Anna Leigh Waters Claims Triple Crown No. 42 at Wind-Battered PPA Texas Open

Anna Leigh Waters won her 42nd career PPA triple crown at the Veolia Texas Open in McKinney, Texas, going 16-0 in matches and 35-1 in games across three brackets. The remarkable part: she did it in conditions that turned Championship Sunday into a survival test.

Wind gusts exceeded 40 mph throughout the tournament weekend at The Courts of McKinney, significantly impacting play across all brackets and affecting lobs, third-shot drops, and high-trajectory shots. Players who adapted to compact, low-to-the-net styles performed best in the conditions. Waters, apparently, needed no adjustment period at all.

In singles, Waters cruised without losing a single game. Kaitlyn Christian won eleven points in her two-game semifinal loss, which was relatively one of the better performances against Waters in 2026. In women's doubles with Anna Bright, Waters also did not drop a single game. Waters has now won fifty consecutive gold medal matches.

Three weeks after being swept in three games in the final of the Carvana Mesa Cup, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns got their revenge on Championship Sunday in the Lone Star State, defeating Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin for mixed doubles gold. The Texas Open marked five tournaments in a row in 2026 for Gabe Tardio and Ben Johns when they both played, with Tardio holding the most men's doubles titles in 2026 and remaining undefeated on the year. Johns and Tardio extended their men's doubles win streak to 30 consecutive matches and six straight tournament titles, opening the final with an 11-0 demolition.

The other title of the week belonged to Federico Staksrud, and it came the hard way. Staksrud won men's singles gold by defeating Chris Haworth 2-11, 11-5, 11-5 in the final. Haworth built an 8-0 lead in game one, but Staksrud adapted to the 40 mph wind conditions and took the next two games with identical scores. He adjusted his positioning, shortened his backswing, and stopped fighting the gusts, producing two identical 11-5 games that showed the kind of mid-match adaptation that separates elite players from very good ones.

Staksrud followed up a silver medal in Newport Beach with a gold medal in North Texas, and the top three players in men's singles points standings, Hunter Johnson, Federico Staksrud, and Chris Haworth, have been passing the baton back and forth so far in 2026, with each holding two titles across six events.

The Veolia Texas Open grappled with very windy conditions, but Waters was a tornado all to herself. Meanwhile, Ben Johns grabbed another double gold, so between Waters and Johns, that was four of the five event winners. The fifth was Federico Staksrud, who put up his claim to being the #1 singles player.

Waters earned her 42nd career triple crown at just 19 years old in conditions that tested every player on the Tour. Next up for the PPA is the Greater Zion Cup at the Black Desert Resort, a new venue for the Tour that will give the sport's most dominant player yet another stage to extend her already staggering lead over the record books.