The Annual Asia-Europe table tennis all-star challenge has kicked off in Beijing. China's former world No.1 Wang Liqin heads the Asian side.

But in the first round, Joo Se Hyuk of South Korea led the encounter with 2003 world champion Werner Schlager. The South Korean giving the Asian side the first round win. Then, the former No.1 Wang Liqin faced Super Dane Michael Maze. Maze got a good start going 2-1 ahead. Wang Liqin tried to fight back in the 4th game, but his forehand mistake gave Maze another game win. The Dane never looked back, taking the last game and the match 3-2.

In the last two rounds - Jun Mizutani of Japan and Yang Zi of Singapore took on former European champion Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus and Jorgen Prsson. But the Asian's poor performance handed their rivals the match win. Europe would boss proceedings taking a 4-1 overall lead on day one.