Jimmer Fredette was the star of the show for the US as he notched 11 points in his country’s 21-17 victory over Latvia in the Austrian capital.

It was a repeat of the 2019 final where the US defeated Latvia to capture the men’s title for the first time.

The American team backed that up with a 21-18 triumph against Australia, with Fredette top scoring again with eight points.

The back-to-back wins put the US on top of Pool B with 42 points - just four more than hosts Austria who also won their first two matches.

Austria started their campaign with a 21-15 success against Slovenia before edging Australia 17-15.

Latvia recovered from their opening loss to the US by thumping Slovenia 22-11.

The Netherlands and Switzerland both registered two wins in Pool D.

The Dutch team powered to a 22-12 victory over Mongolia before producing an equally dominant performance to see off Japan 21-13.

Switzerland had to dig deep to come out on top in their first two matches, beating Japan 14-13 and Hungary 21-20.

Italy and China, who won the women’s crown in 2018 and 2019 respectively, got their campaigns off to flying starts in Vienna.

China were dominant in both their 21-4 thrashing of Israel and 17-7 hammering of Lithuania.

Italy saw off Romania 20-15 before overcoming Lithuania 22-21 in overtime.

Israel were the other big winners in Pool D after defeating Romania 21-12.

Australia are the early leaders in Pool B after beating Japan 22-11 and Poland 21-14.

Germany, Japan and Egypt also got off the mark with wins, while Poland suffered two defeats.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow.