FINA World Championships 2013: Greece starts title defence with loss to Olympic champion USA

AKUATIK INDONESIA-World champion Greece tasted defeat on the opening day of its title defence of the FINA Women’s Water Polo World Championship at the Bernat Picornell Pool. Who better to inflict the defeat than Olympic and World Cup champion United States of America with what was a flattering 12-8 margin after a brilliant final quarter. In the other Group C encounter, Canada and Great Britain played a spirited match before Canada prevailed 14-9.

In Group A action, the marquee match of the day, Spain took until midway through the second quarter to gain the lead, which it never relinquished in what was the most thrilling match of the day. Russia opened the championship with a 22-6 victory over Uzbekistan.

In Group B action, World League champion China nearly kept South Africa scoreless with a handsome 17-2 victory and world No 3 Australia earlier dispensed with New Zealand 15-4.

In Group D, Hungary romped home 20-6 over Brazil and Italy came back from 3-0 down to Kazakhstan to rebound 8-3 and finally come home 9-7.

Women's points after day one:

Group A: RUS 2, ESP 2, NED 0, UZB 0.
Group B: CHN 2, AUS 2, NZL 0, RSA 0.
Group C: CAN 2, USA 2, GRE 0, GBR 0

MEDALS TABLE

NF	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
RUS	2	1	-	3
CHN	1	2	1	4
GER	1	-	1	2
TUN	1	-	-	1
USA	1	-	-	1
BRA	-	1	1	2
CAN	-	1	1	2
ITA	-	1	-	1
ESP	-	-	2	2
TOTAL	6	6	6	18