Daescu and Alshon Beat Johns and Tardio for Back-to-Back PPA Titles
Andrew LeeCRBN kept its post short. Andrei Daescu and Christian Alshon, it said, "take down the #1 team in the world, becoming 2-time back-to-back champions on the PPA Tour."
The match behind that line was the men's doubles final of the Rate Las Vegas Open on Sunday 4 Oct, played at the Darling Tennis Center in Las Vegas. Daescu and Alshon, the No. 2 seeds, beat the No. 1 seeds, Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio, in straight games, taking the first 11-6. It was the first loss of 2026 for Johns and Tardio.
Ten clean winners, one 44-shot rally
The PPA Tour's Championship Sunday stats put numbers on it. Alshon hit ten clean winners, more than Johns and Tardio managed between them (nine). The longest rally of the final ran 44 shots.
The result also answered last year. Alshon and Daescu lost the 2025 Las Vegas final to Johns and Tardio, 12-10 in the fifth game, in a match that lasted 2 hours and 28 minutes. This time it took two games.
Second straight title, fifth together
Las Vegas was their second title in as many tournaments together this season. They had already won the Veolia Arizona Open in September, beating Nico Acevedo and Yuta Funemizu in that final. By the PPA Tour's count, Las Vegas was their fifth title together and their second this season.
What CRBN and Paddletek posted
Each player's own brand posted about the win. CRBN announced on 11 Mar that Daescu "has officially joined the CRBN Pro Team." The line quoted at the top of this article is from CRBN's reel of the win.
Paddletek's graphics for Alshon carry the label Team Paddletek, and its Las Vegas post sums up the weekend this way: "Two podium finishes. One big weekend in Vegas." Alshon took gold in Men's Doubles and Tyra Black took silver in Women's Doubles. Of Alshon, Paddletek wrote: "that makes back-to-back PPA golds."
In Malaysia, MyPickleball wrote about the earlier Arizona win and said Alshon used the Paddletek Honeyfoam TKO-X and Reserve to take the Men's Doubles gold.
Johns's Sunday
Johns played in three finals that day and lost all three. He lost the singles final to Hunter Johnson, 11-1, 11-3, and the mixed doubles final with Anna Leigh Waters to Hayden Patriquin and Anna Bright, 11-9, 11-7.
This article is based on social media posts and historical data tracked by Pickle361.
