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Canada National Singles Wrap-up

Congrats to your Racquetball Canada 2019 Singles Champions:

Men’s Open: Samuel Murray
Women’s Open: Jen Saunders

They take big steps towards putting themselves onto the plane to represent Canada at this August’s 2019 International Racquetball Federation – IRF Pan American Games, the biggest event in our sport. Based on the 2019 PARC qualifying Team Canada will get two players each in Men’s and Women’s, and based on the qualifying as of late it definitely seems like the two singles finalists in each draw will form the teams for Peru later this year, but we’ll wait to hear official word of attendance.

R2sports link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=30409

Here’s a recap of the draw, noting results I found interesting:

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Men’s Singles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/5FFA3A

No Surprises in the round of 16, with all seeds advancing in 2 games. Closest match was #13 Ian Frattinger pushing #4 Pedro Castro to 13,10 in their match.

In the quarters:
– One upset by seed: #5 Trevor Webb took out #4 Castro in two. 
– Both #2 and #3 seeds were taken to tiebreakers but advanced. 
– Coby Iwaasa came from a game down to advance past #7 Lee Connell.

In the semis:
– #1 Samuel Murray made quick work of Webb 3,2.
– #2 Iwaasa played a close game 1 then took off to win game 2 going away over #3 Tim Landeryou 13,2.

The Final was a rematch of the 2015 and 2018 Canadian finals, as well as a rematch of the last three running qualifier events. Murray and Iwaasa split the last two finals rematches, but this one was a Murray win going away 3,6. Murray captures his 2nd Canadian National title.

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Women’s singles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/315210

In the play-in round of 16, Cassie Prentice won in a slight upset by seeding, taking out the #8 Murielle Boivin 9,4. Meanwhile, the younger Parent sister Juliette beat her older sister Marjolaine 4,10 to advance.

In the quarters
– All 4 top seeds advanced, chalk.
– #3 Michèle Morissette advanced with the interesting score line of 1,(7),1 over vet Linda Marie Ellerington.

In the Semis:
– #1 Jen Saunders won a solid match over #4 Danielle Drury 13,8
– #2 Christine Richardson advanced over #3 Morissette in two close games.

In the Final, a rematch of last year’s Canadian National championship, Saunders won going away 4,1 to claim her 11th National Title. Saunders has now made at least the Canadian National singles final in NINTEEN consecutive years; every year since 2001. You have to go back to the 2000 national tournament to find a Women’s Canadian singles final that didn’t include Saunders (that year, Jackchristie Huczek beat Lori-Jane Powell for the title). Its a pretty amazing run for Saunders, who shows no sign of slowing down.

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Canadian National Doubles Wrap-Up

Saunders adds to her impressive career totals.

Congratulations to your 2019 Racquetball Canada National Doubles titlists:
Men: Samuel & Tommy Murray
Women: Jen Saunders & Danielle Drury.

r2sports link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=30409

This is the 4th Canadian national doubles title for Samuel Murray, and a first for his brother … who was the losing finalist each of the last four years running. Meanwhile, this is Saunder’s 13th title, and she inches closer to the record for most National doubles titles with her former partner and fellow Canadian Josee Grand’Maitre, who has 15 titles. Drury wins her 2nd title.

All Canadian Men’s Open Doubles titlists from 1975: http://rball.pro/BEE33C

All Canadian Women’s Open Doubles titlists: http://rball.pro/B26E86

Here’s a quick recap of the event, which is now live in the www.proracquetballstats.com database.

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Men’s doubles:
Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/3AB576

There were 7 teams. In the semis, the two Murray brothers (Samuel Samuel Murray and Tommy Murray ) upset the #1 seeded Coby Iwaasa and Trevor Webb in a tiebreaker, while the Landeryou brothers ( James Landeryou and Tim Landeryou) took out Nicolas Bousquet and Pedro Castro in a tiebreaker.

So it was two brother teams in the final; there the Murrays staged a great comeback to take game one 17-15 (remember, in Canada its win-by-2 in all games). The Landeryous took game two, but then fell apart in the tiebreaker.

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Women’s Doubles:

Match Report in PRS database: http://rball.pro/35B3E1

There were four teams, so they played round robin. The #1 seeded team of Christine Richardson and Michele Morissette was upset by the #3 seeded team of Jen Saunders and Danielle Drury in the RRs en route to their 3-0 finish and the 2019 National title.

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The doubles champions for Canada qualify to represent the country in the Pan Am Games later this year, and will go towards qualification for 2020’s PARC and Worlds. We can’t say however that these exact teams will be in Lima later this year though, because Canada only qualified two men and two women to the Pan Am games (see http://www.internationalracquetball.com/xviii-pan-american…/ for the roster qualification spots). So likely the two singles qualifiers will team up to play doubles for Canada in Peru.

For Canada … now starts the singles competition. We’ll post that preview and recap separately (the pre-view likely before you see this).

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Canada National Singles Preview

Sam Murray goes for another Men’s singles title. (photo via Rball Canada)

Just like their southern neighbors, Racquetball Canada uses the last weekend in May to host their National Singles events. They also host their National doubles (which ended yesterday and which we’ll wrap-up later this week)

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=30409

This is the 45th iteration of Canada National Singles, as far as I can tell. First held in Winnipeg in 1975, the first Men’s champ was Wayne Bowes. Mike Green (who recently announced his retirement officially from competition) is tied with Canadian legend Sherman Greenfeld for the most singles titles in Canada with 10 each. Samuel Murray is your defending champ and is the #1 seed this weekend.

On the Women’s side, they also have records dating to 1975, with Monique Parent being the first ever Women’s singles champ. Jennifer Jen Saunders hholds the record for most ever Canadian singles titles with 10, and as the defending champ and #1 seed has a chance to take the outright lead and tie American Rhonda Rajsich for the most ever country national titles (with the caveat that we don’t have full records for Mexico and other countries).

click here for a full list of all Canada National Men’s Singles finals: http://rball.pro/DEA1C6

click here for a full list of all Canada National Women’s singles finals; http://rball.pro/D48335

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Here’s a preview of the singles events.

Men’s Singles:There’s 15 in the draw. Here’s some round of 16 matches to look for:
– in the 8/9 game, Tommy Murray takes on Tanner Prentice for a shot at #1. If Murray wins, he gets to go against his brother. If Prentice wins, it would be his first ever win at Adult nationals.
– In the 7/10 game, Lee Connell (who’s been playing in National events for more than 15 years) gets a match against current Canadian 18U champ Sean Sauve in his adult debut.

Projecting the quarters:
– #1 Murray vs #8 Prentice; Sam moves on.
– #4 Pedro Castro vs #5 Trevor Webb; they met in 2017, a Castro win, and Pedro will be looking to return to the semis for the 2nd year running.
– #3 Tim Landeryou vs #6 Nicolas Bousquet; they met at this juncture in Nationals last year, a tie-breaker win for Tim. 
– #2 Coby Iwaasa vs #7 Connell: also a rematch of 2018 National quarters, an easy 5,5 win. Can Connell push it closer?

Semis: Murray over Castro, Iwaasa over Landeryou. These are the exact same semis from 2018, and i’m predicting the same chalk results.

Final: Murray over Iwaasa in a tie-breaker. These two met in the 2018 National finals, and in the finals of both Canadian qualifiers leading up to this event, and have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the Canadian field.

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Women’s Singles: there’s 10 ladies in the draw, and no Frederique Lambert, which opens up the field significantly. Lets preview the draw.

In the 16s:
– Reigning Canadian 18U Junior champ Cassie Prentice takes on #8 seeded Murielle Boivin for a shot at the #1 seed.
– Sisters Juliette and Marjolaine Parent have to face off in the 7/10 match. Juliette is the reigning 16U Canadian champ, while Marjolaine just graduated 18Us and represented Canada at Junior Worlds last year. Tough matchup for the parents; who do you root for? 🙂

Projecting the Quarters:
– #1 Saunders over #9 Prentice, marching towards a record-setting title.
– #4 Danielle Drury vs #5 Erin Geeraert: Geeraert is fresh off of representing Canada at the 2019 PARCs and will look to get back on the team for the Pan Am Games later this year.
– #3  Michèle Morissette takes on the legend Linda Marie Ellerington, whose first entry in the database is the 1987 Canadian National singles competition. Linda hasn’t competed in this event since 2015 …when she was eliminated by Morissette. 
– #2 Christine Richardson faces a Parent … i’m not sure which one, but think Richardson will be favored to advance either way.

Possible Semis: Saunders over Geeraert, Richardson over Morissette.

Final: Saunders over Richardson, a rematch of the 2018 final and the 2017 semis.

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Look for streaming notifications over the weekend. Follow Racquetball Canada for sure to get notifications. I know that Timothy Baghurst is in Canada leading the announcing, so tune in and follow along

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Racquetball Canada National Singles Qualifying event #2 Wrap-Up

Sam Murray takes the selection Men’s event (photo via Rball Canada)
PR

The second of two qualifying events was held this past weekend in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada for top Canadian players to earn points towards qualifying for the National team. Congrats to Samuel Murray and Jen Saunders on their wins on the weekend.

r2sports link here for brackets: http://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=30072

Here’s a wrap-up of the event.

On the Men’s side, the only significant upset of the weekend was #6 Trevor Webb‘s upset of #3 seed Tim Landeryou in the quarters. Webb then took #2 seed Coby Iwaasa to the brink in the semis, falling 11-9. Otherwise the draw mostly went chalk, with the top 2 seeds advancing to the final. This win puts Murray and Iwaasa into the drivers’ seats for National team slots in 2019, in that both players have made the finals in both Selection events thus far.

On the Women’s side, Saunders took advantage of Canadian #1 Frederique Lambert‘s absence and took the draw, giving her a win and a final in the two selection events of the season so far. She topped Christine Richardson in the final after both top seeds advanced through pool play. Richardson lost in the 3rd place game in the first selection event, so this gives her a good result in her quest to make the 2019 International events.

A note: I capture these results, but do not load them to the Amateur database. I realize they’re “important” events … but I only have one “Nationals” per country per year. I’m open to suggestions how to handle issues like this: USA also now has “major” events that also count towards National team qualifying, and Mexico last year had a “Nationals” event … and then a “Worlds Selection event” that ended up having different players then going to Worlds from those who had just won Nationals earlier in the year. I’m not sure there’s a good solution.