Sergey Makarov and his team finished their first World League weekend unbeaten
Nikolay Pavlov topped the score with 21 points, while Ghafour Amir earned 15 for Iran.
Iran took a quick 4-7 lead due to some serve mistakes made by Russia. Nevertheless they struggled to spike well and were 16-15 by the second technical time-out. Iran showed elements of improvement in attack, but Russian Nikolay Pavlov and his team always had an answer and took the first set 25-23. Russia illustrated their confidence in their strength with their block, which was too much for Iran to overcome.
The score was 10-4, when Julio Velasco took his second time-out. Ghafour Amir helped his team as much as he could to pull back to within a point 18-17, but the Russian finished the set 25-22.Iran came storming into the third set and was leading 2-8 by the first technical time-out.
Three substitutions, which Andrey Voronkov used, seemed to be not effective at all and the hosts let Iran go too far 5-16. Gholami Adel eventually closed the set 17-25.
The fourth set was nervous for both teams as they traded points early on, until Nikolay Pavlov managed to find his rhythm and increased a gap in the score 15-10. The Russians continued to hold control and finally the match was won.
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