Second seed Ana Ivanovic faces what she describes as a tricky assignment after making the ASB Classic tennis semi-finals.
The Serbian's opponent on Friday will be Belgian third seed Kirsten Flipkens, her doubles partner in Auckland
"It's always tricky playing your friend, but it's just a tennis match," she said.
"We go on court and play our best and then we can go out and have dinner."
Ivanovic overcame some early resistance from Japan's Kurumi Nara before winning their quarter-final 6-2 6-3 on Thursday.
She said the score didn't indicate how close the encounter was and she had been surprised by how well Nara had played.
Flipkens defeated another Japanese player, qualifier Sachie Ishizu, 6-4 7-5 to book her place in the last four.
Ranked 204, Ishizu had her chances, including set points when serving for the second set.
But she couldn't convert enough of her opportunities and wasn't helped by a high error rate.
Ivanovic and Flipkens have met once, with Flipkens winning in straight sets at Linz, in Austria, in October 2012.
The other semi-final will be a first meeting between seven-time grand slam winner Venus Williams and fifth-seeded compatriot Jamie Hampton.
Williams produced her best performance of the week in downing Spain's Garbine Muguruza 6-3 6-3.
Hampton outlasted another American, Lauren Davis, 6-2 4-6 6-4 to progress to the last four for the second year in a row.
It was a match in which both players had problems holding serve, with a total of 12 breaks, half of them in the opening set.
It ended with a drop of serve, as Davis, who was backing up from a three-setter the previous night against 16-year-old Croatian wildcard Ana Konjuh, dumped a forehand into the net.
In last year's semi-finals, Hampton fell to eventual champion Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
This time, her preparations have been hampered by a foot injury that sidelined her after the US Open and she said she was proud to get as far as she had.
Against Davis, she showed her frustration on court at the number of errors she made and her low service percentage.
"But overall, honestly, there's nothing but positives," she said.
"I've had no match play and the only way to get better is to have match play."
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