Qualification rounds in the women's epee and men's sabre begun proceedings at the flagship event today.

All of China's fencers in both disciplines advanced to the main draw of 64 athletes, where the sport's big-hitters will all come in.

Zhong Man, the individual sabre champion at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, now coaches the men's team.

"This is their best performance in 2018, even better than what they did at Asian Championships," he said to Xinhua. 

"Now the game is really on."

Two more days of qualification rounds are now set to take place at the Wuxi Sports Centre Gym with the men's epee and women's foil tomorrow.

Saturday (July 21) will see qualifiers in the men's foil and women's sabre.

The women's epee and men's sabre will then provide the first medal events on Sunday (July 22).

Among those in the women's draw with today's qualifiers are China's double Olympic medallist Sun Yiwen, who won team silver and individual bronze at Rio 2016.

Tatyana Gudkova won the women's world title last year in German city Leipzig but the world rankings are currently headed by Italy's Mara Navarria.

Reigning Olympic champion Emese Szász of Hungary is also in the draw.

The men's sabre draw features defending world champion András Szatmári of Hungary and his compatriot Áron Szilágyi, the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist.

They can expect a tough South Korean challenge, with their fencers Gu Bon-gil and Oh Sang-uk occupying the top two spots in the rankings.