The PPA Tour Hyundai Masters proved to be an exhilarating start to the season. Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters dominated in all of their events, allowing both of them to take home their first triple crowns of the 2023 PPA Tour.
Hosted last weekend at the beautiful Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, the 2023 PPA Hyundai Masters kicked off this year’s PPA Tour in style with some incredible singles and doubles matches. Men’s, women’s, and mixed brackets were filled with many of pickleball’s top athletes, which made for some incredible match ups.
Every championship match at the Masters saw winning performances by both Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns. Waters won the women’s singles and doubles, Johns won the men’s singles and doubles, and both of them teamed up to take home gold for the mixed doubles championship event.
Waters took gold in women’s singles with confidence, having beaten the number 3 seed Lea Jansen, with match scores of 11-5 and 11-2. Similarly, she teamed up with Anna Bright to defeat the equally powerful team of Callie Smith and Lucy Kovalova, winning 11-5 and 11-7.
In the men’s divisions, Johns affirmed himself as one of the best players in the world. In the singles championship, he was able to defeat Federico Staksrud 11-6 and 11-6. Johns then teamed up with his brother Collin Johns for men’s doubles to win against Matt Wright and Riley Newman in a back-and-forth match, scoring 11-5, 5-11, and 11-6.
Winning point for @BenJohns_pb pic.twitter.com/6GQC3WaIAZ
— CARVANA PPA TOUR (@PPAtour) January 16, 2023
Coming together for the mixed doubles championship match, Waters and Johns combined their talents to defeat Jessie Irvine and Riley Newman 11-4, 11-7, and 11-4. Watching them play together as a unit, it’s clear that the Waters and Johns duo will be one of the PPA Tour’s most dominant competitors this year.
Following her victory in the women’s singles final, Anna Leigh Waters officially had secured her first triple crown of 2023. She won every one of her games throughout the tournament, an incredible accomplishment for a young pickleball player who is just about to turn 16 years old.
“Last year at this tournament, I just won singles so it’s really cool to come back and win all three.”
Anna Leigh Waters, 2023 PPA Hyundai Masters Triple Crown Champion
The 2023 PPA Tour continues on February 1st with its next stop in Phoenix, AZ at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open. PPA pro and amateur level players will continue to bring their all to the court, so be sure to tune in and watch some of pickleball’s best athletes in this next big event!
