Poland whitewashed China 3-0 in straight sets to claim the victory of the opener of the men's volleyball World Championships on Friday.

Michal Winiarski scored a game-high 15 points, 11 out of spikes and 3 blocks, as Poland stormed to a 25-21, 25-20, 25-21 in 63 minutes to take the win in the Group A.

Despite some brilliant play in the three sets, China had to suffer the defeat in their first match in the tournament.

"We prepared well for the match against Poland," said Zhou Jian'an, head coach of China, "and our players were quite good on the court. But Poland was a little bit better than us, especially in blocking."

Poland had 10 success blocks while China had only 2.

The match witnessed a seesaw situation as the lead changed hands several times in all three sets.

But Poland could always launch a scoring trend in the last few minutes to finish every set.

"Poland was better than us, especially in the last moment of every set, they caught every chance to win the game," explained Zhou.

The 24 teams are split into four groups of six teams, and the top four teams will enter the second round of the tournament.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2006)