Doha, Qatar, November 3, 2009 - In a thrilling day of action at the Aspire Zone indoor hall in Doha, Qatar, the FIVB 2009 Men’s Club World Championship made a welcome on Tuesday after 17 years with two out of the three favourites for the title claiming victory. Brazilian club champions Cimed were upset by Paykan of Iran, failing to join Trentino of Italy, Zenit Kazan of Russia and Belchatow of Poland in the winners circle on the opening day of the six day tournament.

Trentino, Zenit Kazan in Pool A and Belchatow in Pool B beat Zamalek of Egypt, Corozal of Puerto Rico and Al Arabi of Qatar respectively.

Out of the losers, Zamalek of Egypt went closest to pulling off an upset after coming back from two sets down to win the third before leading 18-11 in the fourth set. However, Trentino star Osmany Juantorena saved his team with some outstanding serving to seal victory for the Italians.

The first day of the prestigious FIVB competition was historic as it featured the trial of a new rule named “Golden Formula” which requires that the first attack for each team after the opponent's service to take place from the back row, in an attempt to produce longer rallies.

Paykan claimed the competition’s first surprise result after they pulled off a respectable victory over Cimed 3-1 (16-25, 28-26, 25-21, 25-22) in Pool B. The highly motivated Iranian team rebounded from losing the first set to win three successive sets in the most exciting encounter on the opening day. The Iranian setter Amir Hosseini and opposite Mohammad Kazem played a key role in the victory, the first with his magical setting and combination play and the second with his impressive tally of 25 points to be the match top scorer.

Trentino Betclic duo Juantorena and Leandro Vissotto led their team with front and backline attacks to clinch the first victory for their team beating Zamalek of Egypt 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20) in the Pool A match.  Vissotto was his team’s best scorer with 25 points while Juantorena came to the service line while his team was down 18-11 in the fourth and final set before scoring 11 successive points to put his team on the road to victory. Mohamed Badawy of Zamalek was the best scorer of the match with an impressive 27 points. 

Zenit Kazan of Russia overwhelmed Plataneros of Corozal as they clinched their first victory 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-17) in Pool A.  The Russian team used the double weapon of an impermeable block and sharp spike serves to gain victory against a less experienced team. The Russian attackers Maxim Panteley and Sergy Tetyukhin were the best scorers for their team with 15 and 12 points respectively while the US born star Corozal Thomas McKinney was the match high scorer with 16 points followed by the other foreigner in the team Jason Octave (eight points).

Meanwhile, Skra Belchatow of Poland overcame an sluggish start to beat the host team Al Arabi of Qatar in straight sets 25-22, 25-11, 25-20 in their first match of Pool B.

The second day of competition will feature four matches on Wednesday with Zamalek (Egypt) playing Crozal (Puerto Rico) and Zenit Kazan (Russia) taking on Trentino (Italy) in Pool A while Pool B will see Al Arabi (Qatar) play Cimed (Brazil) and Belchatow (Poland) meet Paykan (Iran).