Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio kicked off Championship Sunday action at the CIBC Texas Open presented by Fasenra with an 11-1, 10-12, 7-11, 11-7, 11-4 victory over top seeds Christian Alshon/Federico Staksrud.

The No. 2 seeds came out on fire and dominantly took the first game, with Tardio finding success attacking Staksrud up the line off the bounce.

But Alshon/Staksrud settled in from there and took a hard-fought second game before comfortably taking Game 3 to put themselves within one game of the title.

The match seemed to hang in the balance with teams tied at 7-7 in the fourth game, but Johns/Tardio scored four in a row to push the contest to a decisive fifth game.

In that deciding contest, Johns/Tardio regained the level that they began the match with. Tardio found ways to crash off of Johns’ third shot drives, which helped the No. 2 seeds race to the victory and earn their first title as a partnership in their second tournament together.

Johns praised Tardio for his resilience on a challenging road to gold in North Texas.

“It was a battle this week. Yesterday, we had three three-game matches, and then this one went five. It’s really great to know that you’ve got a partner by you that will stick through in the tough matches and really ball out in that last game,” he said. “I think we really finished strong.”

Johns will go for his second gold of the day later on when he an Anna Leigh Waters face Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson for the mixed doubles title.

In the bronze medal match, No. 4 seeds Hayden Patriquin/Pablo Tellez defeated No. 3 seeds Andrei Daescu/Dylan Frazier by an 11-7, 10-12, 11-9 score line.