Olympic champions China held off a strong challenge from Azerbaijan to open their FIVB World Grand Prix Ningbo leg campaign on a winning note Friday.

Natalya Mammadova, the overall top scorer of the World Grand Prix qualifying round, paced Azerbaijan with a game-high 30 points but it was not enough to prevent the Grand Prix newcomers from losing 25-18, 25-20, 19-25, 26-24.

Spiker Yang Hao top scored for China with 22 points.

China's head coach Chen Zhonghe said that he felt relieved at the result, but is much concerned about his team's inconsistent play.

"We went off to a good start but lost control in the third set. Today's match showed again that we are not consistent. We need to continue to work on this in future," said Chen.

Captain Feng Kun echoed Chen's view.

"We had ups and downs in today's match. Frankly speaking, it was not a good performance," Feng said.

Trailing 2-0 in sets, Azerbaijan refused to give up. A string of hard-hitting, high-jumping attacks led by Mammadova sparked the Azerbaijanis to a 25-19 victory in the third set.

The fourth set started with tied point-gaining. Both teams tried to pull away from each other, could yet efficiently work it out.

China looked on course for victory when leading at 17-12, but a resilient Azerbaijan managed to draw level at 23-23. After wasting a match point at 24-23, China closed out the match with a blocking.

The Beilun leg is part of a qualifying campaign featuring 12 of the world's top teams. The top five teams from the qualifying rounds join hosts Italy in the World Grand Prix finals, which run from Sept. 6-10 in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

Source: Xinhua