Simona Halep beat Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-0 on Friday to advance to the final of the Madrid Open.
The Romanian could return to the number one ranking with her third title at the Caja Magica.
Bencic had defeated Halep in their last two matches, including a Dubai quarter-final in February.
Earlier on Thursday, Roger Federer saved two match-points to defeat Gael Monfils and reach the Madrid Open quarterfinals. Federer, playing only his second match of a 2019 comeback to clay after three years away, needed two hours to defeat French showman Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(3) and record his 1,200th career win.
It took a comeback from 4-1 down in the final set, after sweeping the first set in 18 minutes, combined with a dominating tiebreak for the fourth-seeded Federer to advance.
“I had a tough run of five losing games late in the second and into the third,” said the 20-time Grand Slam champion who will face Dominic Thiem for a place in the semifinals.
“This match gave me a lot of information, it showed how tricky clay can be with the wind and everything. But I tried to take the bad bounces and the rest and just play positive tennis.”
The results: Men: Quarterfinals: Novak Djokovic w/o Marin Cilic.
Women: Semifinals: Simona Halep bt Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-0.
Earlier results: Women: Quarterfinals: Sloane Stephens bt Petra Martic 6-4, 6-3.
Men: Third round: Roger Federer bt Gael Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(3); Stefanos Tsitsipas bt Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4.