Joining China and Singapore, Germany and Japan clinched their spots in the women's team table tennis semifinals with quarterfinal victories, beating Hong Kong and Austria respectively.
Germany 3 Hong Kong 1
In what was billed as a tight match between the third seed and the fifth seed, Germany dominated the final two matches to take the quarterfinals victory over the underdog Hong Kong. Han Ying of Germany cruised in her singles match to give the Germans the lead in the match. Ying's first game was the closest, as she broke a 5-5 tie by winning six of the last seven points and snag the lead in the singles match. Ying didn't slow down from there, grabbing the first seven points of the next game to cruise to an 11-3 victory. Ying would score the final seven points in the clinching Game 3, an 11-4 victory.
The next singles match went in favor of Hong Kong, who benefited from a mini-choke from Germany. Kem Hoi Doo of Hong Kong was the paddler of choice for the underdogs. Kem lost the 11-9 opener, but responded with an 11-3 thumping of a victory in Game 2. However, Kem was pushed to the brink of defeat in Game 3, losing the last two points to drop another game, 11-9. In order to even the match for Hong Kong, Kem was forced to win two nailbiting victories to polish off Match 2. The game tied 9-9, Kem rallied for the final two points on her opponent's serve to force the decider. Kem faced four match points in the finale, but rallied to tie the match each time, eventually pulling away for the 14-12 clincher.
However, that was all Hong Kong would manage in this quarterfinal. Germany dominated the doubles match. After an opening 11-7 victory, Germany scored the final eight points of the second game for an 11-3 thumping and a 2-0 lead. Hong Kong wasted a chance to extend the doubles match to four games, as they lost two game point opportunities on their own serve, sending the game to extra points, which Germany capitalized on for a 12-10 victory.
Given the opportunity to close out the match for Germany, Ying Han didn't flinch, as she won without much of an issue in four games. After trading 11-5 blowouts, Ying cruised in the final two games, 11-7 and 11-3 to clinch the match for Germany, who advanced to a semfinal against Japan.
Japan 3 Austria 0
Facing the surprising Austrian team who had stunned the Netherlands in advancing past the first round, but they ran into a brick wall in Japan, who had no issues in whipping the underdogs in just 94 minutes. Ai Fukuhara got Japan off to a good start with a relatively easy 3-0 win in the initial singles match, 11-5, 11-9, 11-8. She won nine of the final ten points in Game 1, overcame an early 4-1 deficit in Game 2, and controlled Game 3 to claim the victory.
After a bad start, Kasumi Ishikawa dominated the last three games of her four-game victory in the singles match. Ishikawa was surprisingly walloped 11-5 in Game 1, but she responded by dominating Game 2, 11-4, and breaking away in the middle of the match to clinch Games 3 and 4.
All that was left for the Japanese to advance to the semifinals was the doubles match. The Japanese brought out a dominant duo in Fukuhara and youngster Mima Ito to clinch the match. It was tight, but the Japanese duo prevailed in four games. After an easy 11-5 victory in Game 1, Austria came back to knot the doubles match 1-1 with a 12-10 Game 2 victory. Japan won again rather easily, 11-7, in Game 3, but had a tough battle in Game 4 before scraping by. Down 10-8, Ito and Fukuhara won the next four points to take the match and send Japan to the semifinals.