Russia upset crowd favourites China with a confident 3-1 victory in the Wing Wah Mooncake Cup in front of a full house at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium last night.
The match, lasting one hour and 50 minutes was fast and furious - fast on the court and furious on the Russian bench.
Russian head coach Nikolai Karpol shouted angrily throughout the contest bringing some of his team members close to tears with his red-faced fury.
But his raging paid off by upsetting the pre-match favourites 15-8, 15-9, 16-17, 15-1 earning revenge after losing to China 3-2 in the last leg of the Grand Prix in Macau last week.
A delighted Karpol said: 'The crowd like my bad temper. It's all part of the show of the competition.
'We had to give ourselves the best chance of qualifying for the Shanghai finals by beating China because we don't know how well China will do against USA tomorrow. We will do everything we can to beat the Netherlands tomorrow.' Chinese head coach Lang Ping refused to be disappointed in defeat but admitted that her players had looked weary after a long season of competition which earned them a silver medal in the Atlanta Olympics.
She also put down the defeat to poor serving.
