Fullerton, June 24 (IANS) India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made a winning start to their campaign at the US Open 2026 badminton tournament, battling past Spain’s Paula López and Lucía Rodríguez to reach the second round on Wednesday.

The Commonwealth Games medallists, ranked 58th in the world currently, registered a hard-fought 21-12, 14-21, 21-13 victory at the Titan Gym in California to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF Super 300 event. Treesa and Gayatri looked in control after comfortably taking the opener, but the Spanish pair fought back hard to force a decider.

But the Indian pair found their touch in the third game and ended with a dominant display to clinch victory. The tournament is another step in the comeback trail of the duo, with Treesa returning to competition at the Indonesia Open earlier this month after a three-month rehabilitation period owing to injury.

India’s only representatives in the women’s doubles draw, Treesa and Gayatri, will next take on Japan’s Sumire Nakade and Miyu Takahashi for a place in the quarter-finals.

Qualifier Rounak Chouhan carried on his good run of form to make it to the main draw in the men’s singles. The Indian shuttler defeated Enogat Roy of France 21-19, 21-16 before pipping Kuo Kuan-lin of Chinese Taipei 13-21, 21-14, 21-10 in the qualifying rounds. Rounak too had come through the qualifiers at last week’s Macau Open and went on to reach the quarter-finals, highlighting his growing confidence on the international circuit. India's main draw challenge will pick up pace on Wednesday as Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, and Anmol Kharb begin their campaigns.

Meanwhile, defending men’s singles champion Ayush Shetty will not return to defend the title he won at last year’s US Open.

--IANS

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