GOLD COAST, Australia, CMC – Chris Binnie and Lewis Walters were the only two Caribbean players – either male or female – to survive the opening day of the Commonwealth Games.
The Jamaican duo came through the first two rounds of the competition with relative ease to reach the third round on Friday, as a host of Caribbean stars, including regional women’s champion Meagan Best of Barbados and highly-regarded Mary Fung-A-Fat of Guyana fell by the wayside at the Oxenford Studios.
Binnie, the reigning Caribbean men’s champion, needed just 20 minutes to dispose of Jason Doyle of St. Vincent & the Grenadines 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 in the opening round.
But Binnie had to dig deep to overcome from two games down against Sourav Ghosal of India before winning 5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10 in just over an hour in the second round.
World number 65 Binnie will now face world number 40 Joel Makin of Wales in the third round on Friday.
Meantime, compatriot Walters, ranked at 260th in the world, delivered an early upset, when he prevailed over world number 55 Peter Creed 11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9 in the opening round.
He followed up with a straight games victory over lowly-ranked Daniel Zammat-Lewis of Malta in straight sets 11-7, 11-9, 11-4 in half-hour.
Walters will need to display such giant-killing skills on Friday, when he faces world number 11 Cameron Pilley of Australia in the third round.
