The Indian boys did a creditable job by advancing to the World Junior Tennis Championship finals after finishing among the top four in the zonal qualifying in Delhi on Saturday.
Having booked a berth in the world finals by virtue of making it to the semi-finals, the home team seemed to have lost a bit of their fizz as they went down in the play-offs to China, the third seeds, and ended up fourth in the Asia-Oceania zone.
Mohit Mayor Jaya Prakash lost the opening singles to Yao Zhong Zhang 4-6, 6-1, 3-6 before Sai Kartik Naki Reddi restored parity with a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Guan Yu Cao.
In the decisive doubles, Jaya Prakash and Naki Reddi held the upper hand before losing their grip on the proceedings against Pengxlan Gong and Zhang.
The hosts eventually lost 6-3, 6-7(2), 3-6.
Second seeds Australia clinched the tie, beating fourth seeded Korea 3-0 in the final.
Top seeds Japan beat Thailand 2-1 in another play-off but it hardly mattered as they had gone out of the reckoning already.
