They have become only the second women’s team from the host country to advance to the semi-finals in the 18-year history of the event at the Eisbahn Areal in the Swiss Alps village.

Vergé-Dépré and Heidrich advanced after defeating Brazil's Elize Secomandi Maia and Taiana Lima 21-19, 14-21, 18-16.

The Swiss pair will meet sixth-seeded Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany for a place in the final.

They claimed a comfortable 21-15, 21-14 victory over Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic.

Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil are also through to the last four after defeating Taylor Pischke and Kristina May of Canada.

The South Americans, who lost in the bronze medal match at Rio 2016, claimed a comfortable 21-14, 21-13 win today.

Awaiting the Brazilians in the next around are fifth-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada.

They edged another Brazilian pair in Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda "Duda" Lisboa of Brazil 21-17, 21-17. 

Phil Dalhausser and his partner Nick Lucena of the United States captured top spot in Pool A to move into tomorrow's elimination round in the men's event.

The third-seeds defeated compatriots Theo Brunner and Casey Patterson 21-12, 21-13 to continue their 100 per cent record.

As a result of their dominance, Dalhausser and Lucena secured a bye for the first-round of elimination matches, where the second-place finishers in each pool will play the third-place pairs.

Other teams winning pools to secure byes include top seeds Alvaro Filho and Saymon Barbosa of Brazil and their sixth-seeded compatriots Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola.

Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak of Poland, Americans Taylor Crabb and Jake Gibb and Canadians Sam Pedlow and Sam Schachter are also all through.

Action is due to continue with the women's semi-finals and finals and the men's knockout rounds.

The men's medal matches bring the competition to a close on Sunday (July 9).