NEW DELHI: India defeated Philippines 2-1 to take the ninth position in the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup under-16 tennis tournament at Bangkok on Saturday.

It was a honourable finish after the disappointment of not making the quarterfinals. The consolation for India was that the two teams that qualified from its group, Japan and China, made the semifinals and grabbed two of the four spots from the 16-nation competition for the World Group event to be staged later in the season. Australia and Chinese Taipei, the top two seeds, were the other two to make the grade.

The talented Indian under-16 team was expected to fare much better than the under-14 boys and girls' teams, both of whom qualified for the World Group competition following the regional events hosted at home.

It was one loss to Japan that undid all the good work for the Indian team, and the fact that the team failed to win even a set in that tie was a shocker.

The Indian Junior Fed Cup team will be competing in Kuala Lumpur from Monday, and would attempt to better the record of the boys.

The results: Final: Australia bt Chinese Taipei 2-1 [Mark Verryth bt Chung Su Chen 6-1, 6-1; Bernard Tomic bt Tsung-Hua Yang 1-6, 7-5, 6-3; Stephen Hoh and Mark Verryth lost to Chung-Su Chen and Cheng-Peng Hsieh 6-3, 1-6, 6-7(5)]. Third place: China bt Japan 2-1 [Di Wu bt Takeshi Endo 6-4, 6-4; Bei Liu bt Shuichi Sekiguchi 6-4, 0-6, 4-6; Ang Li and Di Wu bt Takeshi Endo and Ko Suzuki 6-3, 3-6, 6-4]. Ninth place: India beat Philippines 2-1 [Christopher Marquis bt Akio Sy 6-3, 6-2; Yuki Bhambri bt Mark Jaypee Balce 6-0, 6-2; Ronak Manuja and Christopher Marquis w/o. Mark Jaypee Balce and Akio Sy]. Final placings: 1. Australia, 2. Chinese Taipei, 3. China, 4. Japan, 5. New Zealand, 6. Korea, 7. Thailand, 8. Uzbekistan, 9. India, 10. Philippines, 11. Hong Kong, 12. Indonesia, 13. Singapore, 14. Sri Lanka, 15. Pakistan and 16. Bangladesh.

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