Chinese women's volleyballers stay unbeatable in the Doha Asian Games after powering to a straight-set victory over low-spirit South Korea on Sunday, while Chinese Taipei trounced the Macao team 3-0 in the men's competition.

The defending champion China established an early lead after taking the first two sets with the identical score 25-15, thanks hugely to powerful serving and devastating spikes by ace spikers Yang Hao and Wang Yimei.

The South Koreans, the silver medalists in the 2002 Busan Asaid,fought back strongly at the first half of the do-or-die third set,closing in on China 10-11 and then 12-13 with stunning spikes from their rising star, 16-year-old hitter Kim Yeon Koung.

However, the Chinese maintained their poise and withstood fierce attacks with solid defense and powerful serving, marching from 21-15 to 24-18, when China's head coach Chen Zhonghe sent its second line-up in court. With a spike from Chu Jinlin, the Chinese won the set and the 68-minute tussle.

"Our opponents were not in good form and they didn't play to their best, especially in the defense, which left a comfortable room for our attacking," said Chen.

South Korea's head coach Kim Myeong Soo blamed the poor performance of his players on injuries and less time of recovery from a busy season.

"But I'm also disappointed to see my players have lost confidence since the very beginning of the match," said Kim.

In another women's match of the day, Chinese Taipei, which had lost 2-3 to South Korea, found their confidence after outgunning Vietnam 3-1. The Vietnamese stayed at bottom in Pool A with two losses.

Chinese Taipei, a dark horse in the 2006 world championship, will receive a real test against China on Dec. 6.

Nine teams are split into two groups to battle for the women's championship, with China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam bundled in Group A and Kazakhstan, Japan, Thailand, Tajikistan and Mongolia in Group B.

For the men's part, confident Chinese Taipei, who had topped the qualifying group, routed error-prone Macao 3-0, and Saudi Arabia defeated arch rival United Arab Emirates in straight sets.

Though India beat Lebanon 3-0 in the last match of the day, the Lebanese showed great fighting spirit in the second set in which they lost 39-37, the highest set score so far.

Ten men teams are competing for two quarterfinals seats, with Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand and Bahrain in Pool B, while India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates in Pool A. Only the group winners qualify for the quarterfinals.

Host Qatar has directly entered the last eight with five world championship participants, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Kazakhstan.