Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin kicked off Championship Sunday action at Pickleball Virginia Beach with an epic 11-9, 6-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-2 victory over top seeds Ben and Collin Johns.

A result like that seemed highly unlikely for the No. 3 seeds when they trailed 3-9 in the fourth game, but an unprecedented 16-point run completely turned the tide of the match.

A key moment of that run came when the Johns bros took a timeout when they were still leading 9-7. They walked towards their bench without explicitly signaling for a timeout, which resulted in a Delay of Game fault.

This was their second time being called for that fault in the match, so it resulted in a point penalty.

That brought their score down from 9-7 to 8-7, and the wheels fell off from there.

Staksrud and Patriquin would go on to take that fourth game 11-8 before getting out to an 8-0 lead in the decider.

They closed out the victory a few minutes later to claim their second title together and remain undefeated as a partnership.

One of the match’s key tactical components was Patriquin’s aggressive right-side play. He would often pinch middle while Staksrud and B. Johns were dinking crosscourt to add pressure to Johns’ dinks.

He credits his friend and St. Louis Shock teammate Gabe Tardio for introducing a new era of right-side play in pickleball.

“It’s all Gabe Tardio,” he said. “He changed the right side in a good way, and I’m just trying to go after him.”

Sunday marked the first meeting between the two powerhouse teams, and Staksrud expects more close matches between them in the future.

“Any time you have Ben on the court, you know you’re gonna have high-level pickleball,” he explained. “I think this is the beginning of a new rivalry, and it’s gonna be fun.”

No. 2 seeds JW Johnson and Dylan Frazier defeated No. 9 seeds Riley Newman and Rafa Hewett 11-3, 11-6 to claim the bronze medal.