Aditya Mehta bounced back to his winning ways with a 4-2 victory in his last league match to secure a berth in the knock-out stage of the IBSF World Under-21 and Seniors snooker championships in Manama, Bahrain on Sunday.
Mehta was stretched by Chris Martin of Scotland to six frames during his 73-16, 51-29, 36-60, 12-52, 64-32, 62-32 victory in Group A.
His defeat against David Morris of Ireland in the previous round had affected the standings of the 19-year-old Indian, who was seeded second in his group.
But Mehta did not allow it to have a bearing on his performance as he got off to a good start against Martin taking the first two frames with quite ease.
Martin, however, surprised the Indian by taking the next two frames to level the score 2-2.
The need to win the match to be better placed in the last 32 stage spurred Mehta to take the last two frames and seal the matter in his favour at the Juffair Dome.
Mehta's comaptariot Pankaj Advani, who has already moved to the next level, kept his juggernaut rolling with a 4-0 win over Lim Jiasheng of Singapore in his last league match in Group D.
The former world champion completed his league formalities in style with 63-2, 80-0, 67-24, 61-30 victory, laced with a break of 79.
The Indians have a rest day on Monday before the start of the next round.
In the seniors' category, Geet Sethi defeated Frank Schroder of Germany 3-1 in his penultimate league encounter. Sethi, a former world billiards champion, won 75-44, 63-51, 21-56, 64-31. He registered a break of 44 enroute to his victory.
Sethi will play his last league encounter against Mohammed Yousuf of Pakistan, with whom he is tied in Group B.
Top two players from each group will enter the next level.
