Pankaj Advani brought cheer to the Indian camp by recording his third straight victory in the preliminary league while Sourav Kothari crashed to his second defeat in four matches as competition hotted up in the IBSF World Under-21 snooker championship in Taupo, New Zealand on Saturday.
On an action-packed day, Thailand's Kobkit Palajin (136) registered the highest break of the tournament thus far, while the Davies boys from England, Adam and Alex, too recorded century breaks, of 113 and 130 respectively, en route to easy victories.
Advani, the 18-year old national champion from Bangalore, beat Edward Foo Ming Fa of Singapore 4-0 (76-18, 89-28, 70-4, 61-17), a break of 69 being the feature of the victory.
The 18-year-old Kothari from Kolkata was subdued and could only come up with a break of 57 and lost to Anthony Krysa of Wales 1-4 (33-73, 59-23, 15-57, 11-84, 28-74).
With two defeats in four matches in his group, Kothari needs to win his remaining three matches to keep alive his chances of advancing to the knock-out round of 32.
Aditya Mehta, who has won all his three matches so far, had a rest day and will meet Hamed Saeed Dhaif of Bahrain tomorrow, while Kothari is scheduled to play Tyson Crinis of Australia.
Advani has a day off.
Meanwhile, defending champion Ding Junghui of China continued his run of victories by chalking up his fourth success in Group A.
More from rediff