Gauzy came through an epic battle to triumph 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 win over the sixth seed on day one of the ITTF World Tour event at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

It marked a repeat of his round-of-32 victory over Lee at last week’s ITTF China Open in Shenzhen.

Awaiting him in the next round is China’s Wang Chuqin, who defeated 11th seed Lim Jong-hoon of South Korea 11-2, 11-8, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7.

Among the other seeded players to crash out of the men’s singles draw today was 10th-ranked Englishman Liam Pitchford after he fell to a 4-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11 loss against China’s Ma Te.

Next up for Ma is top-seeded compatriot Lin Gaoyuan, who survived a scare to overcome Germany’s Ricardo Walther 8-11, 10-12, 11-2, 11-5, 11-6, 12-10.

Second seed Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan also had to come from two games behind to beat Sweden’s Jon Persson 7-11, 4-11, 11-8, 12-10, 14-12, 11-5.

The most notable casualty from the last 32 of the women's singles draw was 10th seed Chen Xingtong after she lost 9-11, 11-13, 6-11, 14-16 against fellow Chinese Feng Yalan.

There was also elimination for 11th seed Jeon Ji-hee of South Korea and 15th seed Lee Ho Ching of Hong Kong against Chinese opposition. 

Jeon was beaten 5-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 8-11 by Sun Mingyang, while Lee was defeated 5-11, 3-11, 10-12, 6-11 by Wang Yidi.

Wang's reward is a meeting with top-seeded Japanese Kasumi Ishikawa, an 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10 winner over Canada's Zhang Mo.

Sun, meanwhile, will face second seed Mima Ito, also of Japan, following her comfortable 11-5, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 victory at the expense of Singapore's Yu Mengyu.

Action in Hong Kong is due to continue tomorrow with the round-of-16 ties.

The finals are scheduled for Sunday (June 9).