The Ballarat Open, which is the third longest running racquetball tournament in Australia, took place at Wendouree’s Ballarat Squash and Racquetball Centre.

White led a strong men’s open field, which also included Garry Pedersen who is in second position on both the national and Victorian grand prix circuit rankings. 

His fourth Ballarat Open title in five years, White’s credentials also include 16 Australian Open crowns and 15 Victorian Open crowns.

In the women’s open event, seven-time Australian Open champion Judy Wright survived a nail-biter over Sally White to deny a fairy tale ending for the Whites. 

A number of Ballarat players were competitive over the weekend with Seth Adams taking out the A-grade event over another local Troy Anwyl, Blake Caspersz capturing the B-grade championship, Andrew Curwood winning the D-grade final over top seeded South Australian Brian Richards, and Will Parry claiming the Junior Boy’s title over younger brother Hugo. 

In the double’s events, Ballarat champion Darren O’Donnell teamed up with Geelong’s Charlie Stevenson to claim the open doubles title, the Ballarat duo of Josh Chaffey and Anthony Bossner held on to claim the A-grade title over brothers Seth and Sam Adams, while father-son combination of Gary and Andrew Clancy overcame the top seeded Albury pairing of Michael and Alex Brigden in C grade.

Ballarat youngsters Tyler Evans and Eboni Bouhajid teamed up with Victorian regional players to finish runners-up in the D and E-grade events respectively. 

The competition marks the final hit-out in the lead up to the pinnacle event of the year – the Australian Open Racquetball Championships in Albury in October.