The U.S. Men’s National Team have their sights on a record fifth place finish after a narrow quarterfinal loss against four seeds Switzerland Friday, December 15, in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The U.S. men–the tournament’s five seeds–reached their first quarterfinal appearance–and just second in tournament history–with a 2-1 win over hosts New Zealand on Thursday setting up a match up against the Swiss.
The No. 1s opened up the match and put on a five-game battle as world No. 19 Nicolas Mueller edged Team USA’s Timmy Brownell 14-16, 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9 in sixty-four minutes.
U.S. champion Andrew Douglas leveled the match score against Yannick Wilhelmi in the No. 3 match 15-13, 18-16, 9-11, 11-3 in sixty minutes.
World No. 36 Dimitri Steinmann then clinched the match for the Swiss against Shahjahan Khan 12-14, 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 in sixty-seven minutes.
Afterwards, Steinmann said: “As soon as we saw the World Teams was on the calendar, we said it was our biggest goal of the season. It’s something we can be very proud of, but the job’s not finished!”
The U.S. focus now shifts to a best ever finish of fifth place in the 5-8 playoff, but will face difficult opponents in Scotland Saturday. The U.S. will play at 12pm noon to advance to the 5-6 playoffs.
Watch the match live on the glass court from the Devoy Squash Center on worldsquash.tv.