Thursday was the rarest of days on the PPA Tour.
Maybe it was something more than that, because for the better part of three years we have never seen anything like it on the PPA Tour.
It was a hand-to-the-side-of-the-face, you-gotta-be-kidding sorta day, because when Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters lose, it’s notable, but when they lose on the same day, it’s remarkable.
There’s really no other way to describe it.
The top players in the game and the most-prolific winners, dominant, and every other superlative you want to put in front of their name, both got beat, and, more than that, neither will be on the medal stand.
Instead, it’s Gabriel Joseph, the No. 24 seed playing against No. 2-seeded Federico Staksrud in the final, and on the women’s side it’s the ninth-seeded Tyra Black against sixth-seeded Yana Newell Championship Sunday.
Wait, what?
Black’s win was the biggest shocker of the tournament. After all, Waters hadn’t lost since March, was working on a streak of having won six triple crowns in a row. But Black dominated the third and deciding game against Waters in the quarterfinal and won 11-8, 2-11, 11-3.
“I thought I was going to lose the whole time, even when I was up in the third game,” Black said. “Obviously…
