Italy swept past China in straight sets in their opening match of the FIVB World Grand Prix Final Round?in Ningbo?on Wednesday.

The World Grand Champions Cup winners chalked up the 25-20, 25-16, 25-21 victory in just 66 minutes.

"For us, this was a good match. I am satisfied with my players, because they played a very good match against such a strong team," said Italy coach Massimo Barbolini.

"Have a good start is very important in a tournament like this," added Barbolini.

Del Core Antonella scored 15 points for Italy to lead the match, Ortolani Serena added 14 points while Piccinini Francesca had 10.

Two Chinese wing spikers Wang Yimei and Chen Yili each grabbed 10 points for China, and Ma Yunwen had eight.

Both teams started aggressively with Italy holding a narrow lead 8-6. China then made two receiving errors as the Italians enlarged their advantage to 18-12. After China coach Wang Baoquan called a timeout, his team won four points in a row to make it 18-16.

But Italy maintained their poise and didn't let China to get closer. When Italy was 24-20 in front, Francesca Piccinini jumped high to spike hard in the middle court for the winner.

Italy went off to a 7-2 lead in the second set, but China, cheered on by the screaming home fans, refused to surrender easily and gradually clawed back to 13-14. The Italians held the nerves and soon restored their huge lead thanks to efficient blocking and powerful spiking.

"My players really want to play well today, but they carried too much pressure on court," said Wang.

Going down two sets, China played cool under pressure to take a commanding 9-4 lead. But the Italians staged a 6-0 run to overtake the lead at 10-9. Inspired by star spiker Wang Yimei, China regained the lead at 14-13 but could not hold onto it after the Italian strengthened defence and counter-attacked well. When Italy was leading 24-21, Piccinini Francesca leaped from the left for a deadly spike to close out the victory.

"My players played great today, especially in the third set which China start better than us." said Barbolini.

China will face Japan in their next game on Thursday. The Japanese team rallied from two sets down to beat defending Champion Brazil 3-2 on Wednesday.