Lausanne, Switzerland, August 16, 2010 – Defending champions and world No. 1 Brazil jumped to the top of the 2010 FIVB World Grand Prix Preliminary Round standings following an emphatic 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-19) win over world No. 2 China in Macau on Monday. The match and the Netherlands’ earlier 3-2 (25-23, 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 15-7) win over the Dominican Republic, which were originally scheduled for Sunday, had been postponed to Monday out of respect to the victims of devastating mudslides in China a week ago.

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Despite the delay of one day, Brazil were still in awesome form, racing through an impressive first set thanks to some great serving and punishing offensive work. Sheilla was in her usual dominant form with 19 points while Wang Yimei was the only one of the hosts to reach double figures with 13 points. The win completed an excellent weekend for the Olympic champions which saw them remain undefeated in Macau and with only one defeat in six matches, they look in ominous form with one weekend of Preliminary Round action remaining.

Also boasting a five-won, one-loss record are Japan and Poland while China, USA and Italy round out the top six with four wins and two defeats. The top five teams plus hosts China will qualify for the Final Round to be held in Ningbo, China from August 25-29

Earlier on Monday, the Netherlands moved into seventh spot ahead of Germany on the 2010 FIVB World Grand Prix Preliminary Round rankings after recording their third win from six matches with a thrilling five-set win 3-2 (25-23, 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 15-7) over  the Dominican Republic. After defeats at the hands of China and Brazil on Friday and Saturday respectively, the Netherlands had to wait to Monday to record their first win of the weekend, however it wasn’t as convincing as they would have liked with the Dominican Republic coming back from two sets down to tie the match up at 2-2.

“I think I should give compliments to my players because they fought back to win the match,” the Netherlands coach Avital Selinger said. “It was a tough match. In the first two sets our play was solid and there were some good defense and transitional attack. However, we lost some rhythm after the second set when Caroline Wensink left the game with a minor injury and they took advantage of it.”

The final weekend of the 2010 FIVB World Grand Prix Preliminary Round will take place from August 20-22 with China, USA, Germany and Thailand playing in Hong Kong, Taipei welcoming Chinese Taipei, Brazil, Poland and Puerto Rico and Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic in action in Tokyo.