Romania's Halep loses Porsche Tennis Grand Prix semi-final to Danish Wozniacki

Romania's tennis player Simona Halep on Saturday lost a women's singles semi-final of the 731,000 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, to Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, 5-7, 7-5, 2-6.

Photo credit (c): SILVIU MATEI / AGERPRES PHOTO

For advancing to the semi-finals, Halep won 28,601 US dollars and 185 WTA points.

Halep, 23, the main favourite of the tournament after Russian Maria Sharapova was eliminated, witnessed her second defeat to Wozniacki, bringing to a 2-2 tie the score of their direct meets. Halep defeated Wozniacki in the semi-finals of the 2013 New Haven Open at Yale, 6-2, 7-5, and the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semi-finals ? 2-6, 6-1. 6-1, while Wozniacki won their first meet in the 2012 edition of Dubai Duty Free, 6-2, 6-3.

Halep, who on Monday will return to the second spot in the WTA ranking, has so far this years won titles in Shenzhen, Dubai and Indian Wells, having recorded the most wins in the WTA circuit, 26 to 4 losses.

Wozniacki, a former world's number one, has won only one title in 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, where she defeated Romanian Alexandra Dulgehru, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, after losing to Venus Williams the Auckland Open final, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6.

The winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2015, which final is scheduled for Sunday, will win 100,000 euros and 470 WTA points, while the runner-up will get 53,548 euros and 305 WTA points. AGERPRES