The US team (from left) Michael Phelps, Matthew Grevers, Ryan Lochte, and Nathan Adrian celebrate on the podium of the Men's 4x100m relay freestyle on July 26, 2009 at the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships in Rome. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP)

ROME, July 26, 2009 (AFP) - Michael Phelps opened his World Championships campaign on Sunday with a victory that echoed his Beijing Olympic dream - and France's Olympic relay nightmare.

Phelps and his US cohorts won the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, again handing favored France a disappointing defeat.

Phelps's lead-off leg left the Americans in third place, leaving Ryan Lochte to try to hang on to France's individual Olympic gold medallist Alain Bernard as Russia powered their way into contention.

American Matt Grevers pressed in the third leg before Nathan Adrian brought it home, overtaking the Russians who had seized the lead and holding off France's 50m free world record-holder Frederick Bousquet for the victory in 3 minutes, and 09.21 seconds.

Phelps celebrated on the pool deck then bent down to congratulate Adrian.

Adrian's anchor leg recalled that of Jason Lezak in Beijing, where the US veteran reeled in Bernard and overtook him in the closing meters for a victory that kept Phelps on course for a record eight gold medals at one Games.

"Coming in to this relay, to be honest, I felt like a child among men," Adrian said.

"All of these guys have made a great name for themselves, they've won individual medals at the Olympics, and they threw me on the last leg, so I had a little bit of pressure on myself."

The Russian quartet of Evgeniy Lagunov, Andrey Grechin, Danila Izotov and Alexander Sukhorukov took the silver in 3:09.42, while Fabien Gilot, Bernard, Gregory Mallet ,and Bousquet clocked 3:09.89.

"When we come into a meet we have a goal to win all three relays, and I think this is a perfect way to end day one," Phelps said. "Relays are raced as a team, and I think all four guys swam a great race."

Bob Bowman, Phelps's coach who is also serving as the US men's head coach for the worlds, was delighted to see Phelps's teammates rise to the challenge.

"I think each guy did their job," Bowman said. "Michael got them close enough to be in the race. Ryan got them in clean water a little bit. Matt kind of pulled them up and then Nathan really did the job on the end.

"I'm so proud of him," Bowman added of Nathan. "I really wanted Nathan on the end of this relay. I think he's the future of our relays and I really wanted to introduce him to the prime time.

"The best thing about this relay was they carried Michael," Bowman said. "That's what we need. We need the other people to step up. It was great."

Bernard said the only thing to do now was turn his attention to his individual events, as he did in Beijing.

"This third place is disappointing but it's not a disaster. Now we'll concentrate on our individual races," he said.

"Personally I felt good, I didn't get over excited, and I swam a good leg. I really closed the gap in the last 25m with a good time. I really wanted to give it my all in the relay."

With all the talk of a USA v France rematch, Bowman admitted he was taken by surprise by Russia, who made their charge out in lane eight.

"I did not see the Russians coming. I kept saying, 'Who's that out there in lane eight? Who is that? Oh, but they must have someone really slow on the end,'" Bowman said. "They did not. So I was really happy we got by them."