Action is taking place on the Glass Court in a round-robin format with players split into two groups of three in the men’s and women’s events.

The top two will progress to the semi-finals, although in men’s Group A top seed Ali Farag got off to a losing start against compatriot and defending champion Marwan ElShorbagy, who won 10-12, 11-4, 13-11 in just over an hour.

In the longest match of the day, fifth seed Mohamed ElShorbagy beat seventh seed Mostafa Asal in another all Egyptian affair winning 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 in a contest lasting 93 minutes.

Due to there being several long matches on day one, action continued past midnight with the final match on the schedule, the opening men's Group B game between Paul Coll of New Zealand and Tarek Momen of Egypt finishing at 1.50am local time.

Third seed Coll was victorious 12-10, 7-11, 11-4 against second seed Momen in a contest lasting 64 minutes.

The second match in the group takes place tomorrow as eighth seed Gregoire Marche of France faces sixth seed Joel Makin of Wales.

In women’s Group A, top seed Nour El Sherbini of Egypt lost her opening match 10-12, 11-3, 11-6 to Camille Serme of France, the sixth seed.

Elsewhere in the group third seed Nouran Gohar of Egypt beat compatriot Salma Hany 9-11, 11-5, 11-2.

In women’s Group B, defending champion Hania El Hammamy of Egypt got off to a winning start with a quickfire 11-7, 11-9 triumph over England’s Sarah-Jane Perry.

The second match in the group opens proceedings on day two with seventh seed Joelle King of New Zealand up against fourth seed Amanda Sobhy of the United States.