Ben Johns blames fashion crisis on partial colorblindness, then shows up in his best outfit to date

Ben Johns admitted he caused a fashion crisis at the PPA World Championships.

He blamed it on partial colorblindness and packing in the dark.

Then he showed up the next day in his best outfit of the tournament.

Here’s exactly what happened.

THE MISMATCH

Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters played mixed doubles in the round of 64 at the Opendoor Pickleball World Championships.

They are the top seeds in mixed doubles.

They usually coordinate their outfits.

This time, they did not.

Waters wore a teal skirt and a black shirt from Nike.

Johns wore bright blue shorts and a white shirt.

The colors clashed.

Broadcasters Sarah Ansboury and Michelle McMahon noticed during the match.

They asked about it in the post-match interview.

“Ben, I don’t think you did your job today with matching Anna Leigh’s outfit, so what’s going on here?” Ansboury asked.

Johns, Waters and McMahon all laughed.

“It’s entirely my fault,” Johns said.

“She told me what to wear in the morning and I think I packed in the dark.

“I packed the blue instead of the teal, and somehow, I didn’t have a black shirt.

“It was a catastrophe this morning, I take full responsibility.

“Blame being color blind and dressing in the dark.”

Then Waters interrupted.

“I’m sorry you can’t blame your partial color blindness,” Waters said.

“He’s not actually color blind.”

Waters clarified that Johns is not partially colorblind.

Johns has said before that Waters handles the fashion decisions in their partnership.

She picks the color combinations.

He matches.

This season, he has worn some very good outfits to match Waters in mixed doubles.

This look did not match her at all.

His outfit was not bad by itself.

It just did not match hers.

THE REDEMPTION

The next day, Johns played singles in the round of 32.

He showed up in one of his best looks of the entire tournament.

He wore a green JOOLA hat.

He wore a baby blue shirt.

He wore teal shorts.

He wore white compression sleeves.

He wore white crew socks.

He wore JOOLA court shoes.

The colors were green, teal and white.

It was a sharp combination.

It looked excellent.

Especially compared to the mismatched outfit from the day before.

The color combination of blue, teal and green worked very well together.

The styling was the key.

Many players fail on styling.

A good outfit is not just about matching the top and bottom.

It is about the shoes, the hat and every accessory matching too.

The easiest way to get that right is to wear all white or all black accessories.

Johns nailed it by wearing all white accessories.

The look was worthy of the best-dressed list.

THE CONTEXT

This fashion story happened at the same tournament where Johns surprised fans with a different kind of weapon.

He started using a left-handed forehand in singles matches.

It was a shot he had not used regularly in years.

He first used it in singles in 2016 and 2017.

Back then, singles rallies were mostly drives.

He later switched to a drop-and-approach style.

That style required backhand slices and backhand drops.

So he stopped using his left hand.

He stopped hitting passing shots with it.

Now the game has changed again.

New balls like the LT Pro 48 and more powerful paddles have changed singles play.

Johns said the traditional drop-and-approach strategy no longer works as well.

“You can’t really drop and come in super well with this ball,” he said.

“You can hit accurate drops, but the ball bounces pretty high and people have a lot of spin on their paddles, so they can just take a drop and do a lot with it, so cat and mouse doesn’t really work very well.”

His backhand does not generate much power.

The left-handed forehand gives him an alternative.

He used it against Brandon French in the round of 64.

He won that match 11-7, 1-11, 11-5.

He lost in the round of 32 to Noe Khlif 8-11, 8-11.