England boys got off to a perfect start at the ISF World Schools Gymnasiade in Rio with a 7-0 victory over Serbia, but the girls found Romania and China too strong.

Ralph Pattison, Isaac Kingham and Kacper Piwowar all picked up two singles victories for the boys, with Max Radiven joining Piwowar to take the doubles.

Pattison and Piwowar both dropped a game to Novak Zagorak, but otherwise the performance was flawless. The two nations’ squads are pictured above.

The girls had a tough match, going down 7-0 against Romania, whose players are all highly ranked in Europe.

Ella Pashley , Naomi Coker and Jonabel Taguibao fought hard, but the opposition was too strong, though Pashley was unlucky to lose 3-2 to Bianca Jifcu and Taguibao took a game against Andrea Baiasu. Sienna Jetha and Taguibao played the doubles.

The girls also found China too strong in the afternoon session, losing 7-0. However, both Jetha and Taguibao took a game against Yiayi Yuan and Yuhan Wang. Coker was the third player, with Pashley joining Jetha for the doubles

The boys did not play in the second round of matches. Both teams have two matches on Tuesday – the girls against Bulgaria and Serbia whilst the boys play Romania and Brazil.