China Blanks Thailand 3-0

As the large crowd of more than 4,000 supporters were lustily cheering on the home side, the tall and towering Chinese, whose height average is 187cm against the rivals' 177cm, played cool under pressure. Leading commandingly 15-10, the Chinese silenced the crowd with their acrobatic smashes. Zhao Yanni tore the Thai defence into pieces with her devastating cross-court spikes to help the visitors win the first set 25-16.

The second and third set became more thrilling as the Thai girls fought back gallantly. China mixed the offensive combination of devastating spikes by Yang Junjing with scintillating blocks by Yin Na and Hui Ruoqi to win 25-23 and 25-18 and the exciting match.

After the match, Thai head coach commented "We played a close match against China today. It's a pity we made too unforced mistakes. I think my girls are afraid of the fame and reputation of the Chinese side.

"In the second set, I think my girls played more confidently and that's why we could come close to the Chinese. However, we lost eventually. We have to play the USA for the next match and that's not easy again. We try to beat them despite the fact that it's not an easy mission."

Meanwhile, Brazil tamed Japan 3-0 (25-16 25-19 25-13), Ukraine downed Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-21 25-21 25-22), Italy narrowly beat Croatia 3-0 (26-24 25-23 25-21), USA outclassed Egypt 3-0 (32-20 25-12 25-23) and Germany beat Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-12 25-21 25-21).