The Chinese duo, both seeded second in the respective men's and women's draws, came from a game down before overcoming their opening-round opponents at the Infinity Arena.

Ma, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, lost a tight first game before edging the second as he went on to complete a 9-11, 12-10, 11-2, 11-5 victory over Slovenia's world number nine Darko Jorgić.

Double Olympic champion Chen was also facing a deficit when France's world number 17 Jian Nan Yuan took the first game.

A closely-fought second game went Chen's way before the Chinese star ran out a 7-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-4 victor.

Third seed Wang Manyu of China also dropped the first game before triumphing 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 13-11 against Germany's Ying Han.

There were no such problems for defending champion Sun Yingsha of China who powered to a 11-8, 11-4, 11-6 victory over Germany's Nina Mittelham.

Sun will next face Kasumi Ishikawa who defeated Miyuu Kihara 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 in an all-Japanese first-round clash.

Chen Xingtong of China has been rewarded with a quarter-final battle against namesake Chen after seeing off Xiaoxin Yang of Monaco 11-9, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5.

There were also wins for China’s Wang Yidi, Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and Japan's Mima Ito.

In the men's draw, Chinese Taipei's Lin Yun-Ju has set up a quarter-final tie with Ma after overcoming Nigera’s Quadri Aruna 11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4.

Top seed Fan Zhendong was given a bye in the last eight where he will take on Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov who edged Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-5.

Sweden's Truls Moregard defeated Brazil's Hugo Calderano 11-5, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9 in a much-anticipated meeting and will now tackle China's Wang Chuqin who downed Germany’s Dang Qiu 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5.

Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Germany's Timo Boll are set to do battle in the quarter-finals after beating German Patrick Franziska and China's Lin Gaoyuan respectively.