Lubomir Jancarik was one of the players to begin with victory in Linz ©Getty Images

Rio 2016 Olympian Lubomir Jancarik was among the winners as qualification groups started the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Austrian Open in Linz today.

The men's tournament at the World Tour event began today with 55 preliminary pools with the players involved all hoping to join the top 32 seeds in the main draw of the competition.

The Czech Republic's Jancarik started with a win as he beat Alejandro Rodriquez of Chile 4-1.

Another Olympian who competed in Brazil in August, Daniel Habesohn, was also victorious for home nation Austria.

He opened his account by seeing off another Chilean, Juan Lamadrid, 4-2.

Hong Kong's Jiang Tianyi also began his Austrian Open campaign with victory ©Getty Images
Hong Kong's Jiang Tianyi also began his Austrian Open campaign with victory ©Getty Images

Hong Kong's Jiang Tianyi, who won a mixed doubles silver medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon in South Korea, also enjoyed a 4-2 win over Greek player Ioannis Sgouropoulos.

In the women's competition, 38 qualification groups begun with scores of matches on day one in Linz.

Winners included South Korea's Eunchae Ji, a 4-1 victor over Sweden's Linda Bergstrom.

Timea Peterman-Varga of Hungary began with a 4-0 win over Uzbekistan's Kim Olga, with Dorina Srebrnjak of Croatia doing enough to beat Kristyna Stefcova of the Czech Republic 4-3 in a match which went the distance.