Hosts Australia seized full advantage of the absence of star athletes to progress as many of their own players as possible to the main draw of their home tournament in the MetLife BWF World Superseries today in Sydney.
As play got underway today in the XIAMENAIR Australian Badminton Open, the Aussie contingent grabbed three berths in Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles qualifying action and two in Men’s Doubles at the Sports Centre in Sydney Olympic Park. No qualification rounds were 
necessary in Women’s Doubles.
In Men’s Singles, Anthony Joe, Simon Leung and Huaidong Tang will be flying Australia’s flag in the first round after coming through qualification. They are joined by R.M.V. Gurusaidutt of India who swept past Malaysia’s Jiann Shiarng Chiang, 21-16 21-12, in his second encounter of the day.
On the women’s side, Sylvina Kurniawan and Jennifer Tam got byes into the main draw while their Australian Women’s Singles team-mate, Tiffany Ho, brushed aside Pakistan’s Sara Mohmand (21-6 21-7) in the second phase of qualification. Indonesia’s Lyanny Mainaky also advanced thanks to a bye.
Good fortune also shone on the home players in the Mixed category as three pairs advanced to the first round without taking to the courts. They are Lukas Defolky/Melinda Sun; Jonathan Sun/Jennifer Tam; and Cham Chen/Rainbow Ngai. Denmark’s Defolky and Sun will face China’s World Junior champions, Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen, while Chen and Ngai tackle the Japanese duo of Kenta Kazuno/Ayane Kurihara. The pairing of Sun and Tam will be up against Indonesians, Riky Widianto/Richi Puspita Dili.
Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Line Kjaersfeldt, took the fourth Mixed Doubles qualifying spot and will now battle the brother-and-sister combination of Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky and Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky of Indonesia. Interestingly, Kjaersfeldt and Lyanny Mainaky are also drawn against each other in Women’s Singles in tomorrow’s opening match.
In Men’s Doubles, two Malaysian pairs (Mohamad Syazmil Idham Zainal Abidin/Muhammad Amzzar Zainuddin and Ahmad Maziri Mazlan/Amir Syazwan Al Razi Mohd Shahriman Bakhtir) joined two Australian duos in the first round; the local hopefuls being Ferry Kurniawan/Chia Sheng Lim and Bernhard Halim/Tran Hoang Pham.
Meanwhile, Men’s Singles ace, Chen Long, had a lengthy practice as he prepares to return from a back injury which sidelined him from last week’s BCA Indonesia Open 2016 in Jakarta. The Chinese World champion looked lively on court as he gets ready to defend the title he won last season and continues his build-up towards the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Languishing way down the Destination Dubai Rankings, the star player is also seeking to kick-start his campaign for a place in the year-end showpiece – the Dubai World Superseries Finals – in which he triumphed in 2014. The Sydney event marks the halfway stage of the 12-leg Superseries tour and surprisingly Chen Long is yet to win a title this year.
He will certainly want to set matters right by emerging on top Down Under.
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