Rediff

Zurich, Aug 6: The Indian team advanced to the semi-finals of the World Junior Squash championships for the first time after stunning France 2-1 in Zurich on Tuesday.

India will play second seeds Pakistan in the last four, while top seeds and defending champions Egypt  take on England .

First on court for India in the quarter-finals was the flamboyant Vikram Malhotra, who lost a hard-fought contest to a higher-ranked Gregoire Marche.

Malhotra hit a series of winners to win the first game 9-1 in quick time and led 4-0 in the second game before Marche bounced back to clinch the issue 3-1.

Aditya Jagtap was the next to take the court against Lucas Vauzelle whom he had lost to in an European event last year.

A determined Jagtap played aggressively to stun his opponent with a comfortable 3-0 victory. Jagtap won 9-6, 9-2, 9-5 to level the tie at 1-1.

The decider was a cliff hanger. Ravi Dixit started off nervously against Antoine-Camille Petrucci and was soon 0-2 down in games and 2-5 down in the third game.

However, Dixit staged a remarkable comeback and Antoine could not keep up with the India's pace and succumbed rapidly. Dixit won the match 3-2 as India made it to the semis for the first time in its history.

Before this, India's best ever result was attaining fifth position in 2002 with Saurav Ghosal, Siddharth Suchde, Gaurav Nandrajog and Sahil Vora.

Results:

Vikram Malhotra lost to Gregoire Marche 9-1, 4-9, 0-9, 1-9.

Aditya Jagtap beat Lucas Vauzelle 9-6, 9-2, 9-5.

Ravi Dixit beat Petrucci Antoine Camille 8-10, 2-9, 9-7, 9-1, 9-2.