Hong Kong men's team got off to flying start in the Kuwait Open with five players advancing to the second round in the singles last night, but there were mixed results for the women.
Leung Chu-yan had an easy 4-0 win over Torben Wosik of Germany, while compatriot Ko Lai-chak, Li Ching and Jiang Tianyi won by the same score.
Ko beat Anthony Maeck of Belgium to set up a second-round match against Germany's Jorg Rosskopf, while his doubles partner Li trounced German Dimitrij Ovtcharov and will meet Alexei Smirnov of Russia.
Jiang, a new member of the Hong Kong team, also made it to the second stage when he beat Kuwait's Ibrahim Al-Hasan. Jiang will meet former world number one Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium, while Leung's next opponent will be Chen Weixing of Austria.
Tang Peng was the only casualty in the Hong Kong team as he lost 4-2 to France's Patrick Chila. There were little surprises in the men's opening round as most of the top players made it to the next stage, including world number one Wang Liqin of China and second seed Timo Boll of Germany
In the women's singles, Hong Kong's Tie Yana, Lau Sui-fei and Jiang Huajun also advanced, but Zhang Rui and youngster Yu Kwok-see failed to go through. Both Jiang and Lau are expecting tough battles in the next round as they will meet world number one Zhang Yining and her doubles partner Wang Nan respectively.