Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns kicked off the action on Humana Championship Court with a 10-12, 11-5, 11-3, 11-3 victory over No. 4 seeds Catherine Parenteau/Federico Staksrud.

The top seeds faltered after having a 10-6 lead in the opening game, but they completely turned the tide of the match from there and comfortably took the next three games to secure the year-end triumph.

Waters spoke about the rising level of the sport after she and Johns were pushed in both the semifinal and final rounds in Palm Springs.

“Everybody’s getting better and training super hard, and the defense and athleticism that you seeing the sport right now is pretty insane,” she mentioned. “We’re seeing some new mixed matchups that Ben and I haven’t played before, like Catherine and Fed and Christian and Tyra. It’s just really exciting for the game to have different matchups and different points.”

Johns also noted how Parenteau’s steadiness on the right side allowed for Staksrud to take up more court on the left than he’s used to seeing from the Argentine.

“Fed was taking more court than usual, and I think’s that’s partially due to Catherine being very steady and making so many balls,” he explained. “It gives you the liberty to kind of do what you want. It’s clearly a good partnership, and I hope we see it more.”

Even though this is the just the second tournament that Parenteau/Staksrud have played together, they are already proving to be one of the top teams in mixed doubles. They followed up their bronze medal in Kansas City with a silver this week at Mission Hills Country Club.

Staksrud applauded Parenteau’s defense and gave credit to Waters/Johns for their outstanding performance on Sunday.

“Catherine is a fighter. Her defense is unbelievable, and I think we made them play like three or four more shots than they usually have to in order to put the ball away,” he said. “[Ben and Anna Leigh] are the standard, and it’s always great to share the court with them. I’m looking forward to more battles with them for sure.”

No. 7 seeds Tyra Black/Christian Alshon claimed the bronze medal over Rachel Rohrabacher/James Ignatowich after Ignatowich withdrew from the match with a back injury.