Dubai: Puerto Rico caused the biggest upset on the opening day of the 2014 Fiba U17 World Championship on Friday by scalping favourites Spain, while Italy mauled hosts the UAE and Angola, Australia, Canada and Serbia all enjoyed wins.

Puerto Rico, who finished fourth at the 2013 Fiba Americas U16 Championship to qualify for this competition, relied on a final flourish for a shock 67-65 win over one of the pre-tournament favourites. The two teams had played two years back in Lithuania and the Spaniards had triumphed comfortably by 17 points.

But with their mainstay Xabier Lopez-Arosteguj joining the squad for the first time after recovering from injury, the Spaniards found it tough to contend with their gutsy South American opponents. Puerto Rico’s American coach Daniel Ortiz was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the match.

“At half-time I told the guys to just go out and give it their best and they could win. The key was in inspiring them to just keep going and the result has now left me totally surprised,” Ortiz said.

“Two years back we did not have two of our main players. But with this team we can go quite far in this competition provided there are no injuries,” he added.

There were contrasting fortunes for tournament hosts UAE, however, as they were overwhelmed 121-32 by a vastly superior Italy in their opening match after the official opening of the competition by Esmail Al Gergawi, President, UAE Basketball Federation in the presence of Shaikh Saeed Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Pitted against the technically superior Italians, the smaller UAE lads had no chance.

Italy got off to a blazing start with point-guard Valerio Costa making constant inroads through the UAE defence for an early 15-2 lead after just three minutes. By the end of the first period, the Europeans had killed the match off and comfortably placed at 32-8, with Leonardo Tote scoring ten and the nippy Costa lending support with seven, including a triple.

As the match progressed, things got progressively worse for the home team, with Italy adding another 28 points and the UAE managing another seven as the score read 60-15.

Though assured of full points, Italy never took their foot off the accelerator as they scored at will and led 93-25 by the end of the third quarter.

In other matches on Friday, it was easy for 2012 runners-up Australia, debutants Angola, possible title challengers Serbia while there was also a late surge from France for wins against Japan, Philippines, China and Canada respectively.