Egypt were rocked in the opening tie of their quarter-final as New Zealand’s Joelle King beat their world number one Nour El Sherbini 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 in Dalian.

The favourites recovered to win 2-1 as their respective world number two and three, Raneem El Welily and Nour El Tayeb, both won 3-0 against Amanda Landers-Murphy and Abbie Palmer respectively to secure a semi-final place.

But if that potential upset was avoided, two others occurred in other quarter-final matches as Hong Kong and France earned unexpected wins over the respective third and fourth seeds, United States and Malaysia, in this World Squash Federation event.

Annie Au and Joey Chan were the players who did the damage in fifth-seeded Hong Kong’s 2-1 win, securing a meeting with the top seeds.

Au won a marathon match against Amanda Sobhy 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-5, before Chan defeated Olivia Blatchford 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11.

Sixth-ranked France provided the other shock of the round as they beat fourth seeds Malaysia 2-1 to move through to a semi-final against second seeds England.

Camille Serme went into the opening match against Nicol David with a 19-2 losing record, but made it three wins in their last three meetings as she won in straight games.

Sivasangari Subramaniam looked to be putting Malaysia back on track as she took the first game, only for Coline Aumard to take the next three and earn a semi-final spot for France.

England also had to work hard in a 2-1 win over Canada, with Laura Massaro and Alison Waters earning decisive 3-1 and 3-0 wins over Samantha Cornett and Hollie Naughton respectively.

The tournament in the Chinese city continues tomorrow.