Anna Leigh Waters Notches Triple Crown in Atlanta as Ben Johns Narrowly Misses Hat Trick
Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns, widely regarded as arguably the best in their respective divisions, stamped their class at the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championship. Waters, the undisputed no. 1 women’s player, notched a treble of gold medals to prove her lofty stature, while Johns narrowly missed out on a hat trick of his own as he bagged two gold and one silver medals.
Anna Leigh Waters Adds to Her Legend with Another Triple Crown
Waters, incidentally, won her first of three gold medals with the help of Johns in a high-powered partnership that dominated the action in Atlanta from start to finish. The two punctuated their dominant display all week long with a 11-3, 11-2, 11-7 romp over No. 4 seeds Etta Tuionetoa and Christian Alshon. It was the pair’s 49th title and Waters’s 50th in mixed doubles overall.
Waters next added the women’s doubles title with another dominant showing, this time with Anna Bright, as they took on their former partners—Catherine Parenteau, Waters’s former partner, and Rachel Rohrabacher, Bright’s former teammate. Waters and Bright proved too good for Parenteau and Rohrabacher, whom they beat rather easily, 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 win in their highly anticipated battle for the women’s doubles crown. The win marked Waters’s 49th women’s doubles title—including 31 with Parenteau and 8 with Bright.
The no. 1 women’s player in the world closed out the week in style with a 11-1, 7-11, 11-1 victory over second seed Kate Fahey for the third of her three titles. With her singles crown, Waters wrapped up her 34th Triple Crown on the PPA Tour.
Ben Johns Nearly Duplicates Anna Leigh Waters’s Treble
With the mixed doubles crown in the bag, Ben Johns next captured the men’s singles crown with a dramatic 3-11, 11-9, 11-9 come-from-behind victory over third seed Connor Garnett. It was Ben’s 37th singles title overall on the PPA Tour and yet another reminder that he is still the man to beat.
However, a Triple Crown was not meant to be for Ben as he and partner Gabe Tardio fell to JW Johnson and CJ Klinger 9-11, 9-11, 7-11 in the championship match in men’s doubles. Had Ben and Tardio held steady against their upstart foes, Ben would have won the 22nd treble of his undoubtedly illustrious career.
Despite narrowly missing out on a Triple Crown, it can’t be denied that Ben’s showing at Atlanta was ultra-impressive to say the least—something that’s been the norm for one of the sport’s GOATs.
