MADRID, Spain - Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik became the latest big name casualties in the doubles competition at the Mutua Madrid Open when they slipped to a surprise defeat to Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez on Thursday.

After Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond's second round exit on Tuesday, No.2 seeds Peschke and Srebotnik had assumed the role of tournament favorites. However, the 2011 runners-up never looked at ease on the blue clay and, to the delight of the home crowd, service breaks in the first and penultimate games saw Llagostera Vives and Martínez Sánchez progress, 64 64.

Meeting the Spaniards in the semifinals will be Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. The Russians, who cruised through the opening two rounds, produced arguably their best performance of the week to down the in-form Argentine duo Gisela Dulko and Paola Suárez, 67(5) 62 105.

The other side of the draw will see a rematch of the recent Miami final, as Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova take on Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci. On that occasion Kirilenko and Petrova emerged victorious and after their 61 62 demolition of Yaroslava Shvedova and Galina Voskoboeva in the last eight they will be confident of repeating the trick on Friday.

However, in Errani and Vinci they face the WTA's form team - in addition to their runner-up finish in Miami, they were also losing finalists at the Australian Open and titlists in Acapulco, Barcelona and Monterrey. The Italians were pushed hard in their quarterfinal, but eventually came through against Huber and Raymond's conquerors, Dominika Cibulkova and Janette Husarova, 64 75.