Chris Haworth joined the PPA Tour late last summer with big expectations from fans and pundits. Many considered him a top 5 singles player in the world despite mostly competing on the APP Tour to that point.

But even though there was a lot of excitement from the outside, Haworth said he didn’t personally have any expectations, knowing that it would be a tough climb up the rankings in arguably the deepest division in all of pro pickleball.

He started as a No. 52 seed in his first tournament last September, losing in the Round of 16 to No. 2 Hunter Johnson, but soon after broke through with his first win of the year and by the end of the 2025 he had three golds and had cracked the top 10.

He has continued on that trajectory so far in 2026, and on Sunday at the Greater Zion Cup in Utah he claimed his third title of the year and overtook Johnson as the No. 1 player in the PPA Tour’s 52-week rolling points standings. The door was opened for Haworth to take the top spot after Hunter Johnson was upset by JW Johnson in the Round of 32 earlier in the week.

Haworth defeated Federico Staksrud in Sunday’s final — 11-9, 11-5 — and now that he’s reached the top of the division, the question is: How long can he say there?

Both Johnson and Staksrud have won two gold medals this year, and all three players are now very close on points (the PPA Tour hadn’t updated the exact standings as of Sunday evening).

“I knew I could play at a great level, but everyone out here is really good,” Haworth said of the climb to No. 1. “I just tried to put my head down and work hard every day and here we are. … (Staksrud) is an incredible fighter and an incredible player, so I know we’ll have many more battles.”

Staksrud praised Haworth afterward, not only for how he played in their gold-medal match, but his consistency over the past 7 months on tour.

“Congrats to Chris getting to No. 1 in the world, that’s a huge accomplishment,” Staksrud said. “I’m gonna try to push him more and hopefully we’re going to have more matches like this in the future.”

Men’s singles bronze-medal match: John Lucian Goins def. Noe Khlif 11-3, 11-1.

Men’s doubles: Ben Johns, Gabe Tardio hold of strong challenge from Hayden Patriquin, Christian Alshon

Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio have won every tournament they’ve played together in 2026, and until this week had yet to be pushed to a Game 5.

They faced their stiffest test of the year on Sunday before ultimately defeating Hayden Patriquin/Christian Alshon 13-11, 3-11, 3-11, 11-2, 11-7 in the men’s doubles gold-medal match.

In the first three games, Patriquin/Alshon were able to control the tempo and played very aggressively, finding success with regular speedups off the bounce. In Game 1 they had 4 game points, but weren’t able to close.

That missed opportunity loomed large the rest of the match, as Johns/Tardio were able to slow the pace down over time and regained control in Games 3 and 4.

“It could have went either way,” Tardio said. “I actually thought we were going to lose because it wasn’t really close in Games 2 and 3, so I thought we were in a bad spot, but I’m glad we pulled it off.”

Patriquin said they were taking positives away from the week, as it’s the closest he and Alshon have been to taking down Johns/Waters yet this year — despite the fact that Alshon was sick for most of the week and said he was coughing up blood on Sunday.

“We had a game plan and I think we stuck to it well, and it all just comes down to the crunch time and I think they played a little bit better than us there,” Patriquin said.

Sunday’s title marks the 15th gold medal together for Johns/Tardio, and they’ve won 7 straight since their last loss at the Pickleball World Championships in November.  

Men’s doubles bronze-medal match: JW Johnson/CJ Klinger def. Federico Staksrud/Andrei Daescu 11-6, 11-7.

Mixed doubles: Ben Johns/Anna Leigh Waters win wild final over Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright

In their fifth meeting of the season, Ben Johns/Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright played their strangest match yet.

After they were tied 5-5 in Game 1, Johns/Waters ripped off 25 straight points, winning Game 1 handily, pickling Patriquin/Bright in Game 2 and taking a 9-0 lead in Game 3.

It looked like they were going to cruise to yet another mixed doubles title, but Bright and Patriquin kept fighting, putting together a big run of their own and eventually earning multiple game points in Game 3. They couldn’t complete the comeback, however, and Johns/Waters ultimately won 11-5, 11-0, 15-13.

Johns/Waters had nine match points in Game 3.

“9 championship points is a lot,” Johns said afterward. “You don’t want to have that many — you hope to get it in the first few — but it’s better than going to a Game 4. It might have taken a while, but at least we got there.”

Johns/Waters are now 4-1 against Patriquin/Bright this season and have won three straight titles since their lone loss earlier this season at the Mesa Cup.

Mixed doubles bronze-medal match: JW Johnson/Jorja Johnson def. Federico Staksrud/Kate Fahey 11-4, 11-7.

Women’s singles: Waters overcomes Game 1 loss to keep singles streak alive

Speaking of big momentum swings: Kate Fahey went on a hot streak of her own in Game 1 of the women’s singles final against Anna Leigh Waters, storming out to a 10-0 lead to send a buzz across the pickleball world.

Coming into Sunday, Waters had not lost a singles match in 669 days — nearly 2 years — and for the first 15 minutes of Sunday’s match it looked very possible that the streak would end.

But Waters flipped the momentum by stringing together some points in Game 1 (which she ultimately lost 11-8), then carried that over in to Games 2 and 3 to get the win — 8-11, 11-3, 11-2.

“I honestly kept telling myself, if I have to die to this court, I will,” said Waters, who also appeared to be battling an illness this week. “I was just fighting till the end for every point and trying to focus on what I could control.”

Women’s singles bronze-medal match: Lea Jansen def. Kaitlyn Christian 11-7, 11-7.

Women’s doubles: Anna Leigh Waters, Anna Bright continue dominant run

As hard as it is to believe, Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright appear to be separating even more from the women’s doubles field with each passing week.

Their scores this week were more lopsided than they’ve been all year (and they already had been pretty lopsided).

Round of 32: 11-0, 11-0
Round of 16: 11-2, 11-1
Quarterfinals: 11-0, 11-0
Semifinals: 11-3, 11-3
Finals: 11-3, 11-3, 11-0 over Kate Fahey/Parris Todd

It’s the 21st gold medal together for Waters/Bright, and the 43rd Triple Crown of Waters’ career.

“I feel like we were super hungry this week,” Waters said. “We want every single point, even when we’re up big. I feel like we’re still keeping each other accountable.”