(Photo: CGTN)

China will begin their Group D campaign against Latvia on Saturday in the 2018 FIBA Women's World Cup. The two other teams in their pool are defending champions USA and Senegal.

Li Meng and Sun Mengran will lead China. 

The top team in each group automatically advances to the quarter-finals, while the second and third teams in each pool will battle for the four remaining spots in the last eight. 

Having been drawn in a tough group with nine-time champions USA, every game is important and they need to start well against Latvia at 18:00 on Saturday (GMT+8). 

The last time they met, Latvia won 81-68 in Europe last year. 

But China's coach, Xu Limin is optimistic saying that the team did really well during training.

"We have a 50/50 chance to win the opener," said Xu Limin, coach of China, "the team that shows more skills, and gets the most out of its practice sessions, will have the best chance of coming out on top."