PPA Pickleball final has Anna Leigh Waters facing familiar face as foe

HOLLY HILL — Ann Lee Waters, the world’s top-ranked player and clear No. 1 on the PPA Tour in both singles and doubles, signed up for part-time duty this week and only entered women’s doubles in the PPA Tour’s Daytona Beach Open.

But the drama of her trying for yet another Sunday Triple Crown — singles, doubles and mixed doubles — will be replaced by the mild drama of her doubles final featuring a matchup against a former partner she parted ways with this past spring. 

Waters and Catherine Parenteau were nearly unbeatable until Waters took on Anna Bright as a new partner this year. Together, those two are practically untouchable, but in a little twist, Bright didn’t enter this week’s tournament and Waters is instead playing with Jorja Johnson, a highly capable one-off stand-in who also made Sunday’s mixed-doubles final with her brother.

The brother-sister team of JW and Jorja Johnson (right) reached the mixed-doubles final with Saturday's win over Gabriel Tardio and Jessie Irvine.

They’ll face Parenteau and Tyra Hurricane Black, a first-time partnership that entered this week as the No. 2 seed behind Waters and Johnson. Parenteau will be looking to double-dip in Sunday gold medals — she's also reached the final in women's singles.

Five finals are scheduled for Sunday under the roof on Pictona’s Championship Court. 

Here’s the rundown …

Men’s Singles

Fifth-seeded Gabriel Joseph will face No. 4 seed Christopher Haworth.

Haworth defeated nine-seed Zane Ford, 11-5, 11-1 in Saturday’s semifinals. Joseph and 28-seed Rafael Lenhard went three games before Joseph prevailed, 8-11, 11-4, 14-12.

Women’s Singles

Katerina Stewart will be looking for a big-time upset Sunday. The 40th seed will face third-seeded Catherin Parenteau, who defeated No. 2 seed Lea Jansen in the semis, 11-8, 11-6. 

Stewart advanced by beating isabella dunlap (18), 11-6, 11-8.

Mixed Doubles

The brother-sister team of Jorja and JW Johnson, top-seeded in mixed doubles, is no surprise as a finalist, but it took them three games Saturday to beat back third-seeded Gabriel Tardio and Jessie Irvine, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5.

Team Johnson will face the No. 6 seed duo of Andrei Daescu and Kaitlyn Christian, who were 11-5, 11-6 winners Saturday over Jay Devilliers and Callie Smith.

Women’s Doubles

Here’s the finals’ only matchup that, on paper, was meant to be — the two top seeds and four of the game’s best players.

Catherine Parenteau and Tyra Hurricane Black (2 seed), made the finals with a comfortable semifinal win over third-seeded Rachel Rohrabacher and Etta Tuionetoa, 11-6, 11-3.

They’ll face Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson, who made quick work of the fourth-seeded team of Tina Pisnik and Meghan Dizon — 11-1, 11-3.

Men’s Doubles

Check back here later for updates on the semifinal results and Sunday’s finals matchup.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: PPA Daytona finals features intriguing match in women's doubles



* This article was originally published here

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