Taking place at the Tap Seac Multisport Complex in the Chinese territory of Macau, Falck stunned the world number two in four sets, winning 11-7, 11-10, 2-11, 11-8.

After becoming top seed in the men's singles, Xu chose Falck as his quarter-final opponent, but this decision backfired, knocking him out of the competition.

Falck is only the third European to defeat Xu, the others being France's Simon Gauzy and England's Liam Pitchford in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

His win meant that Falck was the only non-Chinese player left in the men's or women's singles.

Also progressing to the semi-finals was Wang Chuqin, defeating Brazilian Hugo Calderano in five sets 11-10, 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9.

The only other non-Chinese player to make it to the men's singles quarter-finals, South Korea's Jeoung Young-sik, was also knocked out in five sets after world number three Ma Long won 11-8, 11-7, 10-11, 9-11, 11-5.

In the final match from the round, Lin Gaoyuan defeated underdog Fang Bo in three sets to make the final four.

Fang had knocked out world number seven Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei in the previous round, but his run came to an end eventually.

In the women's singles, world number one Chen Meng of China continued her run with a routine 3-1 victory over Singapore's Feng Tianwei.

In the match of the round, Chen Xingtong won an all-Chinese affair against world number six Ding Ning, taking a thrilling final set to mount a 10-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 14-12 comeback after being two sets down.

World number three Sun Yingsha won the other all-Chinese match against Wang Yidi, also progressing after five sets by a score of 11-6, 10-11, 11-3, 6-11, 11-9.

World number five Wang Manyu ensured that all semi-finalists in the women's singles were Chinese after a routine 11-3, 11-7, 8-11, 11-3 win over world number eight Chinese Taipei's Cheng I-Ching. 

Day four of the competition will see the semi-finals for both events take place before the finals which are scheduled for Sunday.