Jeevan Nedunchezian scored a remarkable victory over Bohan Bozovic but could not prevent India from going down to Yugoslavia 1-2 in the opening tie of the ITF Junior Davis Cup tennis competition in Essen, Germany.
Nedunchazian defeated the world's 14th ranked Bozovic 6-4, 6-0 to give India a 1-0 lead over the top seeded Yugoslav team, but 14-year old Rupesh Roy could not do much against the world's No. 1-ranked junior Novak Djokovic as he went down 4-6, 2-6 in the second singles on Tuesday.
In the doubles match that followed, Nedunchezian and Sumit Prakash Gupta lost to Slavko Bjelica and Dokovic 0-6, 2-6.
India are in Group 1 of the 16-nation boys' world team championship, conducted by the ITF. The preliminary round will be played in a round-robin format from which the best four teams progress to a knock-out semifinals and then the final.
France and Colombia are the other two teams in India's group.
France, the seventh seeds, drubbed Colombia 3-0 in the other tie.
In the Junior Fed Cup for the girls' team championship, India lost to the sixth seeded Japanese team 0-3 in Group 2, which also comprised third seeds Poland and South Africa.
Kartiki Bhat put up a strong challenge before going down to Megumi Fukui 4-6, 5-7 while Tara Iyer managed to pull off a set while losing 5-7, 6-1, 3-6 to Mari Tanaka.
Later, Kartiki and Tara went down in straight sets to Miki Kawamura and Fukui 3-6, 2-6.