Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman competing at the Las Vegas Pickleball Cup.
The No. 6 seeds advanced in a three-game epic. PPA Tour

Waters and Johns, Parenteau and Newman to square off for mixed doubles crown

Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns took down No. 3 seeds Jorja and JW Johnson by an 11-4, 11-5 score line to comfortably make the mixed doubles final.

The top seeds showed out, accomplishing the task at hand in just under thirty minutes.

“I felt like that was one of our cleaner matches of the week,” Johns said of the effort. “We definitely had some good point construction and were getting up to the kitchen well.”

The tandem will look to capture their eleventh title of 2024 on Championship Sunday.


Waters and Johns will be joined on Championship Sunday by Catherine Parenteau and Riley Newman, who came away with an 11-7, 1-11, 11-8 victory against No. 2 seeds Anna Bright and Christian Alshon in the second semifinal.

Parenteau and Newman came out strongly to take Game 1, but they faltered in the second, which gave Bright and Alshon an opportunity to even the match.

Parenteau says a lack of discipline contributed to those mid-match struggles.

“I think we did a really good job in the first game of sticking to our game plan and being solid, and then in the second game I started pulling the trigger a lot,” she explained. “I think I felt too good and was going for too much. Riley just told me, ‘If you see it go for it, but let’s try to bring it back to our game and wait for the right opportunities to attack.'"

Returning to that style helped the No. 6 seeds jump out to a 9-3 lead in the deciding game; despite a late rally from Bright and Alshon to cut the deficit to just one, they were eventually able to close out the highly entertaining contest.

 

The match pit Newman and Alshon—who will play together in the men’s doubles semifinals later on Saturday—against each other, creating a fun dynamic between two of the most competitive players on tour.

“I have a lot of respect for Christian, but when we’re against each other on the other side of the net, I want to beat him as much as he wants to beat me," Newman said.

Newman and Alshon will face Dekel Bar and Zane Navratil in the final match of the day on Humana Championship Court.