Ryan Scheffler and Justin O’Neil had a chance to erase the one blemish on their record at the Pickleball Ontario Championships.
Having opened the tournament with a 16-14 loss to Paul Robertson and Carlos Faria, the Halton Hills Pickleball Association members earned themselves a second chance after reeling off five straight wins to reach the final.
“The first half of that (opening) match, I was so nervous,” Scheffler said. “As we settled in, we started playing better.”
In the final, they left little doubt in their rematch with Robertson and Faria. Scheffler and O’Neill cruised to a 11-2, 11-0 victory to win the provincial 3.5 under-40 division at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre earlier this month.
“Close to the end (of the round-robin match), we started to figure out what worked against them,” O’Neill said. “We were able to place our shots and picked apart their weaknesses. We learned from that and used it in the final.”
“That was a good redemption match,” Scheffler said. “Marc (Surette, HHPA president) said that was the best he’s ever seen us play together. I was like, everything was going our way."
After going 4-1 in round-robin play, Scheffler and O’Neil squared off against one of their toughest opponents in the semis. In their round-robin match, the local duo fell behind 13-5 before rallying for a 15-13 win.
“It was one of those cases where you take a time out at the right time and something clicks,” Scheffler said. “We got rolling.”
“It was a moral victory knowing we could pick it up and turn it around,” O’Neil said.
Like they did in the final, they used their experience from the round-robin in the playoff round against the same opponents and this time scored a relatively easy 15-6 win.
Scheffler also had success in the singles competition the previous day, earning a bronze medal.
“That was very exciting,” he said. “There aren’t many opportunities to play singles, especially in a scene like that. It was much more intense.”
