Vladimir Samsonov was the latest seed to fall in the men's singles ©ITTF

Shock results continued to be the order of the day at the European Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, with Belarusian second seed Vladimir Samsonov among the favourites to fall in the men's singles draw.

The 40-year-old won a first European title in the mixed doubles 20 years ago in Bratislava and had been hoping to win a fourth singles titles, and a first in over a decade since 2005.

But, despite a superb season which has included a fourth-place finish at the Olympic Games, Samsonov was beaten over seven sets by Austrian opponent Robert Gardos in their third round clash.

Gardos, who had already won 4-3 last night against England's Paul Drinkhall, dug deep again before prevailing 12-10, 11-8, 4-11, 6-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7.

It remains to be seen whether Samsonov will now seek to continue in order to compete at a home European Games in Minsk in 2019.

Gardos was later beaten 4-2 by Simon Gauzy in the quarter-final, with a second Frenchman in Emmanuel Lebesson also progressing with a surprise six set win over Portugal's third seed Marcos Freitas.

Emmanuel Lebesson prospered on a good day for France in the men's singles draw ©Getty Images
Emmanuel Lebesson prospered on a good day for France in the men's singles draw ©Getty Images

Germany's fourth seed Timo Boll will now be favourite to claim a seventh title after also making it to the semi-finals along with Poland's Jakub Dyjas, who continued the form he showed in his second round win over top seed and defending champion, Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

Boll beat Benedek Olah of Finland 4-2 while Dyjas overcame Ukraine's Kou Lei, 4-1.

All three surviving German players crashed out of the women's singles draw at the quarter-final stage.

Top seed Han Ying was beaten 4-2 by fellow Chinese-born player Hu Malek, now representing Turkey.

Li Jie of The Netherlands beat Sweden's Matilda Ekholm 4-3, while defending champion Elizabeta Samara of Romania beat Germany's Kristin Silberseisen, 4-2.

German second seed Petrissa Solja also lost 4-3 to Yu Fu of Portugal

Danish-German duo Jonathan Groth and Patrick Franziska knocked-out the defending champions in the men's doubles ©ITTF
Danish-German duo Jonathan Groth and Patrick Franziska knocked-out the defending champions in the men's doubles ©ITTF

Defending doubles winners Stefan Fegerl of Austria and Portugal’s mixed doubles champion João Monteiro were beaten 4-3 by Germany's Patrick Franziska and Denmark's Jonathan Groth in the quarter-final.

Franziska and Groth then won again 4-1 over Swedish brothers Kristian and Mattias Karlsson.

They will face Polish duo Jakub Dyjas and Daniel Gorak in tomorrow's final after the six seeds triumphed 4-2 over Tiago Apalonia and João Geraldo of Portugal.