TOKYO, Nov 28: World champions Brazil won a top-of-the-table battle against Sydney Olympic champions Serbia and Montenegro to put a stranglehold on the World Cup men’s volleyball tournament on Friday.

With their 23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21 victory, Brazil remained unbeaten with nine straight wins to move to within an inch of winning a berth in the Athens Olympic Games next year.

Serbia and Montenegro and three-time former world champions Italy both stood with an 8-1 win-loss record ahead of the United States with a 7-2 record in the 12-team round robin.

All are vying for three tickets for Athens.

European silver medallists France defeated Japan 25-23, 25-18, 25-21 for a 6-3 record to keep alive a possibility of overtaking Serbia and Montenegro and the United States.

“It was a very tough rhythm for us at the beginning, they served very powerfully and they were blocking continuously, while we were a little tense,” said Brazilian coach Bernardo Rezende.

“But we made some good blocking and attacks at the end of the second set to close it. From the third set on, we were always ahead, though it was just a small lead, and controled the game. My team was very stable mentally.

Rezende, however, refused to talk about winning a berth in the Olympics although they were virtually certain to win it.

“If we lose badly tomorrow, we still have a possibility to be out, so we must forcus on the next game. That’s what I’m worring about. It will be a tough match, because the US lost to Italy today and they will be desperate to beat us,” said Rezende.

Serbian captain Nikola Brbic said: “We played a very good first set, we were calm and we concentrated on what we have to do. But at 20-20 in the second set they did some great defense and won the set.

“In the third and fourth sets, they just played a little bit better than we did. We must now concentrate on the match against France.”

Earlier in the day, Italy defeated the United States 25-12, 29-27, 25-22 to put the Americans on the verge of losing the chance to qualify for the Olympics.

“We won not because of our style but of our tactics,” said Italian coach Gianpaolo Montali. “I know the setter (Lloy Ball) of the US team very well, because he plays in Italy.”

“I know his character and technique. I am a very lucky coach, my work is very easy, because we studied how he sets up the ball to the spikers and the course of their spikes.”

But Montali soon steadied himself, saying: “We don’t think anything about the Olympic Games or our position until the end of the tournament. We just think about the ball after ball, day by day and match by match.”

Collated results:

Italy bt USA 3-0 (25-12, 29-27, 25-22); Venezuela bt China 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 28-26, 25-20); Brazil bt Serbia Montenegro 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21); Canada bt Tunisia 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-20); France bt Japan 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-21); Egypt bt South Korea 3-2 (25-20, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 15-11).—AFP