Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black celebrate their victory at the Walgreens Open at the Las Vegas Strip.
Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black celebrating their semifinal victory at the Walgreens Open at the Las Vegas Strip. PPA Tour

Johnson, Black hand Waters, Bright first loss in three-game battle

Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright had a 45-0 record together going into Saturday’s semifinal clash against Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black.

That record is no longer perfect after Johnson/Black pulled off a 5-11, 11-6, 11-3 victory over the top seeds to advance to Championship Sunday.

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After dropping the first game, the No. 3 seeds came out firing in Game 2 and earned an 8-0 lead that helped them even the contest before running away with it in the third.

 

“It was tough going in because we had never played them before, so we just had to figure some things out early,” Johnson said of the performance. “I thought every game was really good. We had really high-quality points, and then in the second game they just started going our way.”

One reason for that was Black’s notably more aggressive play in the latter stages of the match, which stopped Waters/Bright from creating offense of their own.

“I just started speeding up off the bounce more,” she explained. “It worked on a few points, so I just kind of kept going for it. I feel like we got a few more pop-ups after that. I just realized that I needed to be more aggressive and put the pressure on. [Waters and Bright] are great at doing that, so I thought that we had to do it first.”

The Dallas Flash teammates are now into their first PPA final together since taking gold at the North Carolina Open back in April.

They will face either No. 2 seeds Parris Todd/Catherine Parenteau or No. 4 seeds Etta Tuionetoa/Lacy Schneemann for the title.