.png)
Sunday, September 18th, 2022
Watch live on youtube starting at 10AM or watch the Peachtree Classic starting at 4PM on the Tennis Channel.
The young 15 year-old professional pickle player Anna Leigh Waters is the star of the day who is playing in all three finals; women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. She is looking for the triple crown in a potentially grueling day of best of 5 series in each final she plays today.
(Photo: PPA Tour)
The first match up is A.L. Waters vs Callie Jo Smith. Although Smith played a stellar tournament beating out Salome Devidze in two games after losing to her in the previous tournament, she is no match for the confident, power house hitter that is Waters. Smith never seems to get tired and has endurance for days, but Waters passing shots, short angles and overall power make this a lop-sided final.
(Photo: PPA Tour)
Next up we have Riley Newman and Matt Wright teaming up against brothers Collin and Ben Johns. The Johns brothers, in particular Ben Johns has dominated pickleball for the past few years. He did that alongside Matt Wright until his brother Collin was up for the challenge over a year ago. Ben and Collin continued Ben's success and continued to dominate the men's doubles field. Ben's former doubles partner Matt Wright picked up a previous nemesis, Riley Newman.
Once Wright and Newman settled into their partnership we have seen these two teams battle pretty evenly. Newman and Wright in their last meeting put on a mass destruction of the Johns brothers like we have never seen before. Wright/Newman defeated Johns/Johns at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in 4-11, 11-1, 12-10, 11-6. The firepower from the Wright/Newman camp was too much for the Johns brothers to handle and if they can put that kind of pressure on the brothers again, we are going to see another epic battle favoring the Wright/Newman team.
Next up we've got the women's doubles final featuring Leigh and Anna Leigh Waters playing against Jesse Irvine and Anna Bright. We anticipate this to be a fiery battle between some very aggressive players. Ultimately, this match will come down to which team can accurately, deceptively pull the trigger first and unforced errors. We talk more about the women's teams here.
Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman have defeated Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters before, can they do it again?
(Photo: PPA Tour)
The mixed doubles final will surely be epic as well with the Parenteau/Newman team facing off against Waters/Johns. Newman and Parenteau have the best defense as a mixed team in the game. When you think you've hit a winner, think again, it's coming back five more times. Ultimately, we think that Johns and Waters have the upper hand as the best mixed doubles team in professional pickleball. Let Newman and Parenteau prove us wrong today.
Last but certainly not least, is the men's singles final with JW Johnson playing against the fiery Italian, Julian Arnold. JW Johnson has had an incredible tournament and is probably the best singles player on the planet. However, Julian Arnold plays with such intensity and belief, with potentially the crowd on his side, he could pull an upset. At the end of the day, we think Johnson will take the gold and defeat Arnold in four games, respectively.
(Photo: PPA Tour)