China beats Brazil 3-2 at World Grand Champions Cup

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Star spiker Zhu Ting inspired China to a 3-2 dramatic victory on Wednesday over defending champions Brazil at the 2017 FIVB Women's World Grand Champions Cup in Tokyo.

China got off to a flying start, winning the first set 25-20, and even stunning Brazil by taking the second set 25-12.

With two sets in hand, the Chinese seemed to lose their concentration during the third set, conceding it 25-20. After swapping leads several times, Brazil also managed to win the fourth 25-23.

Zhu Ting claps with a teammate. /Sohu Photo

During the decisive set, Brazil surged ahead first, and even had a lead of 10-5, before China rallied back to wrap up the match 19-17 through great serves from Zhang Changning, fierce spikes from Zhu Ting and a winning block from setter Ding Xia. Zhu scored a game-record 33 points.

"In the first two sets, China played very well. But from the third set on, we brought ourselves out more, and did better in blocks, defense and serves," said Jose Guimaraes, coach of the Brazilian team.

"In particular, we were able to launch better counter-attacks, and that's very important when we are playing the defending Olympic champions," he said, adding that it was a typical game and Brazil has to learn from it.

Zhu Ting smashes the ball. /Sohu Photo

"We were lucky to win the final set after we were lagging behind," said Chinese coach An Jiajie, adding that it was a spectacular game and Brazil is a respectable opponent.

An said that China played relatively well in the first two sets, but was a little slack in the third and fourth ones: "We are going to make some adjustments and do some training to deal with this problem," he said.

Six teams featured in this year's FIVB Volleyball Women's World Grand Champions Cup that kicked off on Sept 5 in Japan.

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Source(s): Xinhua News Agency