The quarterfinal day at the the 2010 Banka Koper Slovenia Open saw two upsets when third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Vera Dushevina bowed out unceremoniously, giving way to new stars on the block.

Pavlyuchenkova, the third seed at the tournament fell victim to Swede Johanna Larsson's magnificient shotmaking and lost the 3-6, 2-6 match in just 73 minutes of play.

"I started aggressively, she made a few errors and I was lucky to come through it," Larsson said. "I'm taking it one match at a time. I was happy to get through the first round and I'm very happy to be in the semifinals now.

Next up was No.6 and Russian Vera Dushevina who failed to stop countrywoman Anna Chakvetadze's magical run and lost a tight three setter with a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 scoreline.

"After I won the game to get to 5-all, things went pretty quickly. I was just stronger at the end," Chakvetadze said. "The first set was pretty horrible. I really need to work on my strokes. I'll have to play at another level to win tomorrow."

Meanwhile, local favourite Polona Hercog, seeded seventh and Acapulco finalist this year, beat an in-form Swiss Stefanie Voegele 7-5, 7-5 to secure her semifinal berth at the home tournament.

"Sometimes I need time to get to know my opponent. When I saw how she played, I was more aggressive," said Hercog, who was down 4-1 in the first set. "I was nervous when I served for it at 5-4, but I knew I had to attack again.

The semifinal line up was completed when  Russian Ksenia Pervak beat surprise quarterfinalist Anastasia Yakimova in a battle that lasted two hours and 13 minutes in play with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 scoreline.