The pair bounced back from a 17th-place finish in the first tournament to progress to the quarter-finals tomorrow at the Playa Delfines.

Despite completing the pool stage with a loss to China's Fan Wang and Xinyi Xia, the Austrians recovered to win two elimination matches and make the final eight.

First they prevailed 21-16, 21-16 against Japan's Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami before defeating Dutch players Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon 23-21, 19-21, 16-14.

Next they will play Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Lisboa in the quarter-finals.

Bednarczuk and Lisboa reached the last eight by defeating compatriots Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima, winners of the first tournament in Cancun, 5-21, 21-19, 15-10.

"We're so happy," said Plesiutschnig.

"We were a little frustrated because we had our chances to win the second set but didn't take advantage of them, but we kept fighting for every point until the end.

"We're exhausted after three matches, but we're also excited to play tomorrow and will get on the court and fight some more."

Now guaranteed at least fifth place in the tournament, the Austrians will secure their best finish in the Olympic qualification period, but are still outside of the top 15 teams that will qualify for Tokyo 2020 through the rankings as things stand.

Dutch duo Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink also made it the quarter-finals after defeating the Czech Republic's Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermmanova 21-16, 21-18 and will now play the United States' Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, who defeated Switzerland's Nina Betschart and Tanja Huberli 2-0 21-16, 21-13.

Germany's Karla Borger and Julia Sude knocked out reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada with a 21-14, 21-15 victory.

They will play Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina in the quarter-finals, because the Russians defeated their compatriots Victoria Bieneck and Isabel Schneider 21-11, 21-18.

China's Fan and Xinyi are also through to the quarter-finals and will face April Ross and Alix Klineman of the US.

In the men's event, Italian Rio 2016 runners-up Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo defeated Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins 21-15, 22-20 to make their quarter-finals and are set to play Qatar's Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan.

The Qataris knocked out Swiss pair Mirco Gerson and Adrian Heidrich 21-16, 19-21, 15-8.

Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, who lead the rankings, also progressed with a 21-19, 21-19 win over Americans Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb.

The Norwegian duo will face Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Łosiak of Poland for a semi-final spot after they eliminated Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley 21-17, 22-20.

Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Alvaro Filho eliminated Russians Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov after a hard-fought 21-14, 18-21, 22-20 win, and are set to meet Dutch duo Christiaan Varenhorst and Steven van de Velde next.

A second Dutch pair made the quarter-finals after Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Grot won 21-14, 26-24 over Poland's Maciej Rudol and Jakuk Szalankiewicz.

There they will play Italians Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi, who were clear 2-0 21-16, 21-16 winners over Canadians Ben Saxton and Grant O'Gorman.

Quarter-finals and semi-finals are due to be played tomorrow.