Antonsen and Gemke, seeded second and third respectively, both dropped the opening game before recovering to book their places in the quarter-finals in the Ukrainian capital.

Jordan Kweekel of The Netherlands had come through a three-game thriller in the previous round and pushed Gemke all the way only to lose 17-21 21-13 21-15.

Antonsen came from behind to defeat Turkey’s Emre Lale 11-21 21-10 21-12 to set up a last-eight clash with French sixth seed Brice Leverdez who saw off Finland’s Eetu Heino 21-13 20-22 21-16.

The biggest casualty in the men’s draw was France’s seventh seed Toma Junior Popov following a 21-12 21-17 loss to Finland’s Kalle Koljonen who will now meet Gemke in the quarter-finals.

There were no such problems for Denmark’s top seed Viktor Axelsen who continued his defence of the title with a 21-12 21-11 thumping of Germany’s Max Weisskirchen.

Axelsen will next face eighth seed Thomas Rouxel of France who overcame Ukraine’s Danylo Bosniuk by the same scoreline.

The other quarter-final will see Mark Caljouw of The Netherlands take on Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.

Caljouw, the number five seed, battled past Sweden’s Felix Burestedt with a 21-13 16-21 21-17 success, while fourth seed Vittinghus beat Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-11 21-11.

In the women’s event, Spanish top seed and defending champion Carolina Marin thumped Dutch opponent Soraya de Visch Eijbergen 21-12 21-11.

Marin will next face Danish sixth seed Line Højmark Kjærsfeldt who did enough to see off Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh.

German third seed Yvonne Li defeated England’s Freya Redfearn 21-19 21-8 to secure a last-eight meeting with Turkish fifth seed Neslihan Yiğit who triumphed 21-18 21-10 against Agnes Korosi of Hungary.

In the other half of the draw, Scottish fourth seed Kirsty Gilmour and Belgium’s eighth seed Lianne Tan are set to face each other after they both won in straight games.

Tan came out on top against Gayle Mahulette, winning 24-22 21-9 while Gilmour overpowered Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri in a 21-8 21-9 thrashing.

There will be an all-Danish quarter-final encounter between Line Christophersen and Julie Dawall Jakobsen.

Seventh seed Christophersen stormed to a 21-10 21-11 victory over Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova, while Jakobsen continued her final run in the tournament with a 21-17 21-11 success against France’s Marie Batomene.

The competition is due to continue tomorrow.