Finnish youngster Arseni Sevastyanov achieved the greatest victory of his career as he stunned Shane van Boening to reach the winners’ qualification round at the 48th US Open Championship.
Sevastyanov produced some lightning-quick play in Atlantic City as he beat the five-time champion in a 9-6 scalp, dampening Van Boening’s hopes of a record-breaking sixth US Open crown.
The former European U23 silver-medalist won four out of five racks from 5-5 to banish SVB onto the one-loss side, arranging a winners’ qualification round match against another American in Brandon Shuff.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Hayato Hijikata pulled off an impressive victory over Vietnamese number one Duong Quoc Hoang on the opening day, following that win by beating Chris McDaniel to reach the winners’ qualification round.
Duong wasn’t the only early casualty on Monday as Americans Alex Bausch, Sergio Rivas and Tommy Tokoph overcame Mario He, Pijus Labutis and UK Open runner-up Jonas Souto Comino in shock victories.
New Zealand’s Matt Edwards has gone under the radar as one of the stories of the tournament so far, reaching the last 64 of a WNT era open championship for the first time in numerous attempts.
The Kiwi beat Marc Vidal Claramont in the opening round, before pulling off upset victories over former European Open champion Mickey Krause and Oliver Szolnoki to qualify for the single elimination phase.
Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Tuan overcame David Alcaide to secure his safe passage into the last 64, while Polish youngster Szymon Kural battled back from behind to beat Max Lechner in the winners’ qualification round.
Defending champion Fedor Gorst, Jayson Shaw, Jefrey Roda, Alex Kazakis and Wojciech Szewczyk were also amongst those to advance safely into the last 64.
Filipino Baseth Mocaibat was beaten in a hill-hill thriller against Robbie Capito despite mounting a comeback from 8-4 down, having beaten Toh Lian Han and Ralf Souquet in his opening two matches.
Niels Feijen defeated Daniel Maciol 9-7 to qualify for the last 64, while Japan’s Naoyuki Oi was also involved in a closely-contested match as he beat Mieszko Fortunski 9-7 to reach the same stage.
