The 23-year-old former Asian Games international beat Wang Yuehang of England 21-12 21-10 in the first round and sealed his berth by seeing off Rahul Chittaboina of India 21-14 21-12.

“Before the qualifying round, I just hoped to make it to the maindraw  But as I achieved that already, I aim at the quarter-finals now,” said Sitthikom whose semi-final appearance five years ago was still his best result up to date.

“The tournament is bigger now as it’s World Tour Super 500. It won’t be easy anymore,” he added.

However, a series of high ranked players including world No 4 Shi Yuqi of China, No 5 Kidambri Srikanth of India and world No 7 and reigning Olympic champion Chen Long withdrawing, this for Sitthikom will open doors for Thais.

“They may get exhausted from two straight event (Malaysia and Indonesia) before Thailand. So everybody stands a better shot including Thais.”

Sitthikom’s presence in the 32-field lifts Thailand’s representation in the men’s event to six players, including No 1 Khosit Phetpradab and in-form No 2 Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

The main singles matches get under way this morning without women’s defending champion Ratchanok Intanon, who was forced to withdraw on Monday with a back injury.

In the mixed doubles first round, Thai hopes Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai had to dig deep before outlasting Taiwanese Lee Yang and Hsu Ya Ching 19-21 21-10 21-17.