Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci stayed on course to defend their Rome doubles title with a 62 61 semifinal win over Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova on Saturday evening.
Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik's return to form continued with a routine win over Jelena Jankovic and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia on Friday.
Madrid may be just their second tournament together, but on Saturday Cara Black and Marina Erakovic will take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova for the title