Australian pair James Delahunty and Justin Sajich beat Russian duo Fedor Gorst and Ruslan Chinakhov, who were seeded 14th, 7-4.

Following his side's win in the Chinese city's Luwan Arena, Sajich said: "It was tough out there, we were nervous but we fought hard, kept it together and we managed to pull it off.

"I think we knew we were the underdogs, although we wouldn't have admitted it to each other.

"We will go back to the pool hall before the next round.

"We have been practicing six hours a day since we got here."

Delahunty added: "We knew it wouldn’t be an easy match and we had to play as well as we could and I think we performed pretty well.

"We didn’t miss many pots and that’s what we needed to do.

"We weren’t looking too far ahead in the draw but we will have to play well in the next round – it is on us again, if we play well then we give ourselves the best chance to win."

Australia will now come up against the second seeds China A in the next round after they beat Estonia 7-6.

Sweden were the other team unseeded to upset the odds today as they beat Japan 7-5.

Today's other first round match saw Finland beat Malaysia 7-3.

The first of the second round matches also got underway today with tournament favourites Austria beating Poland 7-6 whilst Holland recorded a 7-2 victory over Scotland.

Austria and Holland will now play each other in the third round.

The competition continues tomorrow.