Heidrich and Gerson were eliminated at the opening tournament in the Mexican city but recovered with an impressive display on the opening day of pool play.

The Swiss pair beat Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira 21-16, 22-20 before overcoming Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl 21-15, 21-11 in Pool E.

Heidrich and Gerson sit in 15th place in the provisional Olympic rankings and would be the last team guaranteed a Tokyo 2020 berth if the qualification process ended today.

World number one pairing Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway are also through to the next round in their bid for a second straight four-star title in Cancun.

Mol and Sørum topped Pool A but survived a scare as they needed three sets to beat Jose Angel Cardenas and Juan Espinoza of Mexico 21-12, 18-21, 15-9.

The formidable Norwegian team also beat Steven van de Velde and Christiaan Varenhorst of The Netherlands 21-18, 21-16.

On the opening day of the women's event, the Czech Republic's Markéta Sluková and Barbora Hermannová got their campaign off to a winning start following a disappointing performance at the first four-star competition in the Mexican city.

Sluková and Hermannová ousted Julia Sude and Karla Borger of Germany 21-10, 17-21, 15-7 to guarantee a place in the elimination round.

"It’s always frustrating when you take matches to three sets and can’t win," said Sluková. 

"But I didn’t think we played terribly last week, it was more about not being able to close matches. 

"We made some adjustments for this week, especially with trying to put more pressure on our serves, Barbora played a great match and it seems like we’re headed in a better direction this time."