Trans-Tasman rivals Australia have gotten the better of New Zealand at the WSF Men’s World Team Championship in Tauranga.

Playing in the Devoy Squash Centre World No. 3 Paul Coll won his match against Joseph White comfortably in three games to put the hosts up early.

Elijah Thomas then went down to Dylan Molinaro in three, before Lwamba Chileshe was undone by Rhys Dowling in a five-game thriller, the team in green and gold winning 2-1.

New Zealand will play South Africa today at midday in a placing playoff in Mercury Arena.

Meanwhile No.4 seeds Switzerland made national sporting history as they overcame USA to reach a maiden WSF Men’s World Team Championship semi-final, where they will join Egypt, England and France.

Prior to this year’s tournament Switzerland’s best finish was 12th in 2019.

Switzerland edged into the lead through World No.19 Nicolas Mueller, with the flamboyant 34-year-old clinching a thrilling five-game battle with Timothy Brownell 14-16, 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9.

USA struck back through Andrew Douglas, with the 25-year-old World No.53 taking down Yannick Wilhelmi in a 60-minute battle.

In the decisive match, it was Dimitri Steinmann who came out on top, with the World No.36 fighting back from a game down to beat Shahjahan Khan 3-1.

“As soon as we saw the World Teams was on the calendar, we said it was our biggest goal of the season," says Dimitri.

“It’s something we can be very proud of, but the job’s not finished!”

“We have a very strong team and a good team connection here and it makes me personally very proud to be a part of that team," says Nicolas.

Switzerland will take on defending champions Egypt in today’s semi-final after the top seeds brushed aside No.7 seeds Scotland, with Ali Farag and Mazen Hesham beating Greg Lobban and Alasdair Prott.

The other semi-final will be contested by No.3 seeds France and No.2 seeds England.

In a thrilling encounter, France battled past No.6 seeds Wales.

In the first match, Victor Crouin looked to be home and dry at 2-0 and 8-4 up, only for Joel Makin to dig deep and force a fourth and then fifth game.

In an even fifth game, Crouin thought he had won it 11-9, only for Makin to successfully overturn the match ball after lengthy video referee analysis.

At the second time of asking, though, Crouin held his nerve to put France 1-0 up after 78 minutes.

Then, in another five-game battle, Auguste Dussourd edged past Owain Taylor to seal France's second successive semi-final.

Despite being ranked 69 places higher than World No.95 Taylor, Dussourd was severely tested, falling a game behind before eventually steadying the ship to win it 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6 in 76 minutes.

England, meanwhile, continued their excellent form at the Mercury Baypark Arena, with Mohamed ElShorbagy and Adrian Waller recording straight-game wins over Germany's Raphael Kandra and Valentin Rapp.

The semi-finals of the WSF Men’s World Team Championship take place today, Saturday December 16, from 3pm.

Click here to view results and draws for the 2023 WSF Men’s World Team Championship.

The Championship features four athletes from each of the 24 competing nations, with teams going head-to-head in a best of three matches format. The draw includes eight of the top ten male athletes in the world.

World No. 3 Paul Coll headlines the New Zealand team, joined by brothers Temwa and Lwamba Chileshe, and young Auckland athlete Elijah Thomas.

About the New Zealand Festival of Squash

The New Zealand festival of Squash will see more than 500 matches played across three major tournaments. The festival is made up of the NZ Squash Open to be contested December 5th – 10th, the Oceania Junior Championships December 5th - 7th and the WSF Men’s World Teams Championships December 11th – 17th.

With more than 400 athletes competing from across 30 nations, the event is being billed as a fantastic celebration of sport and competition.

2023 Festival of Squash information: www.festivalofsquash.co.nz

The Lucino Vanities Men’s NZ Open draw and schedule is available here.

The Barfoot and Thompson Women’s NZ Open draw and schedule is available here.

The nations for the WSF Men’s World Team Championship are available here.