In their first tournament as a pair, Eric Oncins and Tyra Black took full advantage of absence of pickleball’s top women’s player, Anna Leigh Waters, as they clinched their first PPA Tour gold medal at the Sacramento Open, winning a five-game thriller.
In a gripping final that swung on momentum and nerve, Oncins and Black staged a memorable comeback to edge past the top seeded duo of Jorja Johnson and JW Johnson 11-7, 6-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-8 on April 20.
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For Oncins, the victory marks a significant milestone in a career that has rapidly gathered pace over the past two years. As recently as 2024, he had struggled to break into the elite bracket and was overlooked in the MLP Premier Level draft. Since then, his steady climb up the PPA rankings has been hard to ignore – yet a gold medal had remained elusive. That wait ended in emphatic fashion.
Entering the tournament as the fourth seeded pair, Oncins and Black were tested from the outset. Narrow wins in the early rounds – 12-10 and 11-9 – hinted at their resilience under pressure. Their toughest test came in the semifinals against second seeds Parris Todd and Andrei Daescu. Pushed to the limit, the duo held firm to take the decisive third game 11-7, booking their place in the final.
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The championship match itself unfolded as a contest of shifting control. After taking the opening game, Oncins and Black lost their footing as the Johnson siblings surged ahead to lead 2-1. With the title within their grasp, the Johnsons looked poised to close it out. But Oncins and Black did not lose hope, and they staged a strong comeback, stringing together back-to-back 11-8 wins to turn the match on its head.
While Black has long been established among the top five players in the women’s game, Oncin’s rise continues to gather momentum. Now firmly inside the men’s top 10 and pushing towards the top five, his breakthrough title could signal the beginning of a new phase.
