The Kiwis came through 2-1 at the Squash On Fire venue in the American capital after initially falling behind.

Red Hedrick saw off Evan Williams as the seventh seeded Australians took control on a day of play-off matches.

New Zealand's number one Paul Coll brought his country level by beating Ryan Cuskelly and Campbell Grayson completed the job with a win over experienced 37-year-old Cameron Pilley.

Despite their high seeding, New Zealand had to negotiate the play-off round after a surprise opening stage defeat to Scotland left them as pool runners-up.

"It was unfortunate we lost to Scotland in the pool and had to come up against Australia in the play-offs for the quarter-finals," said New Zealand coach Glen Wilson. 

"It was always going to be a battle, it was another typical Australian and New Zealand battle.  

"I was expecting it to be on the show court but an Australia v New Zealand match clearly doesn't mean much in Washington D.C!

"At 37, Cameron was playing great squash and making Campbell work hard for every point.  

"I thought Cameron was getting on top of him but Campbell stuck to his game-plan.  

"I was just happy to get the win."

The other three play-off clashes were all won by European countries, with Germany seeing off Malaysia 2-0.

There were also 2-0 wins for Wales against Hong Kong and Spain against Switzerland.

The play-off winners have joined defending champions and top seeds Egypt, England, Scotland and France who all automatically qualified for the quarter-finals from the pool stage.

Tomorrow's last eight ties will see Egypt take on the Germans, Scotland play Wales, Spain face France and England clash with New Zealand.