From Utah to the wider tour, dominant scorelines are no longer ending matches. The best players are still taking control, but finishing the job is becoming a different kind of challenge.
A 25–0 run should end a match.
It didn’t.
At the Greater Zion Cup, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns built what should have been an unassailable lead in the mixed doubles final. Across two games, they did not concede a single point. The match should have been over long before the third.
Instead, it stretched. Match points came and went. Eight of them were saved.
What looked finished turned into a test.
That is where the mental side becomes unavoidable. A 25–0 run tells you that you are the better team. Watching that lead shrink forces you to prove it again.
Waters’ singles final followed the same pattern from the opposite direction. Kate Fahey raced to a 10–0 lead and took the opening game. For a moment, the match tilted. Then it reset.
Waters did not just recover. She recalibrated.
Coming back from 10–0 to make the opening game competitive is one test. Resetting again to win the next two, 11–3, 11–2, is another. Even the most dominant player in the sport is now being forced to solve matches more than once.
The same tension showed in men’s doubles. Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio looked in control before the match shifted. Two games slipped away. Momentum changed sides. The contest extended into a fifth game before control was finally re-established.
That is the real shift.
Matches are no longer won in a single phase. They are won in layers. Momentum moves, pressure builds, and players are asked to respond repeatedly rather than once.
The pattern is simple.
Matches are no longer closing cleanly.
Defensive quality is improving across the field. Players are retrieving balls that would have ended points a year ago. Resets are more reliable. Hands battles last longer. The margin for finishing points has narrowed.
Fitness matters as well. Players are sustaining intensity deeper into matches, which makes late comebacks more viable and early dominance less decisive.
But the biggest change is psychological.
The hardest part is no longer taking control of a match. It is holding your nerve when control starts to slip.
Leads are no longer confirmation. They are pressure points.
That changes what it means to be a top player.
Control still matters. Execution still matters. But now there is an added demand. Players have to close, absorb resistance, and then close again when the match refuses to end.
That is a different skill.
It also changes the viewing experience. Matches feel less predictable. Scorelines tell less of the story. A dominant run does not guarantee a quick finish.
The sport becomes more watchable as a result.
But it also becomes less forgiving.
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Because the gap at the top is no longer just about who can take control.
It is about who can finish it, when it refuses to end, and still believe they will.
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Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…
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