The London 2012 gold medallists overcame their challengers 25-21, 25-19, 25-21 at Gdańsk's Ergo Arena to give a clear signal of their intentions at the tournament.

However, it was not an entirely easy match for Russia, as both teams struggled on some mistakes as there was an early deadlock at 4-4.

Canada then pulled out an amazing display of their defence and a solid stance in the middle by Justin Duff and Adam Simac, before another deadlock came at 15-all.

But Russia was not going to let Canada off that easy and they began to defend the net well to secure the first set 25-21.

Russia took an early lead in the second set, with Alexey Spridinov and Dmitriy Muserskiy to put their side ahead at 13-8.

Canada then held down their opponents scoreless for five rallies to tie the score at 13-all but the Russians powered on through to take the second set 25-19.

The third set started with a tight contest between the two teams before Russia pulled away for a 13-9 advantage.

There was a deadlock at 14-14 but Russia managed to break through and raised the lead to 21-16 before a service ace by Nikolay Pavlov sealed the set and match victory 25-21.

"We have been preparing for this match for a long time, not only physically but psychologically," Russia coach Andrey Voronkov said.

"Canada showed good skills on defence.

"Our aim was to win this meeting in straight sets and we managed to achieve this result.

"My goal in this team is to win every single match."

Brazil opened their World Championship campaign with a win over Germany ©Getty Images


Defending champions and world number ones Brazil also got their campaign for the title underway with a win over Germany.

They defeated the Germans 25-21, 25-19, 25-17 at the Spodek Hall in Katowice to keep alive their hopes of becoming the first nation to win the World Championship four times in a row.

But Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende admitted the victory was "just a first step in the very long tournament".

"After all the talks about pressure and about winning and being one of the favourites we needed to play with open mind and we started strong and just kept playing," he added.

"It was important to start the tournament well.

"We put the pressure on the other side and we played consistently, we need to improve some elements.

"We won with a competitive team with potential which can play better."

Elsewhere, Bulgaria defeated Mexico in straight sets - 25-16, 25-17, 25-21 - to earn their opening day victory of the tournament at the Ergo Arena, while Finland came back from two sets behind to win against Cuba 18-25, 21-25, 27-25, 25-23, 15-12 in Katowice.

"I'm pleased with the result, we were losing 1-0, then 2-0 but we came back and won," Finland captain Antti Siltala said.

"It gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the tournament."

The other two matches of the day saw Asian teams overcoming their African counterparts as South Korea beat Tunisia 24-26, 26-24, 25-21, 25-18 at the Spodek Hall and China edged Egypt 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 33-31 at the Ergo Arena.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
August 2014: Three-time champions Italy beaten by Iran on second day of Volleyball World Championships
August 2014: Poland's World Championship opening win signals "new era" in volleyball