Sourabh, Uttejitha Rao enter main draw of Thailand Open

Indian shuttlers Sourabh Verma and Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka made it to the men's and women's singles main draw of the Thailand Open badminton tournament after winning their respective qualifying round matches here on Tuesday.

Sourabh first beat Kantawat Leelavechabutr of Thailand 21-18 21-19 and then got the better of Zhou Ze Qi of China 11-21 21-14 21-18 in his second match of the qualification round to advance to the men's singles main draw.

Zhou had beaten another Indian Ajay Jayaram 21-16 21-13.

Uttejitha Rao, meanwhile, beat Tam Brittney of Canada 16-21 21-14 21-19 to enter the women's singles main draw.

The likes of Saina Nehwal, in women's singles, and B Sai Pranneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, H S Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap, in men's singles, are in the fray in the main draw of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.

The main draw begins Wednesday.