In several previous matches, the team hitting toward the video board on Championship Court had an advantage. Will that hold up?
The weather has been rainy and cold most of the week – what will Sunday bring?
Ben Johns turned 24 on Saturday.
=== MEN’S SINGLES ===
BEN JOHNS and FEDERICO STAKSRUD are forging a new and surprising rivalry in 2023. Johns won in two games in the final at the Masters, and in three games in the final at Desert Ridge, then Staksrud beat Johns in three games in the semifinal at the Arizona Grand Slam in Mesa. (Staksrud beat Jay Devilliers in the final there.)
Staksrud started the year ranked #5 and is now #2. Neither player lost a game in his four wins in this tournament.
=== WOMEN’S SINGLES ===
ANNA LEIGH WATERS and CATHERINE PARENTEAU continue their rivalry and domination. They are the only women to win back-to-back singles titles since Simone Jardim in February 2021. Both players have won three matches in this tournament…Waters was spotless, and CP dropped just one game to Brooke Buckner. Last week, Parenteau gave Waters her first loss since last June (Parris Todd).
=== MIXED DOUBLES ===
ANNA LEIGH WATERS and BEN JOHNS, the top seeds, lost only one game in their four wins here. They have won three titles this year.
ANNA BRIGHT and JAMES IGNATOWICH, the #7 seeds, beat Kovalova-Wright and the Johnsons along the way. Bright won gold with Riley Newman at Arizona. Ignatowich won gold with Catherine Parenteau at the National Indoor Championships, Now they join forces. Ignatowich also won singles gold at the National Indoor.
=== MEN’S DOUBLES ===
BEN and COLLIN JOHNS won four matches in the minimum of eight games to reach the finals. They stopped an impressive run by the #20 seeds, John Cincola and Brendan Long, in the semis. The Johns brothers lost to Riley Newman and Matt Wright in November in Texas and since then they have won the five tournaments they entered together (they did not play together at the Indoor National Champ.).
RILEY NEWMAN and MATT WRIGHT needed three games to get past the #3 seeds, Dylan Frazier and JW Johnson, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9. This followed another three-game victory against James Ignatowich and Tyson McGuffin. Newman and Wright beat Johns/Johns in three gold medal matches last year, most recently in November, but since then the Johns brothers have won four straight head-to-head gold medal matches.
- It is very hard to win a gold medal match on the PPA Tour when you have a game point opportunity but do not convert it. That happened to Newman and Wright in three of their last four gold medal matches against the Johns brothers. (Orlando game one, Desert Ridge game two, Mesa game four.
=== WOMEN’S DOUBLES ===
MEGHAN SHEEHAN-DIZON and VIVIENNE DAVID, the #7 seeds, beat the #2 team of Lucy Kovalova and Callie Smith and then the #6 seeds, Irina Tereschenko and Etta Wright, to reach the final. David won the Takeya Showcase title in November, playing with Andrea Koop. In Sheehan-Dizon’s only previous Sunday appearance, she earned a silver at the PPA Tour Round Up last October, playing with Catherine Parenteau.
ANNE LEIGH WATERS and ANNA BRIGHT storm back into the finals. The top seeds won three matches without losing a game. Waters is trying to win her sixth straight PPA tournament while alternating partners, Parenteau and Bright. Meanwhile, Waters and Bright play against each other in the mixed doubles final.
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