It was a 2-0 win over sixth seeds Hong Kong that propelled Wales, the 11th seeds, into the quarter-final clash with ninth seeds Scotland at the Squash On Fire venue in the American capital.

The tie marked the first time the two countries had met in the event since 1995 - when Wales coach David Evans led them to a 3-0 victory.

Second string Peter Creed, the world number 75, put Wales into the driving seat with an impressive 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 upset win over Alan Clyne, ranked 36 places higher.

With the Welsh bench in vociferous support, the team number one Joel Makin, ranked 12th in the world, downed Greg Lobban 15-13, 11-8, 11-5 to take his team back into the semi-finals for the first time since 1999.

"Creedy played a joke there, he didn't make many errors and was attacking," Makin said.

"When he's moving well like that he's really hard to break down, so I knew I had to play well and wrap it up.

"I knew I just had to be solid and he was so broken up and it's not the way you want to play, but that's what you have to do in these kind of situations, just get through them.

"Emyr [Evans] closed out a big win yesterday and Creedy did the same today. 

"We back ourselves, we are a good team and we did well today."

Standing between Wales and a place in the final are defending champions and top seeds Egypt, taken the full distance by Germany.

Egypt's world number three Karim Abdel Gawad was first on court to face Raphael Kandra, and closed out the match 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-4 after 58 minutes.

World number six Simon Rösner brought Germany level, however, with a 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11 victory over world number one Ali Farag after 73 minutes.

It was left to Mohamed Abouelghar, ranked eighth in the world, to clinch his country's predicted win, defeating Valentin Rapp 11-3, 11-7, 11-7 to put Egypt into the semi-finals for the 12th time in a row.

The two other quarter-finals took place in the evening session of the fifth day of action - and both went the full distance. 

Former champions England overcame fourth seeds New Zealand.

Third seeds France, meanwhile, triumphed at the expense of eighth seeds Spain.

A total of 23 nations are competing in the 26th edition of the event, hosted by US Squash.

The semi-finals are due to take place tomorrow, with the final on Saturday (December 21).