China, Brazil, and Russia finished the opening weekend of Group 1 action unbeaten and on top of their respective assigned groups in the ongoing 2016 FIVB World Grand Prix Volleyball Championship.

PRC defeated the national teams of Thailand, Germany and the tournament's defending champions, the United States. Meanwhile, Brazil beat the national squads of Italy, Japan, and Serbia, while Belgium, Turkey and The Netherland lost to Russia.

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Brazil and China (Pool D1) will be facing each other as the competition shifts over to Macau, China from June 17 to 19. The world's top two women's volley teams will compete along with Serbia and Belgium. While Russia, which belongs to Pool F1, will head to Bari, Italy to compete against The Netherlands, Thailand and the host country, Italy.

In Rio de Janeiro, world No. 3 Brazil claimed a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-18) win over Serbia, with Natalia Pereira scoring 14 points in a spectacular performance. Russia, the current world No. 4, outlasted the mighty Turkish side with a hard-fought 3-2 (26-24, 20-25, 20-25, 25-20, 15-10) victory in Kaliningrad, Russia.

The Chinese national squad claimed their 21^st victory over the USA with Zhu Ting's game dominance and consistency. The 2015 FIVB World Cup MVP scored 17 big points as she led the team to an imposing 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 15-25, 25-23) triumph over the world's highest-ranking women's volleyball team.

"I hope my players have gained experience from this week's matches," Lang Ping said after the USA match in Ningbo. "Although we won the pool, the results don't mean much, because this USA team isn't the full-strength squad. Some of their best players, such as their main setter Alisha Glass, didn't play much today. We should not get carried away by the victory."

Tagsfivb, 2016 fivb world grand prix, Chinese Women's national volleyball team, fivb rankings, 2016 Olympics, Zhu Ting