Men head for Team semis

They did so by beating Singapore 3-0 in a little over an hour before Germany overcame Austria in equally impressive fashion to set up a last-four meeting.

Men's Singles bronze medallist Dimitrij Ovtcharov got the ball rolling for the German trio by easing past Robert Gardos, before Timo Boll triumphed over Werner Schlager.

Boll and Bastian Steger then combined to take Germany over the line against Chen Weixing and Gardos.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong upset the odds to edge out Japan 3-2.

In the most exciting match of the longer format so far, Jun Mizutani got Japan's challenge under way in perfect fashion by beating Jiang Tianyi 3-1.

Yet Tang Peng then levelled matters in defeating Seiya Ishikawa, who lost alongside Koki Niwa against Jiang and Leung Chu Yan in the Doubles next up.

Parity was restored when world number five Mizutani showed his quality by winning against Leung.

But Tang held his nerve to claim a second Singles triumph of the match, beating world number 16 Niwa 3-1 to seal Hong Kong's passage to the last four.

In the next round, Hong Kong will face an equally daunting challenge against second seeds Republic of Korea, who overcame Portugal in another enthralling contest.

Indeed, their trio of Ryu Seungmin, Joo Sehyuk and Oh Sangeun were made to work for a 3-2 success against the Portuguese.

The European side led 2-1, but, in the end, there was disappointment for Marcos Freitas, Tiago Apolonia and Joao Monteiro as the former lost to Athens gold medallist Ryu in the decider.