Australia, Brazil & South Africa Fight Back On Exciting Second World Cup Day

Australia, Brazil and South Africa mounted impressive comebacks on day two of the SDAT World Cup at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai, India, to set up an exciting conclusion to the Pools stage tomorrow.

1996 champions Australia, and Brazil - playing their first World Cup since that same year - hit back against Poland and Switzerland respectively after losing their opening matches as walkovers, with Australia recording a 3/1 win and Brazil a 2-2 draw.

South Africa, meanwhile, recovered from going a match down to defeat Republic of Korea.

Australia, one of just three teams to have qualified for every edition of the World Cup, went into their first tie of this year's championship knowing they'd have to do it the hard way after women's second string Madison Lyon was unable to compete, resulting in a walkover win for Poland's Sofia Zrazhevska.

Despite the added pressure, Joseph White rose to the occasion in the first contested match of the tie, setting up his side well with a 3/0 win over Jan Samborski.

Jessica van der Walt then had a challenging test against Karina Tyma, and Tyma briefly threatened to restore Poland's lead before van der Walt pulled clear to win in four games.

Dylan Molinaro made the result sure with a one-sided win against Kajetan Lipski in 18 minutes.

"It's difficult [starting 1/0 down] because it puts pressure on the other players, especially for Joe coming in first because it means he has to win," Australia National Coach Stewart Boswell said afterwards.

"But they did really well; it's certainly not easy coming in 3/0 down in your first match."

Unlike Poland, Switzerland were able to capitalise on their numerical advantage to record a valuable draw against Brazil and boost their chances of reaching the knockout phase.

Starting a match down due to Bruna Marchesi Petrillo's absence, Brazil quickly brought the scores back to 1/1 through Diego Gobbi, who came back from a rocky start to beat Louai Hafez 3/1.

Switzerland responded brilliantly through Celine Walser. Despite Walser being ranked 65 places below her opponent, 18-year-old rising star Laura Silva, she was totally dominant, blowing away Silva in just 13 minutes to restore Switzerland's lead.

In an exciting final match, Brazil's Pedro Mometto ensured the points would be shared as he survived two sudden death tie breaks against Robin Gadola to win 7-6, 7-3, 7-6.

That result means that Brazil will need to secure a result against India, who have already booked their spot in the knockout stages, to have a chance at going through. Winning a match or more would guarantee Brazil a spot in the last eight, while claiming two games could lead to a count back calculation to separate them from Switzerland.

South Africa, meanwhile, charged back in a complete turnaround as they rallied from a match down to win against Republic of Korea.

Song Chaewon attacked well to give her side the lead in the opening match, with the Korean taking the opener, winning 3/1.

South African No.1 Dewald Van Niekerk provided the measure of composure needed in match two, playing calm and effective squash to neutralise Ryu Jeongmin in straight games.

Hayley Ward then moved her side ahead in an entertaining third match, with the South African surviving multiple game balls in a pivotal game two win en-route to a 7-4, 7-6, 7-4 success.

In the final match, Damian Groenewald impressed as he took apart Ko Youngjo in 21 minutes to complete the comeback.

Elsewhere, there were crushing wins for defending champions Egypt and 2023 runners up Malaysia over the Iran and Poland.