Commonwealth Games bronze medallist RMV Gurusaidutt and mixed doubles pair of <g data-gr-id="19">Pranaav</g> Jerry Chopra and Ashwini Ponnappa reached the main draw of the USD 750,000 Australian Open badminton tournament here on Tuesday.
Guru, who had to endure a series of serious injuries of late, started his campaign with a bang as he brushed aside Malaysia’s Ai Wei Jian 21-13 21-9 in the opening match, before prevailing over Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai 21-15 21-8 in the second clash of the qualifiers.
<g data-gr-id="18">Pranaav</g> and Ashwini, too, made a positive start to their campaign in mixed doubles as they beat <g data-gr-id="15">German</g> combo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich 21-19 21-17 in the first round.
The Indian pair then defeated local shuttlers Cham Chen and Susan Wang 21-14 21-6 to make it to the main draw.
Other Indians, including Olympic bronze medallist and defending champion Saina Nehwal, World no. 4 K Srikanth and Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap, will start their campaign on Wednesday.
Two-time World Championship bronze medallist, P V Sindhu and Commonwealth Games silver medallist duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, will also be seen in action on Wednesday.