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ROME, Italy, July 22. THE fourth day of water polo witnessed the men taking to the pool for the second day of preliminary matches at the FINA World Championships.
China topped Brazil, 9-5, in the first match. Liang Zhongxing and Wang Beiming each notched a hat trick for China, which went 9-for-23. Five separate players scored for Brazil, which converted on 5 of 28 shots.
Croatia beat Montenegro, 11-5. Sandro Sukno tallied three goals for Croatia, which connected on half of its 22 shots. Montenegro had a similar fate as Brazil with five separate players each scoring a goal. Montenegro went 5-for-30 from the field.
Spain downed Australia, 13-10, in the third match. Blai Mallarach and Felipe Perrone each tallied a hat trick as Spain went 13-for-27. Thomas Whalen shouldered the load for Australia with three goals, as the Aussies converted 10 of 25 shots.
Serbia crushed Kazakhstan, 20-3. Dusko Pijetlovic and Filip Filipovic each accounted for five goals as Serbia connected on 20 of 35 shots for a 57.1 percent success rate. Ravil Manafov was the only scorer for Kazakhstan, as the team went 3-for-23 overall with Manafov hitting the back of the net on each of his three shots.
The U.S. smashed Macedonia, 13-6, in its match up. Tony Azevedo totaled four goals as the U.S. went 13-for-25 with a 52-percent success rate. Nebojsa Milic paced Macedonia with two goals as the team went 6-for-29 from the field.
In the following match, Hungary and Germany tied, 7-7. Norbert Hosnyanszky tallied three goals for Hungary, which went 7-for-23. Marko Savic and Marc Politze each scored two goals for Germany, which went 7-for-28.
Canada nearly blanked South Africa, 12-1. Thomas Marks and Aaron Feltham touched up the goal for three goals apiece as Canada went 12-for-26. Ryan Bell accounted for the lone score for South Africa, which went 1-for-17.
Romania edged Italy, 6-5, in the final match of the day. Nicolae Virgil Diaconu notched a pair of goals for Romania, which converted 6 of 25 shots. Five separate players scored for Italy, which went 5-for-26.