Summary Simona Halep beat Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4 to reach Stuttgart semi-final on Friday.
STUTTGART (AFP) - Romania s Simona Halep shrugged off death threats from a stalker to take her place in the semi-finals at the WTA tournament in Stuttgart by beating Italy s Sara Errani on Friday.
The 23-year-old Halep, ranked third in the world, had received a death threat via Twitter on Thursday from a Danish fan.
The Stuttgart tournament s organisers confirmed they have stepped up security around her.
"I can t comment on it. I am here to play tennis. Other people will take care of it," said Halep after her 6-4, 6-4 win over Errani in a tight quarter-final on the indoor clay court.
The obsessed fan is believed to have bombarded Halep with a series of messages via social media.
The Romanian showed no signs of the off-court distraction to claim victory which is set to see her take Maria Sharapova s place as second in the world rankings on Monday.
She finally converted her fourth match point against Errani in a match which featured 16 breaks in the 20 games.
"It was a tough game, she defended very well and it was hard to finish points off against her," said Halep.
"I m looking forward to the semi-finals now."
Halep, the 2014 French Open finalist, now faces former world number one and boxing fan Wozniacki after the Dane floored Spain s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3 in just over an hour.
"I surprised myself by having fun out there today, I don t normally like clay, but it was nice to slide and run," said fourth-seed Wozniacki, who says she sometimes spars in training.
"I like to box from time to time, it s a great cardio work-out," added the 24-year-old.
Halep is the highest seeded player still in Stuttgart after reigning champion Sharapova, who had won all of her three previous tournament appearances in Stuttgart, was beaten by Germany s Angelique Kerber on Thursday in the second round.
Kerber also reached the semi-finals with a straight sets win over sixth-seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia.
The 27-year-old needed just an hour for a 6-3, 6-2 win to celebrate her ninth win in succession after winning the Charleston tournament a fortnight ago.
"I m speechless over how amazing the atmosphere is here on the centre court," beamed Kerber.
"I have rediscovered my joy and passion for tennis and I am enjoying every minute on court," she said, having broken a poor run of results with her win in South Carolina.
In the semi-finals, the in-form German will play Madison Brengle of the USA, who recovered from losing the first set to beat Caroline Garcia of France 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
