Dubai: Chinese players expectedly dominated at the end of the opening day of the 2016 ITTF Nakheel Asian Cup Table Tennis that got under way at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) yesterday.

Former world number one Xu Xin and defending Olympic champion Zhang Jike led the way for the Chinese in the men’s competition, while three-time Asian Cup champion Liu Shiwen and 2012 Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia led the Chinese dominance in the women’s section.

As per the format, all ranked players from Asia were drawn into three groups, while the best four players from each region of Asia formed a fourth group (Group D) named the ‘Continental Cup Group’.

At the end of three preliminary round-robin matches, the best two players from each of the first three groups will advance to the next stage. The third best in all three groups will join the winner of Group D in a play-off to determine the last two positions for the second stage.

Zhang is the reigning Olympic singles champion, and holds the unique distinction of being only the fourth player in the history of the sport — Jan-Ove Waldner, Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui are the other three — to achieve a career grand slam.

Zhang accounted for fifth seed Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong 3-0 and seventh seed Lee Sangsu 3-0 to head Group B, while his teammate Xu Xin was equally emphatic in his march with 3-0 wins against South Korea’s Jung Youngsik and Yuya Oshima of Japan, who had to pull out due to an injury.

China was dominant in the women’s category as well with the 25-year-old Liu, the Asian Cup winner in 2010, 2012 and 2013, making her way past her opponents with ease for the maximum six points. Liu was impressive in her three straight sets win against Hirano Miu of Japan, Tie Yana of Hong Kong and Lee Zion of South Korea.

Her teammate Li too showed steady form as she accounted for easy 3-0 wins against Yang Haeun of Korea and the UAE’s Noura Al Maazmi before being stretched a bit for a 3-1 win by Singapore’s Yu Mengyu.

Joining these top players from China will be Singapore’s Feng Tianwei with hard-fought wins against Mima Ito of Japan, Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei and Jiang Huajun of Hong Kong in her three preliminary matches.

Born in China, Feng settled in Singapore in 2007 under the foreign sports talent scheme, and since then has been spearheading table tennis in her adopted country.

Also earning an entry to the next stage of the competition, to be held on Friday, was India’s Manika Batra with a clean slate in all her Group D (Intercontinental Cup Group) matches. Batra, who earlier this month qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, stunned a higher-ranked Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand and then accounted for Noura Al Abri of Qatar and Majd Al Beloushi.

“The goal was to keep focused and go all out for wins in all three matches,” Batra told Gulf News after her smooth 3-0 win against her Qatari opponent.

“Things are not going to get any easier tomorrow [Friday], but I am confident that I will be giving my best to make my country proud,” she added.

On Friday, action will continue from 10am with the women’s singles challenge semi-finals followed by the men’s singles challenge last four stages.

SCHEDULE

(10am) Manika Batra (India) vs Jiang Huajun (Hong Kong); Yang Haeun (Korea) vs Tie Yana (Hong Kong)

(10.30am) Chuang Chih-Yuan (Taipei) vs Wong Chun Ting (Hong Kong); Soumyajit Ghosh (India) vs Jung Youngsik (Korea)

(11.30am) Women’s Position 1 to 8 progressive knockout; (1pm) Men’s Position 1 to 8 progressive knockout.