Anna Leigh Waters/Leigh Waters kicked off Championship Sunday in Holly Hill with a 7-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 victory over Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black in the women’s doubles final.

As the final score line indicates, the familial tandem got off to a slow start against the Dallas Flash duo; they dropped the first game and got down 1-7 in the second before completely turning the tide of the match and coming back to close out the triumph in four games.

One of the keys for Anna Leigh was just to focus on having fun with her mom on the court.

“For the first game and a half, Jorja and Tyra were playing amazing, but we just weren’t having fun,” she mentioned. “We were putting too much pressure on ourselves, and then my mom looked at me and said ‘Anna Leigh, you’re playing with your mom. Just have some fun out there.’ I had a couple scrappy points, mom had some good speedups, and then we felt pretty good the rest of the way through.”

At the same time, Leigh was focused on playing steadily and setting her 17-year-old daughter up for success in the kitchen rallies.

“When I try to be the act out there, that’s when things go badly. When I realized that and just tried to be the supporting act, make balls, and set [Anna Leigh] up and wait for my speed-up opportunity, that’s when we did our best,” she explained.

This result marks the Waters’ first PPA title together since the 2022 Texas Open. Leigh spoke about what it means to be back competing at the highest level after more than two years serving primarily as a coach.

“I just wanted to have a blast out here with her and do this one more time,” she said. “I never expected to win the darn thing, but here we are. I couldn’t be happier.”

In the bronze medal match, Anna Bright/Jackie Kawamoto defeated Tina Pisnik/Allyce Jones by a 7-11, 11-3, 11-6 score line.