Riley Newman and Matt Wright have a certain style.
Anyone who watches pickleball knows what it is – relentless attack, fast-paced, and as Newman says, “Bombs away.”
Collin and Ben Johns have a certain style, too.
Anyone who watches pickleball knows what it is – relentless patience and poise, ready to wait you out for as long as it takes, and as Ben Johns says, “It’s grinding rallies. That’s what we like and that’s what we want.”
And anyone who watches pickleball knows these teams know everything about each other. The pair will duel in the desert again Sunday in the men’s doubles championship as they both earned their way to the finals of the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open in Phoenix, Ariz.
No surprises, really. The two teams are the best in the world and the two teams will rematch again after playing last month in the finals of the PPA’s first event of the year in Rancho Mirage, Cali.
The Johns brothers came into this week’s tournament as the top seed. They dropped a game in a three-game victory over Gabriel Tardio and Rafa Hawett, but came back to win that one before beating Jay Devilliers and DJ Young in the quarterfinals, 11-5, 11-2. They then moved on to dominate the No. 4 seeded team of JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier, 11-4, 11-7.
“We played them in the last tournament, and we knew there were going to be a lot of dink rallies,” Collin Johns said of the victory over Frazier and Johnson which was a three-gamer back in January.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Wright and Newman cruised to the finals, going perfect in all eight games, dropping none. That included a win against the No. 3 seeds Tyler Loong and Callan Dawson, 11-5, 11-9 in the semifinals.
“When we play them, it’s about execution,” Wright said of their familiar foe, the Johns brothers. “They have their style and we have ours. They’ll try and slow it down and we like to be a little more aggressive.”
The Saturday win sets up Ben Johns for a chance for a second-consecutive triple crown. He’ll play Sunday in the men’s final and in the mixed doubles final as well, alongside Anna Leigh Waters, who is also going for her second triple crown in a row.
Waters and Catherine Parenteau earned their spot in the final with an 11-3, 11-4 win against Anna Bright and Vivienne David. An impressive rout as the second-seeded Waters and Parenteau rallied from an 0-2 start and dominated the rest of the match.
The pair gave up more than four points only once in the three matches they played Saturday.
“Now we can go home, watch some film and come up with a plan,” Parenteau said.
Parenteau and Waters will face the fourth-seeded team of Allyce Jones and Lea Jansen. Jones will be making her first showing in a Championship Sunday final after she and Jansen won 22 of the final 25 points of their match against Bobbi Oshiro and Sarah Ansboury, the No. 17 seed. Oshiro and Ansboury beat the top-seeded team of Lucy Kovalova and Callie Smith in the quarterfinals, 1-11, 11-7, 11-9.
“It’s a dream right now, and I’m so excited to play next to this girl,” Jones said of Jansen. “She’s so fun to play with and makes me laugh on the court.”
The PPA is set up for a great Sunday with the two best players in the world going for triple crowns as well as a first-timer in Jones taking the court. Johns will take on third-seeded Federico Staksrud in the men’s final. Waters will take on her doubles partner, Parenteau, the No. 2 seed in the women’s final.
Johnson/Frazier took the bronze medal against Tyler Loong and Callan Dawson 11-7, 11-2 and Bright/David bested Oshiro/Ansboury 11-0, 11-1 for their own bronze medal finish.
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