ABC’s of 2024: (Anna Leigh and Ben’s Championships)
| December 18, 2024
ANNA LEIGH WATERS:
Medals: Waters won 42 gold and four silver medals in 17 tournaments.
Singles: Waters won 12 times in 13 tournaments, losing only to Salome Devidze in a semifinal in June. In 12 gold medal matches, Waters won 24 of 26 games and held her opponents to eight points or fewer in a game 20 times. She also won two games by “pickle.” Waters had more “clean winners” than her opponent in eleven of those 12 finals.
Doubles: Waters and Catherine Parenteau won 14 gold medals and three silvers in 17 tournaments. They won 12 of their finals in three straight games. Waters had the “most clean” winners among all players in 12 of those 14 gold-medal-winning matches. Their three silver medals were all against Anna Bright and Rachel Rohrabacher.
Mixed Doubles: Waters and Ben Johns won 16 times in 17 tournaments. In those finals, they swept in three games eleven times, and won games by “pickle” five times. Their dinking was excellent in those 17 finals: The only final in which they hit more dinks into the net or wide than their opponents was the Austin Open, where they lost to Bright and Andrei Daescu.
Triple Crowns: Waters won ten Triple Crowns, raising her career total to 30. In seven of those ten, she did not lose a game in the finals. One of those instances was on September 1st in Las Vegas, when she took it up a notch, winning one game by “pickle” in all three of her gold-medal-winning matches.
Greatness in Gold Medal Games: Waters won 83% of the games she played in gold medal matches, compiling a record of 116-23. When she or her team won the first game of a gold medal match, she had a perfect 38-0 record, (and 4-4 when her opponent won the first game.)
2025: Waters enters the season with 130 titles: 44 in Singles, 41 in Doubles and 45 in Mixed Doubles. Her “lowest” total, 41 in Doubles, is still more than the overall career titles won by any player other than Johns and Parenteau. Waters’ longest active winning streak in tournaments played is 12, in Mixed Doubles.
BEN JOHNS:
Medals: Johns earned 32 gold medals, four silvers, and one bronze medal in 20 tournaments.
Singles: Johns won seven times in 16 tournaments, and also earned one bronze medal. His seven titles were second-most on Tour behind Federico Staksrud’s eight. In his seven gold medal matches, he won 14 of 16 games. He has won ten consecutive gold medal matches since September of 2023.
Doubles: Ben and Collin Johns led the Tour with seven titles in 20 tournaments. They won 23 of 34 games played in finals, including two by “pickle.” In seven of the nine finals, Ben had the most “clean winners” among the four players competing. The brothers also won two silver medals.
Mixed Doubles: Ben Johns won 18 gold medals, 16 with Waters and two with Etta Wright, in 20 tournaments. He won 80% of the games he played in gold medal matches, including five games won by “pickle” with Waters.
Ben also won two silver medals, one each with Waters and Bright.
Greatness in Gold Medal Games: Johns won 78% of the games he played in gold medal matches, compiling a record of 92-26. When Johns or his team won the first game of a gold medal match, he had a perfect 27-0 record, (and 5-4 when his opponent won the first game.)
Triple Crowns: Johns won a Triple Crown in North Carolina, the 21st of his career.
2025: Johns enters the season with 141 titles: 40 in Singles, 43 in Doubles and 58 in Mixed Doubles. His “lowest” total, 40 in singles, is still more than the overall career titles won by any player other than Waters and Parenteau. His longest active winning streak in tournaments played is 13, in Mixed Doubles, which started when he and Etta Wright won the Red Rock Open.
