Matty and Binner Surprise Victors at Beach Nationals
It felt like summer had finally arrived with bright blue sunny skies and warm temperatures, highlighting the Beach National Championships for a perfect weekend. With 16 divisions of men and women vying for champions from 14U-24U and two senior divisions there was an expanse of courts that seemed endless as it filled the beach at Ashbridges’ Bay, Toronto.
In the women’s top division the winning duo was Annie Martin and Dana Cook. They were Canada’s failed Olympic hopefuls for Beijing. They defeated Annie Boileau and Marie-Christine Mondor for gold after losing a close first game but coming back to win game two and three handily. Bronze went to the western team of Niemczewska-Moppett.
On the men’s side, the surprise winners were Matt Zybszewski and Josh Binstock. They took only two games to defeat Ehren Cadieux and new partner Jessie Lelliott who had to fight a hard three game match against the taller experienced team of Rich Van Huizen and Conrad Leinemann.
Van Huizen-Leinemann had played strategically through early pool play giving up most of their matches to move into the losers bracket. Van Huizen was nursing an injury which had earlier hampered the team’s drive to qualify for the Olympics. Their tough three game semi-final match had proved to much for them and they forfeited the bronze medal match to Simek-Kruger who had lost their semi-final match two-straight to the eventual champions.
