The nation was represented on the podium by four athletes from the five tournaments that were contested on the curtain raiser.

Italy's one gold, one silver, and two bronzes sees it lead four other countries that also claimed gold in the Emirati capital.

Elios Manzi clinched his first Grand Slam victory after defeating Serbian Strahinja Buncic in the men's under-66kg-kilograms final.

The 26-year-old won after 3min 2sec with a thundering ippon while Kazakhstan's Yesset and Manzi's compatriot Matteo Piras won the bronze medals.

Giorgi Sardalashvili of Georgia took the spoils in the men's under-60kg competition with a last second waza-ari against Yang Yung Wei of Chinese Taipei.

Balabay Aghayev of Azerbaijan and Turk Salih Yildiz then joined the pair on the podium in joint-third place.

In the women's under-57kg event, South Korea's Mimi Huh secured her second Grand Slam title of the year to add to her Tbilisi triumph in June.

The 19-year-old got the better of Kosovan Nora Gjakova after Serbian Marica Perisic and Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia took the bronze medals.

France's Astride Gneto managed to beat Uzbekistan's Diyora Keldiyorova by a single waza-ari to nil in the women's under-52kg final to take her third career Grand Slam win.

The second came in Tel Aviv earlier this year after a near six-year wait since she triumphed in Abu Dhabi for the first time in 2016.

Italy were in the medals again as Odette Giuffrida joined Israel's Gefen Primo in winning bronze.

Julia Figueroa bagged gold for Spain in the women's under-48kg tournament to prevent a second Italian victory.

Francesca Milani was forced to settle for silver while Kazakh Abiba Abuzhakynova and Zongying Guo of China won bronze.

Competition is set to continue tomorrow with the men's under-73kg and under-81kg competitions, and the women's under-63kg and under-70kg tournaments.