The African champions dropped to 0-6 but should have been celebrating their first win after leading 23-19 in the fourth set but losing six straight points.

In Okayama, United States bounced back from losing the first set to beat Tunisia at Momotaro Arena.

Led by some impressive play from man of the match Gabriel Gardner, the Americans weathered an early Tunisian storm to prevail 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 and improve to 4-2 in the round-robin tournament, while the North Africans dropped to 1-5.

"I thought Tunisia played with heart. Our team was slow at the start but once we improved with receiving and serving we got into a good rhythm. We did some good stuff on the court and we played hard, they played hard and it ended up as a good match," said United States head coach Hugh McCutcheon.

In the battle of the World Cup wild cards, Bulgaria's men cruised past South Korean in straight sets. Bulgaria, third at last year's World Championships, won 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 and improved to 4-2, while Korea dropped to 1-5.

World Cup holders and South American champions Brazil brushed aside Asian champions Australia 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 in the last match of the day in Okayama.

The Olympic and world champions were not on their best form against a team that according to Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende were expected to cause problems for the South Americans because of their height.

But Brazil (5-1), led by captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba) and surprise man of the match, libero Sergio Dutra Santos, still notched their fifth straight win despite some hard yakka from the Aussies.

"We were a little tired today but we had good concentration. We' ve been training hard for the first two round and we are still just halfway so we are tired," said Brazilian captain Gilberto Godoy.

"We must forget today's game and focus on tomorrow. I have to say this is going to be a much harder round than the first two," he said.