Despite the dreary skies and soggy sands at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, the Australian duo started strong in front of the loud and vibrant crowd. The Australians found themselves in a tough battle. They dropped their first set point before using their experience to swing the set in their favour, producing a clinical attack point to secure the first set.

Chinese pair Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia stunned the Aussies with a second set comeback. Forcing some errors and serving up strong rallies, China had Taliqua and Mariafe 14-21 in the second set.

A tight third set, reminiscent to the first set, ultimately saw Taliqua and Mariafe’s calmness under pressure see them through 16-14.

“We just had to stay patient. They are a great team,” Taliqua said.

“It's gonna happen, it's the Olympics. I think you'll see that happening a lot in these Games.

“We kept the trust and rallied back. It was just nice that we're able to get back on track and bring that aggression.”

Taliqua gave a shout-out to loud albeit damp Australian supporters in the stands as well.

“The crowd was amazing as well,” 32-year-old Taliqua said. “I think that's the really special part from Tokyo to this Olympics. It's nice to share with family and friends now and all the fans.”

The pair will face the USA’s Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth in their next match at 6am AEST on Tuesday 30 July.

“We've had really great battles with them. They're a new team on the tour and they're a great team to watch,” Taliqua said.

“But we definitely just take it one point, one game at a time. We know it's gonna be another tough, strong battle and can't wait to get back out there for the fans.”

Unfortunately the men’s competition wasn’t as successful for Australia on day one.

Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher faced world number one pair from Sweden David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig and fell in straight sets 21-14, 21-19.

The Aussie men came out strong in the opening minutes of the match, quick to get early points. However the Swedish duo took their level up a notch, forcing errors and showing sublime jump setting to secure victory.

Looking ahead to their next matchup at 5pm AEST on Monday 29 July against Italy’s Samuele Cottafava and Paolo Nicolai, Izac said they were looking forward to a new challenge with an expected change in weather conditions.

“We relish the heat.” Izac said. "We're coming from a pretty different environment to Paris today. We come from a lot of heat where we're really good in those conditions. So that's something that really plays into our favour. We were hoping for it today but didn't quite come.

“Monday and Thursday our games look to be pretty hot, so that's gonna be good for us."

Fellow Australian pair Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert will play their first match of the competition against Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak from Poland at 5pm AEST on Tuesday 30 July.

Shannon Knaus