16-Nov, start time: 12:30, end time: 13:42 - Attendance: 3,640

CHN	0	16	16	24	-	-	56
SCG	3	25	25	26	-	-	76

Match Description:

Olympic champions get off to excellent start
Serbia and Montenegro, the 2000 Olympic champions, opened their 2003 Men's World Cup campaign with a convincing straight sets victory over Asian Continental vice-champions China in the inspiring Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

Right from the opening whistle the immense power of the Europeans was evident and proved too much for China with the likes of 203cm Andrija Geric and 206cm Ivan Milkovic hammering their opponents with some sensational spiking.

It didn't take long for Serbia and Montenegro, wild cards for this event, to wrap up the first set 25-16 before the artistry of captain Nikola Grbic really came to the fore with some great touches in his role as setter to lead Serbia and Montenegro to a second set win by the same margin.

The third set followed much the same pattern with China, despite fighting back to one point, finding the Balkan team just too strong and efficient in attack and too well organized in defence. To witness Serbia and Montenegro use all their attacking options to such great effect was a joy to watch and they eventually wrapped up the set and the match 26-24.

Chinese coach Di Anhe will have a bit of work to do to try and keep his side confident, especially ahead of Monday's match against USA, while Serbia and Montenegroen coach Travica Ljubomir can be well pleased with his side's performance as they got a good workout and launched their campaign in the perfect fashion.

Comments:

TRAVICA, Ljubomir (SCG Head Coach)
We knew that the first two matches would be hard for us. Today, for the first two sets, our concentration was good, but not in the third set. That's the problem we have in this team. And that's what we have to pay attention for the next matches.
MILJKOVIC, Ivan (SCG Player)
As is always the case for any competition, the first game is difficult for us. The team got together one month before since the European Championship, so it was difficult. First two sets were easy, but inside, we were very nervous. And in the third set, we were more nervous. In the end, we were just luckier than China. Today, I don't think the game was easy as the result says.

DI, Anhe (CHN Head Coach)
Today we faced a very strong team. We tried hard, but we could not perform as we should have. There are two reasons. The first one is that they were very strong, and the other is that it is very difficult to compete for the very first match at like this time in the afternoon.
SHI, Hairong (CHN Captain)
The first and second set, we were very nervous facing such a strong team. And we weren't prepared mentally. We could deliver what we could do from the third set.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF