France beat China 25-16, 25- 14, 24-26 and 25-19 on Monday at the 2003 men's volleyball World Cup.

The inexperienced Chinese men struggled in the first two sets. They found their form in the third set, but that was too late.

"We watched France play yesterday and felt we would have a chance to win. However, the willing to win prevented us from doing our best in the first two sets," said Chinese spiker Tang Miao, who had scored 20 points in China's 3-1 defeat to Brazil but slipped to 11 on Monday.

The Asian runners-up started with a 13-11 lead, but the world bronze medalists surged ahead on a 11-2 burst and went on to take the opener.

The development of the second set was similar with the first. The Chinese stayed within 8-7 but then faded as Tang and teammates struggling with their spikes.

The Chinese men spikers improved their offense in the third set and after a 17-17 tie the two sides traded point by point to tie it at 24-all. China went up 25-24 with a successful counterattack, and Stephane Antiga drove a ball to the net to surrender the set.

The Frenchmen overcame a 7-4 deficit to build a 16-14 advantage in the fourth set and ran off seven of the last nine points to clinch their fourth victory in seven matches.

"Our players fought hardly in the match. However, France tried to destroy our receiving with powerful services, which made it really difficult for us," said Chinese head coach Di An'he.

"Our players were nervous in the first two sets, we did better in the last two sets," he added.

Frantz Granvorka scored a game-high 19 points while Shen Qiong led China with 15 points.

Meanwhile, Japan suffered its fourth defeat in a row as it dropped to Tunisia in a five-set thriller in Fukuoka.

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