India finish fifth at World Junior Squash C'ship

India fought back from a match down to beat New Zealand 2-1 and finish fifth at the Men's World Junior Team Squash Championship in the Ecuador capital Quito.

In the 5-6th position playoffs, fourth seed India overcame 11th placed New Zealand after losing the opening singles at the World Squash Federation event last night.

In the first tie, a pumped up Paul Coll defeated Aditya Jagtap 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 in straight games in 27 minutes.

After winning the first game in the tie-breaker, Paul kept the pressure on Aditya and did not give him a chance to get into the match, winning the next two games comfortably.

The first game of the second tie was a 21-minute duel with Ravi Dixit going down to his opponent Lance Beddoes 15-17.

That game seemed to drain out the energetic Lance as fleet-footed Ravi took control of the match thereafter by continuously moving him to all corners and levelled the score for India. Ravi won 15-17, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3 in 50 minutes.

In the decider, Ramit Tandon once again gave a solid performance wrong-footing Bryce Redman on numerous occasions to win the match 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 in straight game to seal the victory for India.

New Zealand's sixth place finish was their best performance since 1992.

Earlier India had lost to Canada in the quarter-finals. Canada finished in third position ahead of England.

India's performance at the World Junior Men's has been consistent for the past five events. India's best was in 2008 when they finished fourth.

In 2006, India finished sixth, while in 2004 and 2002, they secured the fifth position.

Egypt defeated Pakistan 2-1 in the final to win the title for the third time.