The men and women were in action at TipsArena Linz in what is the last World Tour event before the season-ending Grand Finals in Chinese city Zhengzhou next month.

As one of six platinum tournaments on the World Tour circuit, it follows in the footsteps of the ITTF World Team Cup which concluded in Tokyo this weekend - with China winning both the men's and women's competition.

Stand-out performers today included China's Xu Chenhao, who defeated Romania's Alexandru Cazacu 4-1 in the men's singles, and Xu's compatriot Xu Haidong, who edged out France's Alexandre Robinot in a five-game thriller 4-3.

Yan An completed an early hat-trick of Chinese success, defeating Enzo Angles of France 4-1.

There was an epic European battle between Aleksa Gacev of Serbia and Luxembourg's Luka Mladenovic.

Gacev battled back to a 2-1 lead after losing the first game, but Mladenovic retook the advantage at 3-2, before Gacev forced a decider.

The Serbian eventually came through 9-11, 11-2, 11-7, 13-15, 11-13, 11-5, 15-13 - he now plays Zhao Zihao of China.

In the women's preliminary rounds a number of countries enjoyed success, illustrating the strength in depth of the sport.

Comfortable 4-0 winners included Korea's Eunhye Lee over Selina Leitner of Austria, and Denise Payet of England dominating Austria's Michelle Kases.

Germany's Xiaona Shan also shutout Leonie Hartbrich of Hungary.

One of the most exciting games of the day saw Hungary's Szandra Pergel eliminate Ana Garcia of Spain, 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7.

The big guns take to the tables tomorrow in singles, with the top 16 of both men and women.