China's Fan, the top seed, is hoping to win his maiden title at the Trans Stadia venue in the Indian city.

He was installed as favourite in the absence of compatriots including Olympic champion Ma Long and Xu Xin, who have won eight Asian Cup titles between them.

But he had to make do with one win and one defeat as group play began today.

Chen clinched a superb 13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 11-8 victory and then also beat Ho Kwan Kit of Hong Kong in five games to top Group One.

Fan recovered to beat Koki Niwa of Japan 3-1 with the final group matches tomorrow.

Japan's Jun Mizutani, the Asian Cup bronze medallist in 2014 and 2015, won twice in Group Three to begin the tournament in fine fettle.

He beat Lee Sangsu of South Korea 3-0 and Gaoyuan Lin of China 3-2 on his way to the summit.

In the women's event, China's Liu Shiwen, a team Olympic champion at Rio 2016, won twice in straight games in Group Two.

She beat Ching-I Cheng of Chinese Taipei and South Korea's Haeun Yang.

Zhu Yuling, a triple world champion searching for her maiden victory at the tournament, also won twice for China without dropping a game.

She saw of Japan's Miu Hirano and Hoi Kem Doo of Hong Kong.

The top two from each group will reach the quarter-finals, with the tournament concluding on Sunday (September 17).