Oakleigh Park Lawn Tennis and Squash Club hosted their annual Racquetball Championship Finals on Friday night and a large and enthusiastic crowd witnessed some great racquet play.

Interest was heightened in the championship final by the appearance of the club’s two Argentinian squash coaches, brothers Lucas and Guido Cannistraci, neither of whom usually play racquetball.

The pair fought their way through the earlier rounds and beat previous winners Steve Maton and David Bennett on the way.

The expectant crowd had been warmed up by an exciting final of the Plate event for first round losers, in which Dan Carter beat Tony Vasir by three games to two.

It became clear as the main event commenced that the Cannistraci brothers had very quickly mastered the basic quirks of the fast-growing game of racquetball.

They proceeded to provide the highest quality final seen at the club to date, but it was Guido who would eventually prevail.

The opening game started in a very balanced way, with the scores even midway through the game as the brothers competed for supremacy.

Guido, however, came into his stride and won five points on the trot to take the first game 11-6 and put him in an excellent position to push on.

Lucas came back strongly in the second game and wasn’t too far away from tying the match overall.

However, with the score at eight points all, Guido again hit a purple patch, winning three points in a row to take the game 11-8.

This put the onus on Lucas to go out and win the third game, knowing that a loss would see his brother take the crown.

The high level and committed play continued in that third game but, once again, Guido was able to finish the game strongly, taking it 11-7 and thereby winning the match and the championship.