Sunitha Rao in the city on Friday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Sunitha Rao, ranked 161, has been included in the main draw of the WTA Sunfeast Open after Marlene Weingartner of Germany pulled out of the meet on Friday. Marlene is ranked one step higher than the Indian in the WTA rankings.

Sunitha, a United States citizen of Indian origin, termed this as a great opportunity. “I will try to make the most of it,” she said after getting the news that she would be playing in the main draw. She already landed in the city to play in the qualifying rounds.

The meet proper gets underway at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday.

Sunitha had earlier qualified for the main draw of the WTA Seoul Open but lost in the first round. Two years back, she achieved her highest ranking of 152 and then slipped to 162 last year.

Meanwhile, Giulia Orlandi, the WTA supervisor who arrived here late on Thursday, had a first-hand look at the venue and seemed pretty happy with the arrangements.

“I am surprised to see the arrangements and frankly speaking, I didn’t expect so much work could have been done in such a short time,” she said.