Indian shuttlers Sourabh Verma and Sai Uttejitha enter Thailand Open main draw

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Bangkok: Indian shuttlers Sourabh Verma and Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka have qualified for the Thailand Open main draw after winning their respective qualifying round matches of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament on Tuesday.

In men`s singles event, Sourabh beat Kantawat Leelavechabutr of Thailand 21-18, 21-19 in the first qualifying match before defeating Zhou Ze Qi of China 11-21, 21-14, 21-18 to qualify for the main draw. Zhou had defeated Ajay Jayaram 16-21, 13-21 to set up the match against Sourabh.

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

Sourabh will be facing Kanta Tsunemaya of Japan while Uttejitha Rao will be locking horns with China`s Chen Xiao Xin in their respective first-round matches on Wednesday. 

The likes of B. Sai Pranneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, H.S. Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap in men`s singles are in the fray in the main draw. 

In women`s singles, ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu has pulled out from the Thailand Open while fellow Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal will take part in the Super 500 event.

Sindhu is one of several high profile athletes to withdraw from the tournament with Japan`s Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi and Taiwanese world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying all pulling out.

This will be the first event for Saina after an injury lay-off which forced her to miss the Indonesia Open and Japan Open.