Four pairs from the United States including Kelly Claes, pictured, and her partner Sarah Sponcil all won their matches today at the FIVB Qinzhou Open ©Getty Images

It was a good day for United States pairs in the women's competition at the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach World Tour three-star event in Qinzhou today, with four duos all winning their first matches.

Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes surpassed Russia's Ekaterina Syrtseva and Alexandra Moiseeva in Pool B, 21-16, 21-11, despite being a new pairing.

Betsi Flint and Emily Day also won in straight sets in the Chinese city in Pool D, 21-16, 21-14 over China's Bing Bai and Lvwen Yuan.

Kelly Reed and Brittany Howard then won in Pool H against Spain's Amaranta Fernandez Navarro and Angela Lobato Herrero.

On top of that, Amada Dowdy and Irene Pollock won in Pool B against France's Alexia Richard and Lezana Placette.

Both their win, and that by Reed and Howard, came by two sets to one.

"The competition among the USA teams is excellent," Claes said.

"It's fun coming out with other USA teams because we train together at home and it's fun to see each other playing around the world."

Elsewhere in the women's competition, hosts China picked up wins through Wang Fan and Xue Chen in Pool A, who beat Ukraine's Diana Lunina and Maryna Samoday 21-18, 21-11, while Wang Xinxin and Xia Xinyi came from a set down to beat Japan's Yukako Suzuki and Kaho Sakaguchi 19-21, 21-18, 17-15 in Pool F.

In the men's event, Austria's Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller, who won the three-star tournament in Haiyang back in July, claimed two wins on what was the first day of competition in the main draw.

Austria's Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller won both of their matches in the men's event today ©FIVB
Austria's Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller won both of their matches in the men's event today ©FIVB

They beat Japan's Katsuhiro Shiratori and Takashi Tsuchiya first, 21-17, 21-14, before also seeing off Australia's Christopher McHugh and Zachery Schubert 21-19, 23-21.

"It's an Olympic qualification tournament so everyone is fighting," Seidl said afterwards.

"No match is easy and it's really a fight to the end. 

"I'm lucky we were able to win it in two [sets].

"The other team wanted to fight so hard and they didn't see the holes, I saw it and I used it against them."

European pairs dominated the men's event, with seven earning double victories, although the second seeded pair of Stefan Basta and Lazar Kolaric from Serbia were not one of them.

They lost to Russia's Maxim Hudyakov and Ruslan Bykanov on a tiebreak, 17-21, 21-18, 15-13. 

The competition continues tomorrow.