Mariana Agathangelou and Heather Olver are through to tonight's semi-finals at the XI Italian International in Rome.

In this morning's quarter-finals the highest-ranked British women's doubles pair defeated Germany's Johanna Goliszewski and Isabel Herttrich 19-21 21-11 21-14.

The third seeds could have won in straight games if they could have cashed in on a recovery from 18-16 down to lead 19-18 in the first game but the Germans snatched three points in a row to take a fluctuating opener.

But the England pair controlled the second and third games to book their semi-final place.

However, if they are to follow up their final appearance in Ireland on Sunday, they will have to get the better of experienced Russian pair and top seeds Valeri Sorokina and Nina Vislova, who are ranked nine places above them at No. 16 in the world.

In the other semi-final Sweden's fourth seeds Emelie Lennartsson and Emma Wengberg will face unseeded Russians Tatiana Bibik and Olga Golovanova, or German second seeds Birgit Michels and Sandra Marinello.

Agathangelou and Olver are due back on court at 5.15pm and you can view live scoring on www.tournamentsoftware.com