Defending Champions Pirnak And Hosey Headline Strong Canadian National Doubles Field
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline April 13th, 2012 --- Willie Hosey and Michael Pirnak, who were the No. 2-ranked team in the ISDA pro doubles tour during the 2002-03 season, are the top seeds as the 78th edition of the Canadian National Doubles Championship kicks off this morning at a number of the clubs in downtown Toronto. Hosey and Pirnak, who have received a bye to the quarterfinals of the 15-team field, will be attempting to defend the title they won a year ago in Montreal with a final-round victory over James Hewitt and Chris Deratnay. Pirnak is actually a two-time defending champion, having also won in 2010 with Fred Reid Jr. as his partner.
Reid had originally entered this year’s event with Hewitt but had to withdraw, so Hewitt will instead be pairing up with former PSA top-five and current University of Rochester coach Martin Heath as the second-seeded team. Also among the seeds are Scott Stoneburgh (who won this championship in 1994, 2005 and 2006 with Jamie Bentley and in 2007 with Morris Clothier) and Deratnay, as well as Will Mariani and Ian Power, who partnered up for several ISDA events during the past two seasons.
There are two clear favorites in the six-team women’s open draw, in which the winners of two three-team round-robins will meet Sunday in the final. One of them is Steph Hewitt and Seanna Keating, the reigning World Doubles champs by virtue of their comeback victory last spring in Toronto over Narelle Krizek and Natarsha McElhinny. Hewitt, who just two weeks ago teamed with Meredeth Quick to capture the U. S. National Doubles in Rye, will be attempting to win this Canadian title for the fifth time with her fourth partner, having previously prevailed in 2007 with Krizek, in 2009 and 2010 with Jessica DiMauro and last year with Stephanie Edmison. DiMauro, who in addition to her two triumphs with Hewitt has also won this tourney in 2004 with her former Penn coach Demer Holleran, in 2005 and 2006 with Keating and in 2008 with Natalie Grainger, will be playing this weekend with Dana Betts, while Edmison’s partner is Rebecca Hazell.
There are some prominent entries in the age-group categories as well, 110 total team entries in all, with full feed-in plate competitions in each age-group guaranteeing a minimum of three matches for every entered team. Most notable among the age-group entries are Scott Dulmage (a five-time Canadian National Doubles champion with three different partners in the 1990’s and early-2000’s) and Richard Thomson, final-round 40’s winners in Rye last month over Hewitt and Jeff Mulligan, who are the top seeds in this Canadian 40’s event; Brian Murray and Steve McIntyre, who if the seedings hold up will have a final-round U. S. National Doubles rematch in the 60’s with the team (John Boynton and Tim Griffin) that they barely edged out in a fifth-set tiebreaker 12 days ago; Doug Lifford, who won the U. S. 45’s event with Chris Spahr and will attempt to do the same this weekend with Paul Zander; Sandy Tierney and Sean McDonough, who will try to duplicate the U. S. 55’s win they recently achieved; and two-time defending Canadian 65’s champs Tom Poor and Len Bernheimer, who if form holds true will have yet another final-round encounter with their longtime rivals Tony Swift and Molson Robertson.
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