At the first World Cup contest to take place on snow, Joseph Boyomo, Didier Sali Hile and Guy Roger Nanga led in the final set but eventually lost 10-15, 15-12, 11-15 to opponents Chris Vaughan, Eric Zaun, Travis Mewhirter and Chase Frishman in Wagrain-Kleinarl.

The African trio, considered indoor specialists, had never played on snow before but afterwards said they had been “very happy” to take part.

“First we had to find out how to move on the court and it was a little bit difficult for us to improve our game,” Nanga said.

“We missed some serves at the end of the tie-break so we will try to improve our serving in the next games.”

Playing in Pool A, the Cameroonians later lost again in three sets to the Polish team of Piotr Groszek, Karol Szczepanik, Kamil Warzocha and Michal Matyja.

It means they sit bottom of their pool, while the US are top after beating the Poles 2-1.

That match finished 10-15, 16-14, 18-16.

Russia’s first team of Pavel Rakusov, Yury Bogatov, Nikita Kuzmin and Petr Bakhnar ended the day top of Pool B thanks to wins over another Russian team 2-1 and Romania 2-0.

In the women’s draw, the Czech Republic’s second team finished top of Pool A thanks to two straight sets victories over teams from Argentina and the host nation, Austria.

The first match played by Anna Dostalova, Diana Zolnercikova and Martina Jakubsova ended 15-10, 15-10, before they saw off the Austrians 15-13, 15-9.

Russia also performed strongly in the women’s event, their first team of Olga Motrich, Anna Romashova, Olga Filina and Polina Lapteva winning both their matches in straight sets in Pool B.

Their day started with a 15-3, 15-10 triumph over a side from Lithuania, before they saw off an Italian team by the same scoreline.

Tomorrow will feature play-off action in both the men’s and women’s draws.