The reigning champions were no match for their European rivals at the Regionalne Centrum Sportow.

Anders Antonsen got Denmark off to the perfect start, defeating Bulgaria's Philip Shishov 21-8, 21-11 in the men's singles match.

Bulgaria were briefly level, however, when Mariya Mitsova defeated Denmark's Line Kjaersfeldt 13-21, 21-16, 24-22 in the women's singles.

Denmark's true quality was visible in the doubles contests though as they breezed through the men's, women's and mixed matches without dropping a single game.

It was Bulgaria's second defeat of the day as they were also beaten 4-1 by France earlier on.

England, the runners-up two years ago, got their campaign off to the best possible start as they dispatched Ireland.

The English team were emphatic and clinched a 5-0 victory, not dropping a single set in the entirety of the match.

The defeat to England inflicted further misery on the Irish team after they also fell to a 4-1 defeat against Sweden.

Sweden won both of the singles matches before Joshua and Sam Magee pulled a point back for the Irish in the opening doubles match.

It proved to be worthless though as Sweden went on to win the second and third doubles contest to claim victory.

Germany, who won this competition in 2015, also won their first match of the tournament as they dispatched Switzerland 4-1 in this afternoon's session.

Hosts Poland also prevailed in their first encounter of the tournament, defeating Spain 3-2.

The Spanish team, which includes Rio 2016 women's singles champion Carolina Marin, led 2-0 following the singles matches before a stunning comeback from the hosts in the doubles led them to a 3-2 win.