by Ben Hudd • October 14, 2022

Alexander Kazakis stunned five-time champion Shane van Boening in a captivating contest on a giant-killing day at the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City.

Click here for the bracket and live scores from the 2022 US Open Pool Championship

Albin Ouschan, Jayson Shaw and Fedor Gorst were also amongst the casualties as the final 16 were confirmed ahead of the televised stages commencing on Friday.

Kazakis opened up a healthy 5-0 advantage against the reigning world champion, only for a purple patch from Van Boening to see him reel off seven racks in succession. An SVB scratch on the break allowed the Greek to restore parity at seven apiece.

Kazakis spurned an opportunity on the two ball and his American counterpart was first to the hill, although the 2021 World Pool Masters champion pulled off a tremendous bank shot when seemingly snookered and that helped him complete a memorable victory.

Van Boening wasn’t the only big name to fall at the first hurdle of single elimination, with Wojciech Szewczyk fending off an Ouschan comeback, Tyler Styer punishing a wasteful Gorst to the hilt and Ko Ping-Chung defeating David Alcaide.

In addition, former Derby City Classic champion Lee Van Corteza enjoyed an exceptional day, completing a 9-2 rout of 2017 champion Jayson Shaw in the last 64 before claiming a second high-profile scalp with a 9-4 win over Ko Pin-Yi.

Reigning World Masters champion Joshua Filler grounded out a hard-fought victory over Mosconi Cup hopeful Styer in the last 32, coming through a number of safety battles and recording an impressive 99 percent pot success rate.

That defeat ended Styer’s hopes of securing Mosconi Cup qualification through the rankings. He will now be relying on an invitation from the USA captain, with Oscar Dominguez and Skyler Woodward sealing returns despite loses against Hsieh Chia-Chen and Chang Jung-Lin respectively.

Elsewhere, defending champion Carlo Biado continued to quietly go about his business with wins over Finland’s Petri Makkonen and Japan’s Naoyuki Oi.

Aloysius Yapp’s conquerer Sanjin Pehlivanovic was denied in a high-quality affair against Poland’s Konrad Juszcyszyn, with the Bosnian compiling three break and runs compared to the eventual victor’s four.

Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, who was mathematically confirmed as the second European Mosconi Cup qualifier, battled back from behind in a hill-hill affair against Wu Kun-Lin to face Taiwan’s Chang in the last 16.

The penultimate day of the US Open takes place on Friday in Atlantic City, with the last 16 and quarter-finals shown live on Sky Sports in the UK, DAZN in the USA and other regional broadcasters.