It was a cold and rainy day in St George Utah but that didn’t stop the top two seeds in the draw from handling their business. Let’s breakdown how they got to Sunday’s final and what to look for in their upcoming matchup.
Mixed Doubles Championship: (1) Johns/Wright vs (2) Ignatowich/Bright
Ben Johns has been without Anna Leigh Waters by his side for most of the month of April but that hasn’t stopped him from making mixed doubles finals. Johns competed with Etta Wright today and they picked up right where they left off after their title run in Houston. They started their day off defeating the dangerous team of Jaume Martinez Vich and Mary Brascia in the round of 16. They followed it up with a rollercoaster win in the quarterfinals over Jay Devilliers and hometown favorite Callie Smith in three games. In the semifinals it was a straightforward 11-3, 11-5 win over Connor Garnett and Alix Truong that stamped their ticket to Championship Sunday.
On the other side of the draw, all eyes were on James Ignatowich, who has not competed in mixed doubles in the past two PPA events. The time off seems to have served him well as he and Anna Bright ran through their section of the bracket. They defeated Collin Shick/Maggie Brascia, Dylan Frazier/Hurricane Tyra Black and Andrei Daescu/Martina Frantova all in two games to advance to Sunday's final.
Ignatowich and Bright will look to claim their first title of the season together and become back to back Red Rock Open champs but they’ll have to keep Ben Johns out of the middle and force Etta Wright to beat them. Based on how they performed today we should be in for a fantastic best 3 out of 5 heavyweight fight.
On the Horizon
Gender doubles kicks off tomorrow morning at 11AM MT. Tune into PickleballTV and the PPA’s YouTube channel to catch all of the action.
