Bright and Patriquin finally topple Johns and Waters for Mesa Cup gold

Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin finally cracked the Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters code, and they did it with a straight-game hammer blow at the Carvana Mesa Cup in Mesa, Arizona. Bright and Patriquin beat the No. 1 seeds 11-8, 11-9, 11-3 at Arizona Athletic Grounds to win their first title as a team and claim the cleanest statement of the weekend.

The result landed harder because of how close this matchup had been before Mesa. Bright and Patriquin had already pushed Johns and Waters to five games in the Masters final in January and again in the Cape Coral Open final earlier in April, where they even had a match point in Game 4. The Kitchen also noted that their November 2025 meeting at the Pickleball World Championships ended with Bright and Patriquin losing a three-game semifinal. The Dink Pickleball went a step further, reporting that all six previous meetings between the pairs had gone the full distance before Mesa. This time, there was no escape route for Johns and Waters.

That is what made the Mesa final look like more than just an upset. Pickleball.com called it one of the most decisive victories ever over the Waters and Johns pairing, and the score line backed that up. Bright and Patriquin did not need a late swing, a lucky hand battle or a chaotic finish. They controlled the match in a way that Johns and Waters almost never allow, and they turned a long-running rivalry into a one-sided final by the end of Game 3.

The emotional edge was obvious too. Bright said the nerves stayed with her even while her side was ahead by a wide margin, which tells you how much baggage sat on this matchup. Patriquin sounded just as drained by the breakthrough, and for good reason: this was the pair that had repeatedly blocked him and Bright from the top step. The Mesa win also mattered in a bigger sense because it was only the third final Johns and Waters have ever lost together, a rare crack in the most dominant partnership mixed doubles has seen for years.

Mesa had another jolt attached to it. Chris Haworth beat Ben Johns 11-6, 11-6 in the men’s singles final for his third gold medal in four tournaments and his fifth career PPA title. Johns had won 12 straight finals appearances dating back to Cincinnati in September 2023 before Haworth stopped him, and Johns was also using the new JOOLA Pro V Perseus paddle in the match. With Bright and Patriquin breaking through and Haworth knocking off Johns in singles, the Mesa Cup felt like a weekend where the old order finally showed a little wear.