The Americans, who had beaten Thailand 3-1 in the same tournament in Bangkok last year, were expected to blow away their rivals. But the script did not follow expected lines. They found the powerful jump serves of Amporn Hyapha and Pluemjitr Thinkaow too difficult to handle. Deadly left-hander Nancy Metcalf brought the visitors back to life after tying the score at 24-all, and the US captured the closely contested set 29-27.

The first-set win boosted the confidence of the US in the next two sets as they came out in full force to win 25-15 and 27-25, making the most of their height advantage at the net.

"Thailand played very well. They came out with fast spikes and powerful serves. Since we beat them last year, I hadn't seen their performance. It was a revelation. They came back quite strongly," Chinese-born Lang Ping, the head coach of the US, said.

"Thailand suffered because they are small and short. I cannot pick one individual as the best [Chinese] player on view today since it is a team game and doing so would be unfair to the others. Out of the six players, four are young and have never played against Thailand before."

Thai head coach Suttichai Chanbunchee was not satisfied with his girls' performance. "Our receiving was not good. They made plenty of mistakes in the second set."

 Russia, the former four-time Olympic Games winners and five-time world champion, beat Korea 21-25 25-22 25-20 21-25 15-7.

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

The Nation