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Defending champion Brazil demolished China, while Russia defeated Cuba at the Men's Volleyball World Championship in Poland on Thursday.

Ricardo Lucarelli Santos started out hot in the first set as the Brazilian spiker hammered through Chinese blockers to take the early set 25-14.

China kept up with Brazil in the second set behind the efforts of team captain Weijun Zhong who provided the fire power to tie the score at 23-all but Brazil's aggressive services was too much to handle as the Brazilian nationals took the set 25-23.

Brazil continued their assault in the third set, pressuring China with their impressive serves and blocks to shut them out 25-14, 25-23, 25-18.

Lucarelli Santos was top scorer for Brazil with 19 points, 12 points from attacks, three from blocks and four from service aces while Zhong top scored for China with 14 points.

"The key was that our serve was aggressive in the first set; we got 6 points thanks to our serve," Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende said.

Meantime, second seeded Russia had a relatively easy time with Cuba as they dominated the match with their serves and spikes 18-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-19.

Dmitriy Ilinykh led Russia with 17 points followed by Dmitriy Muserskiy and Nikolay Pavlov, both scoring 16 points while Santiago Uriarte Mestre top scored for the Cuban team with 16 points.

"The victory was very important for us that is why we were quite nervous at the beginning of this meeting," Russia coach Andrey Voronkov said.

Indeed the match was important for Russia for they are now in second place with 14 points behind Brazil's 15 in the overall standings of Pool F.

In third place is Germany with 12 points and Canada with 10 points.

The top three teams of Pools E and F will advance to the knockout rounds where the top four remaining will battle it out in the finals slated to start Sept. 20.

TagsRicardo Lucarelli Santos, Weijun Zhong, Dmitriy Ilinykh, Dmitriy Muserskiy, Nikolay Pavlov