China served up a treat on the fifth and last day of the women's World Grand Prix Final Round yesterday.
The Olympic champions overwhelmed Japan - not for the first time and certainly not for the last - with a straight-sets victory (25-23, 25-22, 25-23) in 80 minutes.
China's powerful serving laid the foundations for their 13th-straight victory over their fierce Asian rivals, a run which includes the Athens Olympics quarter-finals last August.
With Yang Hao, Chu Jinling and Zhang Ping firing on all cylinders, Japan struggled to control the ball and consequently failed to find a smooth attacking rhythm.
In contrast, China continued from where they left off the previous day, when they beat Brazil, also in straight sets.
In fact it was China's third-straight victory of this six-team final round, and enabled the Olympic champions to finish in third place with a 3-2 win-loss record, behind champions Brazil (4-1) and Italy (3-2), but ahead of Cuba (3-2) on points ratio.
Japan (1-4) took fifth place, with the Netherlands (1-4) in sixth.