Qatar's Yazid Alyafei and Maryam Binali made curling history ©WCF/Richard Gray

Qatar, Luxembourg and Serbia made history in defeat as round-robin play continued at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.

The large 42-country field at Löfbergs Lila Arena in Karlstad, Sweden, gives opportunities to non-established curling nations and Qatar appeared at an international event for the first time today.

Their pairing of Yazid Alyafei and Maryam Binali were beaten 13-2 by Wales but it was still a proud moment for the Gulf country.

"We enjoyed the game, it was so much fun to play with Wales in the beginning," said Binali.

"We tried our best and we are looking forward to the next game.” 

Luxembourg were playing at a World Championship for the first time and were beaten 11-2 by England.

China enjoyed an 8-2 victory over Italy
China enjoyed an 8-2 victory over Italy ©WCF/Richard Gray

It was the same situation for Serbia, who lost their debut match 10-3 to Australia.

Elsewhere, there were second victories out of two for Norway, Belarus, Hungary and South Korea.

The Norwegians hammered Japan 10-4, while Belarus were too strong for The Netherlands 6-4.

South Korea eased past Slovenia 9-3 while Hungary, the defending champions, walloped Belgium 14-1.

Other matches saw Estonia beat Brazil 9-5, while Bulgaria edged Latvia 10-7 and China saw off Italy 8-2.

The Czech Republic beat Scotland 8-2.