India finished ninth in the girls' section in the first World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Santiago, Chile.

The Indian team, comprising Madhurika Patkar, Sushmita Roy, Mousumi Paul and Sangeetha Seshadri defeated the United States 3-2 to finish in the top 10.

Earlier, India, who were clubbed with the Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro and Venezuela, lost two and won one match to finish third in Group 3.

While the Indian girls lost to the Czech Republic and Serbia and Montenegro 0-3, they drubbed Venezuela by the same margin.

In the play-offs, India defeated Australia 3-0 and Chinese Taipei 3-1 before defeating the United States for the ninth place.

China defeated Japan 3-0 to win the title while the Czech Republic got the better of Romania 3-2 to take third place.

China also won the boys' title, beating Chinese Taipei 3-2. The third place went to Korea.

The first ever World Championship was played on a league-cum-knock-out format with the top two teams from each of the four groups qualifying for the play-offs for 1 to 8 places.