Marrakech, Morocco (SportsNetwork.com) - Fourth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina snuck into the semifinals, while a pair of top-three seeds, Timea Bacsinszky and Flavia Pennetta, suffered quarterfinal setbacks Thursday at the Moroccan Grand Prix tennis event.

Seventh-seeded Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova upended the No. 2 seed Bacsinszky, of Switzerland, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, while Hungarian Timea Babos ousted the third-seeded Italian Pennetta 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 at this clay-court tournament.

Svitolina avoided an upset by outlasting Italian Karin Knapp 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, while one other quarterfinal saw France's Kristina Mladenovic ease past Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena 6-4, 6-1.

Friday's semifinals will pit Svitolina against Schmiedlova and Mladenovic versus Babos.

The 2015 Marrakech champion will earn $43,000.