The PPA Tour returned to the west coast for last weekend’s PPA Orange County Cup in San Clemente, California. Although the weather was gloomy, competition heated up as Team JOOLA debuted their newly launched paddles, the Perseus and the Scorpeus. After the big announcement that world #1 doubles player, Collin Johns, was joining the team, this was the first tournament that Collin and brother, Ben Johns, would be playing doubles for the same paddle company.

Play started on Thursday with the Men’s and Women’s Singles brackets. In Men’s Singles, upsets started early as Ben Johns was knocked out of play in the second round by newcomer Colin Shick. Shick also went on to take out Dylan Frazier (8) 11-6, 12-10, before dropping to Tyson McGuffin in the semifinals and grabbing the bronze medal. On the other side of the bracket, Connor Garnett and Pablo Tellez battled it out for the remaining spot in Championship Sunday, with Garnett coming out on top. In the finals, Garnett got off to a hot start in the first game, but couldn’t hang on as McGuffin battled back to win 12-10, 11-3. In Women’s Singles things were business as usual as the one and two seed of Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau made their way into the finals. Having not lost one match across any events in the last four tournaments, Anna Leigh Waters continued her dominance by securing the gold 11-7, 11-7 over Parenteau.

In Mixed Doubles, we also saw similar trends as the almost undefeated duo of Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns made their way to the finals. Waters/Johns took out the Johnson siblings, the one team they have lost to this year, to make their way to Championship Sunday. Anna Bright and James Ignatowich fought their way to the semis where they dropped to Parenteau/McGuffin in straight games. After their loss, Bright/Ignatowich were able to turn it around and secure the bronze. In the finals, the duo of Waters/Johns continued to be seemingly impossible to beat, winning in straight games 11-3, 11-6, 11-9.

In Women’s Doubles, Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau both claimed their third spot each in Championship Sunday as they fought their way to the finals. Things were smooth sailing for Waters/Parenteau up until the quarterfinals, almost dropping to the new partnership of Lea Jansen and Tyra Black. On the other half of the draw, Etta Wright and Irina Tereschenko upset the two seed of Callie Smith and Lucy Kovalova to earn their spot in the finals. All four ladies fought hard on Chamionship Sunday as Wright/Tereschenko were able to push Waters/Parenteau to four games, ultimately dropping to the undefeated duo 11-2, 10-12, 11-8, 11-3.

In Men’s Doubles the two seemingly most dominant teams of Ben and Collin Johns and Riley Newman and Matt Wright made their way to yet another finals matchup. The Johns duo did not drop a game on their way to the finals, while Newman/Wright struggled to make it past Federico Staksrud and Pablo Tellez in the quarterfinals. In the finals, the Johns siblings got off to a slow start, but were able to pick up speed as the match went on. A match that was a back and forth battle to start ended in complete dominance as Ben and Collin won 6-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-0, 11-1. This was the first tournament that Ben and Collin Johns both represented JOOLA, debuting their new signature paddles, the JOOLA Ben Johns Scorpeus CFS 16 and the JOOLA Collin Johns Scorpeus CFS 16.

Anna Bright also debuted her new signature paddle, the JOOLA Anna Bright Scorpeus CFS 14.

Medal List:

Ben Johns: Gold - Men's Doubles, Gold - Mixed Doubles

Collin Johns: Gold - Men's Doubles

Etta Wright: Silver - Women's Doubles

Anna Bright: Bronze - Mixed Doubles

Equipment:

Ben Johns - Perseus CFS 16

Collin Johns - Scorpeus CFS 16

Etta Wright - Perseus CFS 14

Lea Jansen - Perseus CFS 14

Anna Bright - Scorpeus CFS 14

Federico Staksrud - Perseus CFS 16