It was a bittersweet ending to Ben Johns’ century-eclipsing 100th title weekend in Cincinnati—he finished with 101 titles—but he probably should have punctuated his festivities with a Triple-Crown.
First, Ben and Colin Johns scrapped and clawed their way to perhaps their grittiest-ever PPA Men’s Doubles title. They saved match point in the quarterfinals against Pablo Tellez and Federico Staksrud and were just two points from defeat against Thomas Wilson and Riley Newman in the semifinals. In the best-of-five final, against the young duo of Dylan Frazier and J.W. Johnson, the brothers won 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8. But all that extra play in doubles may have come back to bite Ben in the singles final.
Ben also captured the Mixed Doubles championship with Anna Leigh Waters, dropping just one game (shoutout Pablo Tellez and Jackie Kawamoto). The Johns/Waters duo is borderline unfair, but we can hope that the standard they set inspires the next generation’s Mixed Doubles teams. It’s difficult to see them losing in the foreseeable future, as they are both by far the best male and female Pickleball players in the world.
It’s extremely rare to see Ben Johns run out of gas physically, but that’s exactly what happened in the singles final. Up 8-3 in game three…
