Ting, 14, silver medalist in sword play in last years Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, tallied 9.30 points in the preliminaries to come in third behind Chinas Xingdong Yuan and Hong Kongs Hang To Yu.
Yuan, 25, a gold medalist in the world wushu championship in Armenia last year, had 9.46 points to tow the 18-man field going into the last two events. Hang had 9.35.
Former world champion Mark Robert Rosales could only come in at eighth place at 9.20 but the RP coaching staff is confident he could gain ground on the pacesetters in the second event today.
"Its only the first day and I think we did well considering the kind of opposition we have," said national coach Samson Co, a former wushu artist and winner in the 1991 and 1993 SEA Games.
In the womens side, May Lim was within striking distance of the leaders, placing fifth in the taijiquan with 9.38 points with Myanmars Khaing Khaing Maw, gold medalist in the KL Games, showing the way with 9.50 points.
Wushu is one of the two events the Philippines hopes to medal in the dwindling days of the Games, the other being taekwondo although it suffered opening-day setback with its three bets failing to advance past the second round.
Janice Hung, however, failed to get going early and was at 14th position in the womens changquans first event with 8.7 points. Chinas Li Ao was pacing the field with 9.36.
In the 52-kilogram sanshou (sparring), Marvin Sicomen defeated Kyrgyzstans Utkir Hundayarov to also make it to the next round.
Veteran Rexel Nganhayna, silver medal winner in the Asian championship and SEA Games, outclassed Indonesias Marentekx Alexander Edward in the 56-kilogram class.
Still seeing action at presstime is Joseph Pasiwat against Irans Mohonnadinasab Mahdi in the 60-kg with the victor going up against a tough Chinese rival.
Meanwhile, Eduard Folayang, a potential gold medalist in the 65-kilogram class, will make his debut today against Chinese-Taipeis Chen Shie Hung.
The wushu squad trained for more than four months in China in preparation for the ongoing Asian Games.