Fifth seeds Scotland crashed to a 2-1 defeat by the Netherlands in the first round of the world team squash championships, but other seeded teams were untroubled in their opening matches.

Favourites Australia, David Palmer, Stewart Boswell and John Williams, dropped just six points to Hong Kong, while defending champions Egypt cruised through 3-0 against the US.

But Scotland went down to the unseeded Dutch to win 10-8 in the fifth game of the deciding third rubber by Lucas Buit.

Facing former Scottish champion, Neil Frankland, Buit looked to be in charge when he took the first two games and led 5-0 in the fifth.

But Frankland then staged a remarkable fightback. He snatched the third and fourth games and then held three match balls in the fifth.

With both men exhausted it was Buit’s turn to take advantage of his opponent’s errors, and he eventually won the 95-minute thriller by 10-8, 9-7, 8-10, 5-9, 10-8.

In the top match, Tommy Berden had set the tone for the Netherlands by claiming the scalp of world No. 7, John White. Ranked 19 places lower, Berden won 9-7, 2-9, 9-7, 10-8.

Monday’s results:

First round: Finland bt Denmark 3-0 (Olli Tuominen bt Mikkel Korsbjerg 10/9 7/9 9/4 9/6, Mika Monto bt Michael Hansen 9/4 9/5 9/4, Juha Raumolin bt Mads Korsbjerg 7/9 9/5 9/1 9/1).

Canada bt Japan 3-0 (Jonathon Power bt Kimihiko Sano 9/0 9/0 9/2, Shahier Razik bt Takehidz Hota 9/2 9/0 9/2, Kelly Patrick bt Yoshihiro Watanabe 9/0 10/9 9/0).

Egypt bt USA 3-0 (Omar Elborolossy bt Damian Walker 9/4 9/2 9/0, Amr Shabana bt Richard Chin 9/6 9/0 9/0, Mohammed Abbas bt Tim Wyant 9/0 9/0 9/1).

France bt New Zealand 3-0 (Thierry Lincou bt Paul Steel 9/1 9/1 9/4, Renan Lavigne bt Daniel Sharplin 9/5 9/0 9/4, Jean-Michel Arcucci bt George Crosby 7/9 5/9 9/2 10/8 9/3).

Scotland lost to Netherlands 2-1 (John White lost Tommy Berden 7/9 9/2 7/9 8/10, Martin Heath beat Gabor Marges 9/2 9/0 9/3, Neil Frankland lost Lucas Buit 8/10 7/9 10/8 9/5 8/10)

Malaysia bt Austria 3-0 (Ong Beng Hee bt Gerhard Schedlbauer 9/7 9/1 9/1, Kenneth Low bt Markus Rossler 9/1 9/2 9/3, Mohamed Azlan bt Andreas Fuchs 9/3 9/1 9/1).

Australia bt Hong Kong 3-0 (David Palmer bt Faheem Khan 9/0 9/0 9/2, Stewart Boswell bt Vincent Cheung 9/0 9/0 9/0, John Williams bt Jackie Lee 9/3 9/0 9/1).

Norway lost to Ireland 3-0 (Richard Larsson lost Derek Ryan 4/9 2/9 1/9, Raymond Petterson lost Liam Kenny 0/9 3/9 0/9, Jaokim Salem lost Steve Richardson 3/9 2/9 3/9).

Wales bt Mexico 3-0 (David Evens bt Mariano Aguilar 9/0 9/5 9/0, Alex Gough bt Armando Zarazua 9/2 9/3 9/5, Greg Tippings bt Octavio Montero 9/1 9/1 9/3).

South Africa bt Germany 3-0 (Rodney Durbach bt Simon Frenz 9/10 9/1 10/8 9/6, Glenn Whittaker bt Stefan Leifels 9/1 9/5 9/0, Adrian Hansen bt Florian Poessl 3/9 9/5 9/2 9/4).

England bt Sweden 3-0 (Mark Chaloner bt Daniel Forslund 9/1 9/4 9/5, Paul Johnson bt Christian Drakenberg 9/6 9/1 4/9 3/9 9/0, Lee Beachill bt Badr Abdel Aziz 9/0 9/0 9/2).

Pakistan bt Kenya 3-0 (Mansoor Zaman bt Otto Kwach 9/0 9/0 9/1, Shahid Zaman bt Hartaj Bains 9/0 9/3 9/6, Ajaz Azmat bt Rajdeep Bains 9/1 9/2 9/1).

Tuesday’s fixtures: Egypt v New Zealand; France v USA; Scotland v Malaysia; Netherlands v Austria; Canada v Denmark; Finland v Japan; England v Pakistan.—AFP