Ben Johns Looks Vulnerable at Rate Las Vegas Open as Anna Leigh Waters’ March to 200 Stalls

For years, Ben Johns has been the immovable figure at the top of pickleball, the player who seemed untouchable when the stakes were highest. Yet at the Rate Las Vegas Open 2026 over the weekend, the aura cracked. Hunter Johnson didn’t just beat him—he dismantled him, 11-1, 11-3. That scoreline in a championship match is the sort of result that makes people sit up and wonder if the landscape is shifting. Johns had fought his way through the draw, showing flashes of the resilience that made him world No. 1, but when it mattered most, Johnson exposed the gap between past dominance and present reality.

And then there was Anna Leigh Waters. She arrived in Las Vegas chasing history, just one step away from becoming the first player to reach 200 career PPA Tour titles. She did add another trophy in women’s doubles alongside Anna Bright, pushing her tally to 199. But the milestone slipped away in mixed doubles, where she and Johns fell in straight games to Bright and Hayden Patriquin. For Waters, it was a rare defeat in a discipline she has long controlled, and for Johns, another reminder that the partnership no longer guarantees invincibility.

A Changing Narrative

Pickleball fans have grown used to Johns and Waters dictating the storylines. They were the standard, the pair everyone else measured themselves against. Yet the Rate Las Vegas Open 2026 showed something different. Johns looked beatable in singles, and Waters, despite her brilliance, couldn’t carry their mixed doubles partnership over the line. The loss didn’t just delay her 200th title—it signalled that challengers might be closing the gap. The operative term, of course, is “might,” and it is just as possible that Johns simply had a bad weekend.

For Johns, specifically, the question is whether this is a blip or the start of a broader decline in singles. For Waters, the milestone will come soon enough, but the defeat alongside Johns adds intrigue to a season that suddenly feels less predictable. Bright and Patriquin’s victory wasn’t just a one-off; it was a statement that the top duo in mixed doubles can be toppled.

Pickleball thrives on rivalries, and Las Vegas may have given us the clearest sign yet that the era of Johns and Waters as untouchable is fading. The throne isn’t empty, but it no longer feels unchallenged.