Chinese Taipei upset Kuwait 3-1 and United Arab Emirates stormed past Hong Kong of China in straight sets at the men's volleyball tournament of the Asian Games on Monday.

Chinese Taipei made a wonderful start to take the first two sets 25-17, 25-18. However, the Kuwaitis fought back bravely to win the tight third set 27-25, thanks hugely to talented Abdulmajieid Sultan, who scored four spiking points at the end of the set.

In the last set, Chinese Taipei players left no chance for their tall and towering opponents with sound defense and powerful serving as they jumped ahead 24-18.

Hung Jung-chung, who scored a team high 22 points, sealed the victory with a spectacular serve ace.

"I don't think it's a bad thing that we lost one set today. Our team does have problems on receiving, and the connection is not satisfactory either. It's better to know earlier our problems," said Chinese Taipei head coach Chen Chun-leong.

Chen also showed confidence to win the next match with Maldiveson Tuesday. The latter suffered a bitter 3-0 loss to Kuwait on Sunday.

"Generally speaking, our team is better than Maldives, but we will try our best at every match," said Chen.

Confident UAE toppled Hong Kong of China 28-26, 25-22, 25-22 with effective spiking and blocking.

Kwong Yuk Man, Hong Kong head coach, blamed the loss on poor cooperation. "Our opponents are taller and stronger and I'm sorry to see our players have flustered and abandoned the tactics of quick attack under high pressure," he said.

Despite the loss, Hong Kong has reached the preliminary Round 2as its opponent Palestine in Pool D has quit the games due to traveling difficulties.

In another match of the day, Bahrain gave Lebanon the first taste of defeat, outgunning them in 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-20) and taking the lead in Pool A. The latter defeated Mongolia 3-1 in the opener.

The men's volleyball event opened on Sunday with 16 teams competing. Host Qatar has directly entered the last eight with five world championship participants, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Kazakhstan.

However, another 10 teams, including Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei, have to compete for the other two seats in the quarterfinals.

All 45 matches of men's volleyball will be staged at the Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall in northwest suburb of Doha.