CBS TO AIR MIXED DOUBLES FINAL SATURDAY
| July 11, 2023
The PPA Tour is back in your living room.
Again.
For the second time, the PPA will be on national television when the mixed doubles final of the n2grate D.C. Open is broadcast on CBS from 1:30-2:30 p.m. EST on Saturday.
The PPA is the only professional pickleball tour that has been on national television or a three-letter network.
Last time the PPA Tour got featured on CBS, it was on the opposite coast at the Riviera Country Club for the Skechers Invitational where pickleball’s viewership on the network outdid expectations by nearly three times over.
And CBS is likely to get a great match, because the mixed doubles field at the n2grate D.C. Open has more than 20 teams entered, which include some of the top teams in the sport.
Saturday’s national exposure would be an opportunity for Ben Johns to play in front of his friends and family, thanks to his having the home court advantage in D.C.
Johns is from Montgomery County, Md., and graduated from the University of Maryland College Park, where he founded the university’s first-ever pickleball club sport, a club that is now thriving with close to 70 members. Coincidentally, the site of this week’s tournament is also in College Park.
Of course, there’s no guarantee Johns will make the final. However, he will be playing alongside the formidable Anna Leigh Waters, who was featured in Thursday’s Washington Post article. The two will be the No. 1 seed in the field that will also have Matt Wright and Lucy Kovalova as the No. 2 seed.
Others contenders for the mixed doubles slot on CBS include Tyson McGuffin/Leigh Waters, Riley Newman/Catherine Parenteau, Collin Johns/Irina Tereschenko, and Callie Smith/AJ Koller.
All of the rounds leading up to the mixed doubles final will take place on Friday. The final itself will be shortened to a best two-of-three games format to fit the CBS time block, rather than using the PPA’s standard format of best three-of-five games for championships.
The other four finals – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, and women’s doubles – will be played out with the traditional format during Championship Sunday per the PPA Tour’s usual scheduling. CBS Sports will host the first two finals on Sunday from 12:00-2:00 p.m. EST, followed by Tennis Channel’s coverage of the last two finals from 2:00-4:00 p.m. EST.
