Singapore's men's table tennis team will play Germany next in the quarter-finals of the World Team Table Tennis Championships after beating Sweden 3-1 on Friday.

Gao Ning and Clarence Chew's wins lifted the Republic, seeded 15th at the annual tournament, over the No. 12 seeds.

Gao, the world No. 14 and Singapore's top men's paddler, beat No. 97 Kristian Karlsson 7-11, 11-6, 16-18, 13-11, 11-6. He also won the fourth singles against Jens Lundqvist (No. 34) 11-8, 11-8, 11-6.

Chew continued his fine form at the tournament by upsetting the Swedish team's top paddler Par Gerell 11-8, 11-8, 11-9. Gerell is ranked No. 31.

Yang Zi lost his match against Jens Lundqvist 13-11, 5-11, 9-11, 6-11.

The result means the men have at least equalled their last eight appearance from the last team world championships in Dortmund, Germany, in 2012.

The team have an uphill task against world No. 2 team Germany, having played them earlier in the round robin stages but went down meekly 0-3.