Roscoe Bellamy Earns First Gold and ALW Gets Fourth Straight Triple Crown at PPA Lakeland

Anna Leigh Waters earned her 39th triple crown on the PPA Tour and Roscoe Bellamy earned his first gold medal of his career.

The Lakeland Open took place at the Beerman Family Tennis Center in Central Florida this past weekend. Some huge upsets happened and some big time comebacks also made the headlines. 

Let’s get into the action.

Roscoe Bellamy Wins his First Gold Medal (with a bit of controversy)

Roscoe Bellamy beat Hunter Johnson in the finals, 11-9, 5-11, 11-3. This marks Bellamy’s first gold medal in his career. Roscoe dominated his competition on the way to the championship.

Roscoe pickled not one, not two, but THREE people on Wednesday, to make it to the semifinals on Saturday. Here are the scorelines of his early rounds:

• Round of 64 - Qualifier (53) Michael Coleman - 11-5, 11-0
• Round of 32 - Qualifier (45) Benjamin Klein - 11-6, 11-0
• Round of 16 - Qualifier and Lucky Loser (5) Harrison Gold - 8-11, 11-1, 11-4
• Quarterfinal - (3) Connor Garnett - 11-0, 11-4

In the semis on Saturday, Roscoe had the task of beating eventual bronze medalist, Noe Khlif (this was Khlif’s first medal of his career). In a contrast of styles, Bellamy was able to overcome the French cat and mouse player with his pinpoint ground strokes and net coverage, 11-5, 12-10. 

In the gold medal match, Bellamy faced off against one of his best friends on tour, Hunter Johnson. After two games, the match was tied. Bellamy won a tightly contested game one, 11-9, with Johnson fighting back and winning game two, 11-5.

Roscoe got off to a smoking hot start in game three and was up 8-3 when the controversy hit. Bellamy hit a ground stroke toward the net post and it caromed off in a weird direction. Hunter stopped play because he thought the ball clearly hit the net post. After video review, the referees determined it did NOT hit the net post and Hunter was incredulous. 

The net post where Bellamy hit the controversial ball. The replay shows the ball hitting the white net cord, not the net post, just to its left. Image via PPA Tour.

So Johnson felt like his only option was to call Head Referee, Don Stanley, onto the court to rule in his favor. Instead, Stanley upheld the earlier ruling. Because Hunter called the Head Referee out to the court and was wrong, it resulted in a technical warning. Since Johnson already had a technical warning from earlier in the match for ball abuse, this was his second technical warning, which resulted in a technical foul, and a point to Bellamy.

From Hunter’s viewpoint, it should have been his serve at 3-8 in the third game. Instead, after 15 minutes of back and forth with referees, it was 10-3 with Roscoe serving on match point. Roscoe ended up winning the next point to seal the match.

The controversy overshadowed a huge win for Bellamy, which marked the first of his career. He now has four medals on tour, one bronze, two silver, and this gold. Bellamy is clearly in the conversation of top 10 singles players on tour and could use this is a springboard to propel himself into the top 5 range.

Anna Leigh Waters Earned her 4th Straight and 39th Overall Triple Crown

Waters seems very close to invincible right now. The last time Waters lost? September 13, 2025, to the Kawamoto twins, with Anna Bright. This marks 71 days since her last loss in any discipline.

I posted on X some additional stats about this insane run Waters is making during the last four events:

Of note, Anna Bright and Anna Leigh got their revenge on the Kawamoto twins on Sunday, beating them 11-8, 11-4, 11-3.

In singles, Anna Leigh caught a scare in her second round matchup on Wednesday, losing game one to Salome Devidze in the Round of 16. She beat Zoey Wang in the finals 11-3, 11-1. This marked Zoey’s second silver medal and fourth medal overall on the PPA Tour, all in singles.

Mixed doubles was the event where Anna Leigh nearly missed out on her triple crown. Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters faced off against Jorja and JW Johnson in the finals. The match went to five games and lasted just over two hours. 

Waters and Johns prevailed, winning 11-6 in the fifth and final game. Final scoreline was 10-12, 11-4, 11-2, 8-11, 11-6. 

Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio Got Back to Their Winning Ways

This marks the ninth gold medal for Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio together in 2025. Out of 12 tournaments together, they have only ever missed gold three times.

After the semifinal loss to Hayden Patriquin and Federico Staksrud at Worlds, Johns and Tardio looked eager to get a solid win back under their belt for positive momentum headed into the new year.

Johns and Tardio beat Fed and Tyson McGuffin (Hayden did not participate in Lakeland) in the semis and then beat Alshon and Daescu in the finals, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5.

The team of Tardio and Johns is clearly a step above the rest in men’s doubles, and everyone else is chasing them headed into 2026.

Other Quick Storylines

Luca Mack was a qualifier who made it all the way to the semis, eventually earning fourth place. 

If you missed the semifinal between Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger/JW Johnson, I would HIGHLY encourage you to watch it. Klinger and Johnson won game one, 11-4, and were up 8-0 in game two. That means they went on a 19-4 run. 

Daescu and Alshon came out of a timeout and turned the tables, going on an 11-0 run to win game two, 11-8. Game three was super close throughout, with Alshon and Daescu winning 11-9. This was the match of the event for me.

Kate Fahey and Tina Pisnik beat Catherine Parenteau and Etta Tuionetoa, 8&3, in the quarterfinals. They lost to Bright and Waters in the semis, but earned a bronze medal when Tyra and Parris withdrew from the bronze match. This marked Fahey’s first ever medal in women’s doubles in her career. 

Full Results

Women’s Singles

🥇 Anna Leigh Waters

🥈 Chao Yi “Zoey” Wang

🥉 Lea Jansen

Men’s Singles

🥇 Hunter Johnson

🥈 Roscoe Bellamy

🥉 Noe Khlif

Mixed Doubles

🥇 Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns

🥈 Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson

🥉 Anna Bright/Eric Oncins

Women’s Doubles

🥇 Anna Bright/Anna Leigh Waters

🥈 Jade and Jackie Kawamoto

🥉 Kate Fahey/Tina Pisnik

Men’s Doubles

🥇 Gabe Tardio/Ben Johns

🥈 Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu

🥉 CJ Klinger/JW Johnson

Header Image provided by the PPA Tour