Assar, ranked number 55 in the world, had looked in good form in the early rounds but came up against a player determined to end his pursuit of a third ITTF World Tour title.

Nuytinck harnessed the energy of the partisan crowd as he booked his place in the quarter-finals of the tournament courtesy of a surprisingly comfortable 11-8, 11-7, 12-10, 12-10 triumph.

Next up for the Belgian, whose confidence would have been given a series boost by his performance today, is Russia's Mikhail Paikov, who beat Hungary's Tamas Lakatos 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-8.

While Assar was on the end of a crushing defeat, second seed Steffen Mengel was able to progress to the last eight, although he did drop a game on the way to overcoming Mihai Bobocica of Italy.

The German, the world number 70, dropped a marathon opener before recovering to win 16-18, 11-2, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran of India awaits for Mengel in the next round after he overcame Sweden's Simon Arvidsson, who knocked out defending champion Nima Alamian of Iran in four games, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.

In the women's draw, top seed Hitomi Sato of Japan ensured she did not follow the lead of Assar by securing her quarter-final spot with a 11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 13-11 success in her clash with Japan's Yui Odono.

Romania's Bernadette Szocs is scheduled to be her opponent in the last eight as she proved too strong for Szandra Pergel of Hungary, bouncing back from losing the first game to claim a 9-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 win.

Szocs' team-mate Elizabeta Samara, a two-time European Championships gold medallist, is also through to the quarter-finals after she cruised to a 11-6, 11-5, 11-5, 11-4 victory over Maria Tailakova of Russia.

Samara will take on Honoka Hashimoto tomorrow after she won another all-Japanese affair by beating Honoka Hashimoto 11-5, 11-9, 11-2, 11-6.