Bermuda's squash team continued to struggle at the World Team Championships in Vienna yesterday, losing in straight matches to Italy yesterday.

Nick Kyme, fresh from his victory on Tuesday against the Hong Kong number one, continued to show promise against Andrea Capella, ranked four places above him in the world rankings.

Finding himself at two games to love down, having been on the wrong end of a number of bizarre refereeing decisions, Kyme dug his heels in.

Improving his length and cutting out the unforced errors, the Bermudian won the third and fourth in convincing style an found himself at 8-6 in the fifth, serving for the match. Another inexplicable decision went against him, however, and the Italian, riding his luck in between some determined retrieving, took the game 10-8.

Sam Stevens then played Andrea Torriaini and struggled to find any sort of rhythm or consistency, losing 3-0 in 25 minutes.

With the rubber no longer alive, 19-year-old James Stout took on the Italian number three in a best of three match, losing 2-0.

The team has a bye today and are likely to play either Kuwait or Hungary tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong upset Malaysia 2-1 in the second round, but the other favourites managed to advance to the quarter-finals.

Ong Beng Hee, Malaysia's top player, defeated Hong Kong No. 1 Abdul Faheem Khan 9-5, 9-1, 9-7. But Roger Ngan levelled for Hong Kong, defeating Kelvin Ho 9-6, 9-2, 9-0.

In the final clash, Hong Kong's Wong Wai Hang topped Mohd Azlan Iskandar 9-4, 7-9, 9-7, 9-0 and secured Hong Kong a sensational quarter-final berth.

In the next round, Hong Kong will take on defending champions Australia, who eased past the Netherlands 3-0.

Second-ranked Egypt, No. 3 England and fourth-ranked Scotland had no problems defeating their opponents, each winning 3-0.

In the quarter-finals, the South Africans will face Wales, who beat Germany 3-0, England will play Canada and Scotland will take on France, who eliminated Ireland.