Tournament favourite Brazil ground out a hard-fought win over the Netherlands on Friday to remain unbeaten and advance to the second round of the women's world volleyball championships.

Walewska Oliveira scored 20 points for Brazil (3-0), which overcame a second-set loss to beat the Netherlands 25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-9.

The United States stormed past tournament newcomer Cameroon 25-17, 25-18, 25-11 to book its second-round berth, while Olympic champion China downed Mexico 25-10, 25-10, 25-12 to advance.

Serbia and Montenegro, which upset defending champion Italy and Cuba in its previous matches, rallied from two sets down to beat Peru 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23 and earn a second-round spot, along with fellow unbeaten teams Russia, Poland and Taiwan.

Brazil coach Ze Roberto said he had underestimated the Dutch heading into the game.

``It was a more difficult match than I had expected. The Netherlands were very powerful,'' Roberto said. ``In the first set, Brazil performed as they should but in the second and third sets we were out of sorts due to the way the Netherlands were playing.''

Italy, which won its title in Germany four years ago, downed Turkey 25-23, 25-17, 25-14 to improve to 2-1 and Poland coasted to a 25-17, 20-25, 25-11, 25-14 win over Costa Rica.

Olympic and World Grand Prix silver medallist Russia handed Germany its first loss 25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23.

Taiwan was pushed to five sets in an epic 26-24,16-25, 29-27, 24-26, 15-10 win over South Korea, while Cuba improved to 2-1 by beating Egypt 25-9, 25-9, 25-15 and host Japan stormed past Kenya 25-15, 25-17, 25-10.

The women's tournament involves 24 teams divided into four groups. The top four teams in each group advance to the second round.

Serbia and Montenegro captain Vesna Citakovic said her team struggled to contain 12th-ranked Peru's offence early on.

``We didn't make a good start because we didn't know how to deal with their combination attacks,'' Citakovic said. ``But we developed over the rest of the game and found our form.''

Ivana Djerisilo and Anja Spasojevic led Serbia and Montenegro with 19 points each.

© The Canadian Press, 2007