The last time Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns went to a fifth game against Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson, the Johnson siblings triumphed after over an hour and a half on court.

That happened earlier this season in North Carolina, but Waters/Johns flipped the script on Sunday in Tennessee.

The top seeds emerged with an 11-4, 4-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-3 triumph to secure their 51^st PPA mixed doubles title as a partnership.

Waters, who struck gold alongside Anna Bright in women’s doubles in the day’s first final, spoke about the adjustments she made to win the third and fifth games.

“I felt like Jorja was making some amazing shots. It’s very impressive how she can handle herself against some of the guys, especially Ben, so props to her. She gives us trouble on that, but I just felt like in the third and fifth games I was trying to tell myself to be patient, do some more dinking, and try to move the ball around,” she explained. “I like to speed up a lot in mixed, but against JW it’s pretty tough, so I told myself that if I have to sit here and dink 100 times, then that’s what I’m going to do. Playing this team is very mentally draining, so props to them for always giving us a run for our money.”

The adjustments didn’t stop there, however.

Johns, who couldn’t seem to find his best stuff in the fourth game, says that Waters’ encouragement helped him regroup going into the decider.

“She’s always encouraging, even through some unforced errors by me. It’s always nice to have a partner that’s not only rock solid in terms of a player but also a partner in terms of encouragement and positivity,” he mentioned. “[Anna Leigh] is a remarkable partner, and I’m lucky to have her.”

In the bronze medal match, No. 4 seeds Anna Bright/Andrei Daescu defeated No. 3 seeds Catherine Parenteau/Christian Alshon by an 11-4, 7-11, 13-11 score line.