Johns Brothers Near Perfect in Gold Medal Match

Doing whatever it takes to win is all that really matters for Ben and Collin Johns.

Being perfect is just the goal.

However, if you look closely at what happened in the last two games of the Championship Men’s final against Matt Wright and Riley Newman, it sure looked like the Johns brothers were pretty close to perfect.

“You can’t be perfect,” Ben said. “I just want to do my utmost best. If I do that, it’s a good day.” 

Well, fine. It was a good day then. Really good. The brothers fell behind Wright and Newman and then played so clean in game four and game five that it looked more sanitary than a hospital operating room.

The Johns scored 18 points in a row in one span and finished the last two games of the Orange County Cup by scoring 22 of the final 23 points. 

Maybe not perfect, but certainly perfect-adjacent, right?

The result was an epic 6-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-0, 11-1 five-game match that somehow didn’t feel that close.

“Once we hit game four, I found another gear,” Ben said. “Collin did, too, and it was one-way traffic.”

It also meant a pair of gold medals on the weekend for Johns, who teamed up with Anna Leigh Waters to earn the mixed title. Johns fell in the second round of the singles bracket Thursday to Connor Garnett.

“It’s been a good start to the year,” said Ben. “We have great communication. We practice together. It’s seamless and we’re always comfortable and supporting each other. That’s the key to a good partnership.”

Newman and Wright got out to a fast start in conditions – cooler and breezy – that favored them. The two prefer a faster game, less dinking and more speed-ups, and the California temperatures were conducive to that.

“The conditions favored them,” Collin said. “We came out with a really slow start and the ball was playing faster than normal. We missed shots we shouldn’t miss and got in a hole.”

But they got out of the hole thanks to Ben getting a bit motivated.

“Yeah, I think it got chippy in game three,” Ben said. “And in game 4, one of the two poked the bear and the bear woke.”

And that turned into an 11-0 win in game 4 and then a 7-0 lead before Newman and Wright scored a point in game 5.

“Winning is good enough, but perfection is the goal,” Collin said. “You can’t be perfect every time and this wasn’t my best day, but as long as you come out with a victory.”