By Emmerson Campbell in Birmingham, England
Tennis stars, Chelsea Edghill and Natalie Cummings are into today’s women’s doubles Round-of-16 at these Commonwealth Games currently underway here in Birmingham, England.
In a historic feat, the dynamic duo advanced after dominating their South African opponents, Zodwa Maphanga and Jayavant Patel 11-3, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 on court seven yesterday at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC).
The local pair will look to edge closer to the medal round when they play Australian duo, Chunyi Feng and Yangzi Liu today at 09:30hrs.
Edghill and Cummings’ advancement to the Round of 16 is the first for a local pair since tennis was added to the Commonwealth Games in 2002.
Earlier in the day, Shemar Britton and Christopher Franklin exited the men’s doubles after losing 3-1 (6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 5-11) to Nigeria’s Amadi Omeh and Olajide Omotayo.Cummings also lost her women’s singles round of 16 match after her historic qualifying for the round on Thursday evening following a marathon thriller with Ruqayyah Kinoo of Mauritius..The 33-year-old was outmatched by Wales’ Anna Hursey 11 – 4, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 but promised to build on her new-found confidence ahead of the South American Games scheduled for October in Paraguay.
Meanwhile, Priscilla Greaves teamed up with Thuraia Thomas but lost their women’s doubles round of 32 match against Offiong Edem/Atunike Bello of Nigeria 3-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-5).
Squash
Over at the University of Birmingham, the mixed pairs of Shomari Wiltshire and Mary Fung-A-Fat and Ashley and Jason-Ray Khalil won their plate quarterfinal matches yesterday and will advance to today’s plate semis.Fung-A-Fat and Wiltshire defeated Papua New Guinea’s duo, Amity Alarcos and Madako Suari, 4-11, 5-11 while the Khalil siblings turned back the challenge of Sri Lankan pair, Ravindu Laksiri and Yeheni Kuruppu (10-11, 3-11). The plate semis will be staged today from 12:45pm.
