122-Shot Rally Lifts Johns and Tardio to Sacramento Open Title

A 122-shot rally decided the Sacramento Open men’s doubles final and made Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio look less like survivors of a highlight and more like the standard for modern pro pickleball. The point lasted about two minutes and one second, ran deep into Game Three, and ended with Johns and Tardio beating JW Johnson and CJ Klinger, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6, 11-2, for the title at Life Time Arden in Sacramento.

The rally began in almost ordinary fashion, with Tardio serving, Johnson returning, Johns driving the third shot, Klinger volleying, and Johns dropping the fifth ball into the kitchen. From there, the point stretched into a grinding test of patience and touch: 101 dinks, repeated firefights, and long neutral exchanges that kept shifting the temperature from soft-game chess to sudden hand-speed bursts. Dave Fleming’s broadcast reaction told the story in real time: “Wow, wow, wow,” followed later by, “Yes please… that was sensational!”

What made the sequence so revealing was not just its length, but its balance of risk and restraint. Klinger took 48 shots in the rally, Johns 33, Tardio 28, and Johnson 13, with Klinger accounting for 78 percent of his team’s shots. That load, plus the fact that all four players finished the final with at least ten clean winners, showed a match played at a level where defense did not mean passivity. It meant surviving pressure long enough to force one opening, then punishing it immediately.

Johns and Tardio won the point, then the game, then the match, and Sacramento became their 14th title of the 2026 season. Johns also reached his 200th final across all disciplines and improved to 181-19 in finals, while Johnson joined Johns as only the second male player with more than 100 career medals. The PPA said the rally was the longest in any doubles final since the start of 2022, a marker that says as much about the sport’s evolution as it does about this one match.

Sacramento’s final page was crowded with winners, including Tyra Black and Eric Oncins in mixed doubles, Rachel Rohrabacher and Parris Todd in women’s doubles, Federico Staksrud in men’s singles, and Kate Fahey in women’s singles. But the rally between Johns, Tardio, Johnson, and Klinger was the image that will linger: elite pickleball in 2026 is faster, tougher, and far more willing to test who can stay calm the longest.