Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu won their second title in as many tournaments together with an 11-6, 11-8 victory over Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio in the men’s doubles final at the Rate Las Vegas Open presented by JOOLA.

‘Team Power Forward’ used their aggressive style to pile on points against the top seeds to earn their fifth gold medal as a pairing and second in three weeks after also taking gold at the Veolia Arizona Open in September.

A new dynamic for this partnership in 2026 has been the decision to switch sides and have Alshon on the left and Daescu on the right, a notable departure from the formation they employed when they played together in 2025.

Daescu says the decision to switch things up came from practicing together during the summer.

“Christian and I spent the whole summer practicing together and trying new things, and we had spent a couple days in this formation, and we thought it was working extremely well,” he explained. “From there, I started spending more and more time on the right and getting my reps in. I’m happy to play the right or the left, as long as we get the gold medal.”

Sunday’s result gives Johns and Tardio their first loss together since November of 2025 and ends their bid for a perfect 2026 campaign.

Alshon gave some insight into his mindset heading into Sunday’s clash.

“Honestly, I was like, if I don’t know what I’m gonna do, then Ben isn’t gonna know what I’m gonna do, so I just played a lot of that on the fly. [Johns and Tardio] are a really great team, so shout out to them.”