Russia and Brazil stayed on top two of the standings at the 2007 men's volleyball World Cup after recording their seventh and sixth win in a row against African teams Egypt and Tunisia respectively on Monday.

 

Russia's captain, Vadim Khamuttskikh, received the perfect gift from his teammates on his 38th birthday: a seventh straight win at the World Cup -- and the day off.

 

In the second match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka, the European runners-up beat Egypt 25-19, 25-18 and 25-19 to improve their win-loss record to 7-0 with four matches to go.

 

Khamuttskikh could even enjoy his birthday by watching the action from the sidelines with the other substitutes, as second setter Sergey Grankin took over.

 

World Cup holders and South American champions Brazil thrashed Tunisia 25-19, 25-16 and 25-21 in Okayama to improve to 6-1.

 

Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende took the opportunity to rotate his players, with captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba) sitting this one out, Murilo Endres and Andre Heller given rare starts and even 23-year-old Samuel Fuchs getting in on the action. The Olympic and world champions still romped home, though, with an impressive showing from man of the match Murilo helping drop Tunisia to 1-6. Tunisia lost the distinction of having won at least a set in each of their matches.

 

The big match of the day was played in Fukuoka by Japan and Puerto Rico. Carlos Cardonas's team beat Japan for the first time ever in an outstanding match in front of a 5,170 audience.

 

Puerto Rico avenged their loss to Japan in the World Championship last year with a straight-sets sweep of the World Cup hosts. With the 25-23, 25-23 and 25-21 victory, Puerto Rico improved their win-loss record to 4-3, ropping Japan to 3-4 in the process with four matches to go.

 

"It was very important to play a good game tonight after losing yesterday," said Puerto Rico head coach Carlos Cardona. "We lost our energy due to the defeat (3-2 against Argentina), so within 24 hours we had to recover our strength and our power, so I am very satisfied with the result today."

 

Spain recovered from their straight-sets demolition by Russia the previous day to sweep Argentina 3-0 in the first match of the day. The European champions improved their win-loss record to 3-4 with a 26-24, 25-22 and 25-18 victory over an out-of-sorts Argentina, who dropped to 4-3 after their attack was blunted by a strong Spanish block.

 

Argentina came into the game with two of the top five scorers in the World Cup -- Marcos Milinkovic (third with 108 points) and Guillermo Garcia (fifth with 92) -- while Spain's best scorer to date was Guillermo Falasca (joint 14th with 76).

 

In Okayama, United States stormed past South Korea in straight sets to improve to 5-2. With Ryan Millar and Salmon Riley a constant thorn in the South Koreans' side, the Americans proved far too powerful for the wild cards and won 25-18, 25-15 and 25-18 at Momotaro Arena, dropping the Asian team to 1-6.

 

In Monday's other action, Bulgaria romped past Asian champions Australia 25-17, 25-19 and 25-13 to improve to 5-2, while the Australians dropped to 3-4.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2007)