Their opening Group C tie was expected to prove a major challenge for the home team of Brian Afanador, Daniel Gonzalez and Hector Berrios, with their Mexican opponents seeded third for the tournament.

However, Afanador got the number five seeds off to the ideal start by defeating Ricardo Villa 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9 and earned his second win of the day by overcoming Miguel Lara 11-6, 13-11, 11-2.

The latter result had proved to be decisive in the contest as it followed a 12-10, 11-4, 12-14, 12-10 win for Berrios and Gonzalez in the doubles match, earlier in the day, giving Puerto Rico victory over their opponents.

It had only proved to be a narrow 3-2 win, after Salvador Uribe had won both of his singles matches for Mexico, who were without their star player Marcos Madrid.

“The players must learn that every player is a player; our players are based in Sweden where the standard is higher than here, the quality is higher,” said Afanador afterwards.

“It was our first match; we knew we had a very good chance because Marcos Madrid was not playing.”

The result puts Puerto Rico in an ideal position to top the group with their second match coming tomorrow against the Dominican Republic, who had lost 3-1 to Mexico in their first tie.

Defending champions Brazil have already been assured of finishing top of Group A after they recorded 3-0 wins over Peru and Guatemala, leaving the two nations to battle for second place.

Argentina, the second seeds, recorded a straightforward 3-0 victory in their opening game of the day against Venezuela.

Their team of Rodrigo Gilabert, Gaston Alto and Pablo Tabachnik then clinched a 3-1 over Paraguay to secure they would end in first position in Group B.

Chile were confirmed as Group D winners after earning 3-0 and 3-2 wins over Uruguay and Ecuador, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the women’s competition Brazil were looking to get their campaign for a fifth straight title off to the perfect start with a win in Group A.

They were able to achieve the feat by thrashing Peru 3-0, in the only group to contain just three teams.

Chile and hosts Puerto Rico began Group B with impressive 3-0 demolitions of Ecuador and the Dominican Republic respectively. 

In Group C, Argentina and Colombia achieved 3-1 wins over El Salvador and Mexico.

Team competitions are due to continue tomorrow.