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Johnson And Klinger, Johns And Tardio Advance To Men’s Singles Final With Three-game Victories
The pairings of JW Johnson/CJ Klinger and Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio booked their spots in the men’s doubles final with three-game victories on Saturday evening.
Johnson/Klinger stated things off with an 11-6, 11-13, 11-8 win over No. 4 seeds Dylan Frazier/Dekel Bar.
After teams split the first two highly competitive games, the No. 5 seeds jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the decider and used that advantage to close out the contest after nearly an hour and a half on court.
Johnson spoke about the challenges of playing against a partnership that suffocates the kitchen line like Bar/Frazier.
“We just had to dink quite a bit and be aware that they were gonna try and speed up because they’re both super long and would reach in at any opportunity,” he explained. “So, we just had to be patient with our attacks.”
In the second semifinal and the day’s final match at Life Time Peachtree Corners, Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio got some revenge over No. 3 seeds Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu with a 10-12, 11-3, 11-4 triumph.
The No. 2 seeds lost this matchup in the final of the Carvana Mesa Cup back in February, but they turned the tables on Saturday night in the Peach State.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however.
Johns/Tardio had a 7-2 lead in the opening game and also had two game points at 10-9, but Alshon/Daescu stayed steady took advantage of some uncharacteristic errors from Johns to come back and steal it.
Not deterred by the early missed opportunity, Johns/Tardio rebounded and comfortably took Games 2 and 3 thanks to a near-flawless performance from Tardio.
Johns spoke about what it took to rebound after the first game.
“I think I missed two balls there at 10-9, so it was definitely on me. But Gabe was super positive and pointed out that we were outplaying them at the line, so we knew that as long we kept getting to the line that things would go our way,” he explained. “Gabe obviously played amazing. I think he missed maybe one dink and made zero errors other than that, which is just insane. The guy is crazy good, and I love having him next to me.”
Sunday’s gold medal bout will be the second meeting between the two teams. Johns/Tardio earned an 11-7, 11-6 victory when they faced off in the quarterfinals of the Veolia North Carolina Open last month.
