Clean Sweep for Hometown Winner
| July 11, 2023
Ben Johns has raised trophies all across the country. He’s the most-prolific champion in all of pro pickleball. He has more Triple Crowns than anyone in history, is the GOAT of pickleball, and has single-handedly popularized pickleball in a very big way in the world of sports.
Twelve times, Johns has won all three divisions he’s entered at an event – known in pickleball as the Triple Crown – titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the same tournament.
But this weekend just has to be his favorite.
“Mission accomplished,” Johns said after his third and final win of the weekend. “That’s the perfect way to say it.”
Johns passed by Jay Devilliers 11-4, 11-1 at the n2grate D.C. Open, finishing his third win in three events – all as the hometown favorite in front of family and friends.
Johns, who went to the University of Maryland at College Park, which is right in JTCC’s backyard, grew up about an hour from the courts at JTCC. There must have been something in the air, because Johns was convincingly dominant all weekend to the soundtrack of cheers, screams, and requests for photos and autographs.
Johns and his brother and partner Collin Johns needed only three games to beat the second-seeded team of Matt Wright and Riley Newman on Sunday afternoon and Ben Johns and mixed doubles partner Anna Leigh Waters earned their first title of the weekend on Saturday when the pair won in two games over Wright and Lucy Kovalova.
“It felt amazing,” Johns said. “It’s no coincidence I played my best.”
Meanwhile, Waters, who was going for a fourth triple crown of her PPA season, won twice, but lost in the women’s doubles final to Kovalova and Callie Smith, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4. The match was filled with emotion, plenty of fist pumps, finger waggles, and shouting. The matchup between the two teams has quickly become one of the most compelling in pickleball.
“I feel like it’s a competition with everyone,” Smith said, downplaying some of the pointed emotion of the match against the Waters. “The Waters are amazing and fabulous players. You come out and compete and sometimes you become a different person. It’s competitive. We’re all here to play hard.”
Anna Leigh certainly did her part. After a two-game, 11-2, 11-3 victory over Catherine Parenteau, Waters will leave Maryland with 13 wins in her past 15 events.
“That was a tough match this morning, and I just tried to channel my energy,” Waters said after losing to Smith and Kovalova. “Today, after that, I was just coming for some revenge. Staying positive is a big thing.”
Ben and Collin Johns certainly stayed positive. The pair have been struggling with slow starts in matches of late, but got off to a quick start against Newman and Wright, a team the Johns brothers lost to earlier this month in Las Vegas. Johns and Johns won the first game 11-6, but fell behind 7-3 and 8-4 in the second game before outlasting Newman and Wright, 14-12. The game was tied at 9, 10, 11 and 12, making onlookers hold their breath in nervous suspense throughout. Then in Game 3, Newman and Wright led again, this time 10-7, but couldn’t get the final point in time to fend off an onslaught from Johns/Johns, who eventually won game three as well: 12-10.
“The crowd definitely helped us start a little stronger,” Ben Johns said. “Can we have a hometown crowd every time?”
Well, not this year for Johns. No more stops in D.C., although the tournament is slated to return along the 2023 schedule. The PPA Tour takes a break this week, but is back in action in less than two weeks, when the tournament heads back to Texas and the Dallas area for the Baird Wealth Management Texas Open from Nov. 3-6.
“It’s special to be back here,” Collin Johns said of being at the JTCC courts. “I basically lived here from the time I was 16 to 18 years old. I never thought I’d be playing pickleball here. It’s great to be back.”
