PPA Tour Virginia Beach Cup: Waters/Bright rebound, Haworth claims his first singles title of 2025
Last Edited
Oct 12 2025
Category
News
Chris Haworth has been through the gauntlet in men's singles over the past 2 months.
The recent PPA Tour signee made his 2025 debut on tour at the Walgreens Open in Las Vegas in late August, but because he hadn't played an event prior to that since 2024, he was a 50-something seed in his first two tournaments.
That meant early round matchups against top players like Hunter Johnson, Jack Sock and Grayson Goldin, which made his path to Championship Sunday a minefield. And yet he still managed to make the semifinals in two of his first three tournaments.
Most fans and pundits thought it was just a matter of time before he broke through to make (and win) a final, and they were right: On Sunday at the PPA Tour Virginia Beach Cup, Haworth claimed his first gold medal of the year with an 11-8, 12-10 win over No. 4 seed Christian Alshon.
Haworth was the No. 15 seed coming into the week, and will likely move into the top 10 in the points standings after earning 1,500 points on Sunday with this event being a "Cup."
His run in Virginia Beach was quite impressive, as he took down No. 2 seed Federico Staksrud in the Round of 16, beat No. 8 seed John Lucian Goins in the quarterfinals and won a very close semifinal match 11-4, 11-13, 13-11 over No. 6 seed Jack Sock.
Sunday's final (as with all of the matches on Sunday) had several weather delays as misting rain and high winds challenged players and tournament organizers throughout the day. Haworth was able to roll with the stoppages and uncertainty around when play would resume, ultimately finishing off the second game after a lengthy delay in the late stages.
"I was just trying to stay focused as much as I could, stay in my own head, but also stay loose and have fun," he said.
Sunday's bronze medal matches were canceled because of the weather, which also forced the conclusion of the men's doubles final and the women's singles final to be pushed back to Monday morning.
Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio, who are going for their fifth straight PPA Tour title together, won Games 1 and 2 and were trailing 5-6 to JW Johnson/CJ Klinger when play was stopped Sunday evening. That match will resume at 9 a.m. ET on Monday and will be followed by the women's singles final between Anna Leigh Waters and Brooke Buckner.
Women's doubles
After winning their first three tournaments together in 2025 without even dropping a game, Anna Leigh Waters and Anna Bright had been upset in the semifinals in their last two tournaments -- first by Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black in Las Vegas and then by Jade and Jackie Kawamoto in Cincinnati.
But the top-seeded duo got back to their winning ways this week, taking gold with an 11-3, 11-1, 11-3 win over Jorja Johnson and Rachel Rohrabacher on Sunday.
Sunday's victory capped a week in which Waters/Bright outscored their opponents 121-22 and looked much more like the team that was dominant in their first few events of 2025 than the team that hadn't made a final in their last two tournaments.
“I don’t think we played badly (in those previous losses)," Bright said after Sunday's win. "I think the level is just really rising, but it feels good to send a message this week that we’re here to stay and that we’re playing good pickleball.”
It will be interesting to see how the women's doubles field shakes out for the remaining tournaments in 2025. There are two teams who have proven that they are capable of beating the top duo, but as of now those players aren't signed up to play together in either of the next two tournaments -- the Las Vegas Cup on Oct. 20-26 and the Pickleball World Championships in Dallas on Nov. 3-9.
Mixed doubles
Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters claimed their sixth straight PPA Tour title with an 11-7, 11-3, 11-6 win over JW Johnson and Jorja Johnson, a matchup that we have now seen five times in a final in 2025.
Johns/Waters lead the season series 4-1, with their last loss coming to the Johnsons at the North Carolina Open in April.
Much like the women's doubles bracket, mixed doubles was seemingly never in doubt. The only other somewhat close match for Johns/Waters this week was in the semifinals against Andrei Daescu/Tina Pisnik, which the No. 1 seed won 11-4, 11-7.
“With these conditions, it was really about making a lot of balls and making the fewest unforced errors you can make,” Johns said after the win. “Obviously, that team has great hands and can score a lot of points in a row. They’re strong on both sides of the court — JW has phenomenal hands, Jorja goes right at me sometimes, and it’s pretty tough, so it’s always a good match. The conditions were not ideal for all of us, but I’m glad that we could at least play.”
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