Grand'Maître & Saunders and Gagnon & Viens win doubles at Canadian National Racquetball Championships

Jennifer Saunders and Josée Grand'Maître won women's doubles and Vincent Gagnon and François Viens won men's doubles at the 2012 Canadian National Racquetball Championships in Brossard, Quebec. For Saunders and Grand'Maître it was title number 8 together, while Gagnon and Viens won for a third time.

In the women's final, Saunders and Grand'Maître defeated the young team of Brandi Jacobson Prentice and Frédérique Lambert, 16-14, 15-10, although it looked like Jacobson Prentice and Lambert, title holders in 2010, would win game one, as they were up 14-11. But there is little veterans Saunders and Grand'Maître haven't faced before, and they dug in their heels and reeled off five straight points to take game one 16-14.

Game two was close until the midway point, when Saunders and Grand'Maître pulled ahead and stayed there.

On the men's side the big story was 5th seeds Eric Desrochers and Pedro Castro as they advanced to the final by defeating the defending doubles champions Mike Green and Kris Odegard in the semi-finals, 15-8, 8-15, 11-9. Desrochers and Castro had never reached the final before.

But in the final, they faced Gagnon and Viens, who had won the title twice before in 2008 and 2009. In the final, Gagnon and Viens won the first game relatively easily, and it seemed that Desrochers and Castro's good run had come to an end.

But in game two, the younger team came back and took a decisive lead at 10-5, and then pushed on to win 15-8. Part of their strategy change was to serve most of the balls to Viens, who was playing the right side.

Game three was again close early, but Gagnon and Viens pulled ahead to lead 9-5. Then there was an incident where the ball was coming to the back wall, and Viens jumped to avoid getting hit by it, but in doing so came down into Castro as he was moving back to get the ball.

Castro was down for a couple of minutes and took some injury time before continuing. But despite this, he and Desrochers made a run to cut the lead to one at 10-9. However, they couldn't get any closer as Gagnon and Viens closed it out at 11-9.

The singles competition of the 2012 Canadian National Racquetball Championships starts Wednesday and concludes on Saturday.

2012  Canadian National Racquetball Championships
Brossard, Quebec 


Men's Open Doubles  


Final

Vincent Gagnon & Francois Viens d. Eric Desrochers  & Pedro Castro, 15-8, 8-15, 11-9

Semi-finals

Eric Desrochers  & Pedro Castro d. Mike Green & Kris Odegard., 15-11, 1-15, 11-9
Vincent Gagnon & Francois Viens d. Corey Osborne & Francis Guillemette, 15-2, 14-16, 11-4

Women's   Open Doubles 


Final 

Jennifer Saunders & Josée Grand'Maître d. Brandi Jacobson Prentice &  Frederique Lambert, 16-14, 15-10

3rd place 

Brigitte Richard & Christine Richardson  d. Danielle Drury  & Michèle Morissette, 15-5, 15-8

Follow the bouncing ball….