After an exiciting day of gender doubles the PPA Seattle came to an end on Sunday. The day started on ESPN before moving over to the PPA’s YouTube Channel. We saw some of the game’s best competing for gold so let’s dive into the five individual matches and what took place.
Mixed Doubles Championship: Waters & Johns Take Home #9
It’s always going to be an uphill climb for the field when the #1 female and #1 male player in the world partner up together. However, both Anna Bright and James Ignatowich have two gold medals to their names in mixed this year so their chances of pulling off the upset were as great as anybody. After dropping game 1 11-4, they battled back in game 2 to win it 11-7. As Johns & Waters have done all year, they bounced back to win the next two games 11-4, 11-6 to earn their 9th gold medal together in 10 tries.
Men’s Doubles Championship: Frazier & Johnson Go Back to Back
Fresh off their title together at the Beer City Open, Frazier and Johnson were looking to do something they haven’t done all year, win back-to-back gold medals. With no Johns brothers or Matt Wright & Riley Newman in their path they had to take out the rising team of Pablo Tellez & Federico Staksrud in order to get there. After taking the first two games 11-7, 11-7 it looked as if they were headed for gold without dropping a single game all tournament. However, Staksrud & Tellez were able to push it to game 4 before Frazier & Johnson clinched the victory 11-3.
Women’s Doubles Championship: Waters & Bright Make it 6/6
Anna Leigh Waters & Anna Bright were undefeated on the year in women’s doubles heading into this match and their ability to turn defense into offense from multiple different positions on the court proved to be too much for the team of David/Kawamoto. After a tight game 1 in which they won 11-7, they went on a 15-1 run before David & Kawamoto were able to fight back in game 3. Down 6-8, Waters & Bright found another level and finished it off with a 5-0 run of their own to win the match in straights 11-7, 11-0, 11-8.
Men’s Singles Championship: Johns Cruises to 7th Singles Gold
Ben Johns looked fresh and focused in the men’s singles final as he didn’t have to compete in the men’s doubles final earlier in the day. On the other side Federico Staksrud was coming off a tough 4 game loss to Frazier & Johnson just a few hours prior. This was the 5th time these two have gone to battle on championship Sunday and it was Johns that was able to prevail in straight games 11-4, 11-6
Women’s Singles Championship: Waters Battles Back
Lea Jansen announced on Thursday that this would be her last singles match ever and she came out playing like it. She was able to play big in the tight moments in game 1 to take it 12-10. After that it was all Anna Leigh Waters as she finished off the match on a 24-3 run winning games 2 & 3 comfortably 11-0, 11-3.
On the Horizon
Next up the PPA heads to sunny Southern California as Los Cab Country Club plays host for the Takeya Showcase. Make sure to tune in Thursday-Sunday to catch all the action.
