Anna Bright, Andrei Daescu Pull Off Mixed Doubles Upset to Take Gold in Austin

The GOATs go down.

With all of the rain in Austin this weekend, there was a lot of adversity to overcome for players and organizers at the PPA Austin Open.

After the men’s doubles championship on Sunday, play was suspended due to more rain. The PPA moved the other four championships to Monday.

In the first final of the morning, Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters lost to Andrei Daescu and Anna Bright in three straight games, 11-3, 11-9, 11-3. Bright and Daescu were playing in their first PPA event together while James Ignatowich is recovering from a shoulder injury. They do have a ton of chemistry playing together, however, from their time playing on the Orlando Squeeze in MLP last year.

This marks the first time in just about a year the Waters/Johns duo has lost a match.

I have never seen Johns and Waters as out of sorts as they were throughout the match. Anna Leigh called all of her team’s timeouts and many times she marched straight over to her bench, listening to her mother’s advice. Nothing seemed to be working.

The wind was affecting both teams, which favored Bright and Daescu. The best chance that Anna Leigh and Ben had was in the second game, when they were up 8-4 with the serve. Daescu and Bright quickly got a side out and then put the pedal to the metal.

Bright and Daescu played as close to a perfect match as you could ask for, which is what you need versus Johns and Waters.

We'll have more on all of the results and storylines from Austin later today.