NEW DELHI: Three out of the four unseeded Indian badminton players in the qualifying round for the 2017 Australian Open Super Series have sealed passage to the main draw, winning their respective matches at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre on Monday. Parupalli Kashyap , ranked 69th in the BWF men's singles, saw off China's Zhao Junpeng 21-15, 21-18 in the opening round before disposing Indonesia Open Super Series Premier runners-up Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21-5, 21-16 in the second men's singles match.Young Siril Verma also made it to the main draw after brushing aside Indonesia's Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky 21-9, 21-9 and then defeating compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-16, 21-14.In women's singles qualifying round, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde beat Australia's Sylvina Kurniawan 21-15, 21-15 and then dumped another local player Ruwindi Serasinghe 21-9, 21-7 to make it to the main draw.Most of India's top badminton players have already moved into the main draw. Saina Nehwal has tough opponent in the first round as she will play the fourth seed Sung Ji Hyun. PV Sindhu will play Sayaka Soto, who this weekend lifted the Indonesia SSP.In the men's doubles, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy are due to face the third seeded Japanese pair of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda, Tarun Kona and Francis Alwin will face Hendra Setiawan and Boon Heong Tan and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will meet Law Cheuk Him and Lee Chun Hei.The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy open their tournament against Hsuan Wendy Chen and Jennifer Tam. The fresh pairing of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini will compete in the mixed doubles and start off versus Lee Chung Hei and Chau Hoi Wah.

Source: Times of India June 20, 2017 05:39 UTC