Brengle.

Brengle, who reached the last 16 at the Australian Open in January, broke the 2014 Wimbledon champion's serve seven times to clinch victory in just over 90 minutes.

The 25-year-old will next face France's Caroline Garcia who put out Carina Witthoeft of Germany 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.

Kvitova, who took a six-week break to recover from exhaustion, resumed training three weeks ago and won both her Fed Cup semi-final singles rubbers as the Czechs beat France 3-1 last weekend.

"I think that Madison played a solid match. She didn't miss much and it was really difficult for me because when I had the opportunity for winners I missed," said Kvitova, who hit 39 unforced errors and the same number of winners.

"The confidence wasn't really high then and I didn't feel physically there as well.

"I mean I was still tired probably from the Fed Cup. And on the clay you need to be physically ready for it. So, that was one of the reasons as well. I need to be still patient and I'm looking forward to next week which I'm going to use to practice on clay."

Fourth-seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated Czech veteran Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 in her first outing of the clay court season.

The Dane won just one clay match in 2014 but with the French Open fast approaching she has enlisted the help of three-time Roland Garros champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario to be part of her coaching team this season.

Wozniacki next plays Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro who beat Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-4 7-6 (7-1).