Waters Stays on Triple-Crown Course as Cary’s Semi-Finals Arrive

Anna Leigh Waters remains alive in all three events after another dominant day in Cary, but Kaitlyn Christian, Hunter Johnson and a disruptive women’s doubles pairing have given the PPA semi-finals several routes away from the expected script.

Anna Leigh Waters played eight games across four completed matches on Friday and won all eight.

Her 11–1, 11–0 singles victory over Judit Castillo lasted barely long enough to become uncomfortable. Alongside Anna Bright, she allowed Alix Truong and Layne Sleeth one point in women’s doubles. The mixed doubles quarter-final was more competitive, but Waters and Ben Johns still removed Kate Fahey and Federico Staksrud in straight games.

At the end of a day when several leading players were dragged into deciders, Waters remained untouched by the disorder around her.

The semi-final field at the PPA Tour’s Veolia Pickleball National Championships in Cary is filled with familiar names. All four leading men’s singles seeds survived. The top four mixed doubles partnerships advanced. The leading men’s doubles teams escaped difficult quarter-finals.

Yet the path to Championship Sunday is no longer entirely predictable.

Kaitlyn Christian survived Catherine Parenteau in an 18–16 deciding game. Fahey and Lea Jansen have already broken the women’s doubles bracket to reach the final. Hunter Johnson conceded one point in his men’s singles quarter-final. Johns and Gabriel Tardio, meanwhile, discovered how quickly a comfortable doubles match can become complicated.

Waters is still the central figure. Saturday is about finding out who can disturb the order around her.

Christian survives to earn the hardest assignment

Waters needed only two games to eliminate Castillo, giving up one point in the opener and none in the second. The result carried the calm inevitability that has come to define so many of her singles matches.

Christian’s afternoon could hardly have been more different.

Parenteau took the first game of their quarter-final 11–7. Christian answered 11–5, then entered a decider that refused to finish. Neither player could establish the two-point margin required to close it until Christian finally won 18–16.

The score captures the strain behind the result. Christian did not simply beat the seventh seed. She had to keep attacking while fatigue, pressure and the possibility of elimination gathered around every exchange.

Her reward is Waters.

There are two ways to read that preparation. Christian may arrive sharpened by the most demanding contest in the women’s draw. She may also have spent physical and emotional energy that Waters was never required to find.

Christian possesses the reach, speed and court coverage to make Waters play extra balls. Her larger problem is what happens after she reaches them. Survival alone rarely troubles the world No. 1. Christian must find ways to recover the court, take the next ball early and stop Waters from owning the space inside the baseline.

In the lower half, Fahey continued her efficient singles run with an 11–3, 11–7 win over Sofia Sewing. Brooke Buckner had to recover from an opening-game loss before defeating Keilly Ulery 4–11, 11–4, 11–7.

Fahey has yet to drop a game. Buckner has already shown that losing one does not unsettle her. Their semi-final should be decided less by endurance than by who claims the first attacking ball.

Haworth meets a challenger carrying momentum

The four highest men’s singles seeds began Friday expecting to reach the semi-finals. They arrived there by very different routes.

Christopher Haworth defeated Tama Shimabukuro 11–9, 11–5. The opening game was close, but the top seed created greater separation in the second.

Hunter Johnson now stands between the top seed and Championship Sunday.

Johnson demolished Noe Khlif 11–1, 11–0 in the most one-sided men’s quarter-final. Khlif had entered the match after beating John Lucian Goins in straight games, but Johnson never allowed him to establish any rhythm.

That margin gives the semi-final its intrigue. Haworth is the highest seed and the heavier ball striker. Johnson enters with the confidence of a player who has just made a dangerous opponent appear powerless.

Johnson will need to deny Haworth the settled base from which he drives through the court. If the rallies become a repeated exchange of pace from comfortable positions, the advantage moves towards Haworth. Johnson’s chance lies in changing height and direction, forcing movement before Haworth can establish control.

The opposite semi-final brings Staksrud and Christian Alshon together.

Staksrud swept through the opening game against Jaume Martinez Vich 11–0, then had to resist a far stronger response before taking the second 12–10. Alshon required three games to defeat JW Johnson 11–8, 5–11, 11–8.

The scoreline shows that Alshon could not sustain control after the opening game. Staksrud is equipped to extend that pressure. Alshon’s reach and improvisation can open the court in ways few singles players can match, but he must avoid allowing creativity to become impatience.

This is not merely a meeting of the second and fourth seeds. It is a contest over the terms on which singles will be played.

The Johnsons stand between Johns, Waters and another final

Johns and Waters remained secure in mixed doubles, beating Fahey and Staksrud 11–7, 11–6.

Their semi-final opponents had to recover from a far worse beginning.

Jorja and JW Johnson lost the opening game 11–4 to Parris Todd and Andrei Daescu. They changed the match by taking the second 11–8, then pulled away to win the decider 11–5.

That recovery carries value into the semi-final, but the Johnsons cannot afford to spend another game finding their level. Johns and Waters concede little once given scoreboard control. The siblings must establish their patterns early, protect JW from becoming trapped in defensive exchanges and create opportunities for Jorja to attack through the middle.

The lower semi-final may be even harder to separate.

Bright and Hayden Patriquin overwhelmed Parenteau and Riley Newman 11–2 in their opening game before being pushed to 12–10 in the second. Their response to the tighter score was significant. The match became less comfortable without becoming less controlled.

Rachel Rohrabacher and Alshon advanced with an 11–5, 11–5 victory over Tyra Black and Tardio. It was the clearest mixed doubles quarter-final result outside the top seeds’ victory.

Bright and Patriquin against Rohrabacher and Alshon brings four players who are comfortable applying pressure in small spaces. It may come down to which right-side player can create without exposing too much court behind the attack.

Men’s doubles survived one warning. Another is coming

The top two men’s doubles pairings reached the semi-finals, but neither arrived without a scare.

Johns and Tardio opened with an 11–3 win over CJ Klinger and Will Howells. The match appeared settled. Klinger and Howells refused that conclusion, taking the second 11–9 and forcing the favourites to rebuild.

Johns and Tardio did so, winning the decider 11–5.

Staksrud and Patriquin experienced a similar interruption against Eric Oncins and Noe Khlif. They won the first game 11–6, lost the second 11–4 and recovered to take the third 11–5.

The resulting semi-final contains one of the day’s most compelling positional battles. Tardio and Patriquin are explosive right-side players who can cover the middle, counter at speed and transform a neutral ball into an attack. Johns and Staksrud will each attempt to control the match from the left while preventing the opposing right-side player from expanding his influence.

Whichever partnership protects the middle without leaving the lines exposed should shape the outcome.

The lower half produced two straight-game quarter-finals.

Daescu and Alshon dismantled Camden Chaffin and Haworth 11–3, 11–1, producing the widest margin of the men’s doubles quarter-finals.

Shimabukuro and JW Johnson were almost as convincing in an 11–3, 11–8 win over Dekel Bar and Dylan Frazier.

Johnson’s steadiness gives Shimabukuro permission to attack, but Daescu changes the dimensions of the court. Passing through the middle becomes difficult when he is established at the kitchen, while Alshon’s movement allows the second seeds to survive positions that would expose most partnerships.

The top seeds were warned in the quarter-finals. The semi-finals contain teams capable of finishing the job.

Fahey and Jansen have already changed the final

The women’s doubles finalists are set, and only one of the expected leading partnerships will be there.

Bright and Waters reached the gold-medal match by defeating Rohrabacher and Todd 12–10, 11–5. The third seeds created genuine pressure in the opening game, but their opportunity disappeared once Bright and Waters found separation.

Bright and Waters conceded only three points across their first four games, then came through their semi-final 12–10, 11–5.

Fahey and Jansen’s route has been far less comfortable, and more revealing.

They beat Lacy Schneemann and Tina Pisnik 11–6, 13–11 in the quarter-finals, then defeated second seeds Black and Jorja Johnson by exactly the same score in the semi-finals.

Black and Johnson had looked imposing in their 11–7, 11–1 quarter-final victory over Etta Tuionetoa and Meghan Dizon. Fahey and Jansen prevented them from carrying that authority forward, closing a tight second game without allowing the match to reach a decider.

Their reward is the hardest assignment in women’s doubles.

Bright and Waters convert brief openings into runs before opponents have time to adjust. Fahey and Jansen must therefore make the final feel inconvenient from its first exchanges. Returns must stay deep. Attacks must come from balance. Bright cannot be allowed to patrol the middle without consequence, and Waters must be made to contact the ball below net height whenever possible.

Fahey and Jansen have already changed the bracket. Beating the top seeds would change the tournament.

Cary reaches its point of resistance

Friday answered the first question. The strongest seeds can be pushed.

Johns and Tardio were taken to three. Staksrud and Patriquin were taken to three. Alshon was taken to three in singles. Christian survived at 18–16. Rohrabacher and Todd held Bright and Waters at 10–10 before the favourites escaped.

Saturday asks the harder question. Can any challenger turn pressure into elimination?

Fahey and Jansen have done it once, removing the second seeds to reach the women’s doubles final. Hunter Johnson carries the most emphatic quarter-final performance into his meeting with Haworth. The Johnson siblings have already recovered from one deficit and now face the strongest mixed partnership in the draw.

Then there is Waters.

She remains alive in singles, mixed doubles and women’s doubles. She dropped one point in her singles quarter-final, while she and Bright conceded only three across their first two women’s doubles matches. Even in mixed doubles, where the margins were closer, Johns and Waters never surrendered a game.

The triple crown remains entirely within her control.

Cary’s semi-final day does not lack challengers. What it needs is somebody capable of making the pressure last.

Further reading

• PPA Cary quarter-finals: When outsiders became contenders
• PPA Cary round of 16: Goins and Sewing challenge the draw
• Why Sofia Sewing’s PPA Cary seeding mattered

Chris Beaumont

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…

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