India's [ Images ] Aditya Mehta strengthened his chances of qualifying for the knock-out stage by recording his fourth straight win in as many matches in the IBSF World Under-21 snooker championship in Taupo, New Zealand [ Images ] on Sunday.

But the mood in the Indian camp was somewhat subdued as 18-year-old Sourav Kothari from Kolkata [ Images ] suffered his third loss in five matches, when he went down 3-4 (71-66, 50-67, 58-64, 64-25, 56-14, 12-65, 23-80) to Tyson Crinis of Australia [ Images ].

Aditya beat Hamed Saeed Dhaif of Bahrain 4-1 (58-30, 79-48, 70-57, 35-54, 64-21) and is virtually certain to make it to the Round of 32 from his group.

On Monday, national champion Pankaj Advani [ Images ] will meet Adam Kinghorn of Australia, while Aditya takes Tian Pengfei of China and Sourav faces Alex Davies of England [ Images ].

Meanwhile, defending champion Ding Junhui of China was beaten 3-4 defeat against 19-year old Australian, Shannon Dixon in a Group A match. Ding, the 2002 Asian Games gold medallist, however, having won all four of his previous matches, is almost assured of a spot in the knock-out phase.

Elsewhere, Neil Robertson of Australia, put together two century breaks (101, 103) en route to beating Jim Martin of
Northern Ireland 4-2, as did David Morris of England (118, 100) during a 4-0 win against Michael Wilson of New Zealand.

To also get among the centurions was Jamie O'Neil of England who cracked a 131 as he swept past Shannon Swain of New Zealand. 4-0.