Life Time Chicago Open 2023: Jeeva & Rehman defeat seeds on opening day

Day one of action from the Life Time Chicago Open 2023 – The Hussain Family saw all but two seeds progress to the second round in Illinois.

The first match of the day saw unseeded Malaysian Sanjay Jeeva score a dramatic upset over 9/16-seeded Viktor Byrtus in a five-game, 78-minute thriller. There was nothing to split the two players in the opening couple of games, with both men taking a game 13-11.

And despite falling 2-1 down shortly afterwards, Jeeva held his nerve to force a fifth game and eventually take the decider in a 13-11 tie-break. No.1 seed Mohamed ElSherbini now awaits in the second round for the Malaysian.

Elsewhere, there were straight games wins for 9/16 seeds Joseph White, Tom White, Daniel Poleshchuk and Yannick Omlor.

American 9/16 seed Christopher Gordon was another casualty of the first round, losing in three games to Aqeel Rehman in 35 minutes. The Austrian edged a marathon first game 17-15 before easing through the following two 11-4 apiece. Rehman will now play No.2 seed Aly Abou Eleinen for a spot in the quarter-finals.

South American duo Alejandro Reyes and Jeremias Azana also progressed through their opening matches of the event, both coming through tight bouts in four games.

Results: Round One

Sanjay Jeeva (MAS) bt [9/16] Viktor Byrtus (CZE) 3-2: 13-11, 11-13, 4-11, 11-9, 13-11 (78m)

[9/16] Alejandro Reyes (MEX) bt Owain Taylor (WAL) 3-1: 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 (4m)

[9/16] Jeremias Azaña (ARG) bt Mohamed Nasser (EGY) 3-1: 11-9, 12-14, 11-8, 11-6 (68m)

[9/16] Joseph White (AUS) bt Dillon Huang (USA) 3-0: 12-10, 11-2, 11-8 (2m)

[9/16] Daniel Poleshchuk (ISR) bt [WC] Avi Agarwal (USA) 3-0: 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 (27m)

[9/16] Tom Walsh (ENG) bt Mark Broekman (ENG) 3-0: 11-8, 11-2, 11-4 (27m)

[9/16] Yannik Omlor (GER) bt Ondrej Vorlícek (CZE) 3-0: 11-3, 11-1, 11-2 (27m)

Aqeel Rehman (AUT) bt [9/16] Christopher Gordon (USA) 3-0: 17-15, 11-4, 11-4 (35m)

Draw: Round Two

[1] Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) v Sanjay Jeeva (MAS)

[9/16] Alejandro Reyes (MEX) v [6] Mazen Gamal (EGY)

[8] Aly Hussein (EGY) v [9/16] Jeremias Azaña (ARG)

[9/16] Joseph White (AUS) v [4] Cesar Salazar (MEX)

[3] Nathan Lake (ENG) v [9/16] Tom Walsh (ENG)

[9/16] Daniel Poleshchuk (ISR) v [7] Martin Svec (CZE)

[5] Faraz Khan (USA) v [9/16] Yannik Omlor (GER)

Aqeel Rehman (AUT) v [2] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY)