Chris Haworth: From No. 52 Seed to Nine PPA Singles Titles
Chris Haworth started playing pickleball in 2022, turned pro a year later, and by March 2026 was sitting at the top of the PPA Tour's rolling points standings in men's singles. He has won nine PPA Tour singles titles, beaten Ben Johns and Federico Staksrud in finals this year, and then lost two big matches in the last month: the Chicago Cup final to Roscoe Bellamy and a quarterfinal at the world championships. Here is who he is and what his record says.
Who he is
According to his PPA Tour profile, Haworth is 33, stands 6 ft 4 in, plays right-handed and lists Edmond, Oklahoma as his home. The profile says he first picked up a paddle in 2022, turned pro in 2023 and joined the PPA Tour full-time in 2025, and it credits him with a gold medal at the 2024 Orange County Cup in San Clemente. It also mentions a background in high-level racket sports without naming the sport. The same page lists the Luzz Tornazo Pro-Blade 2 as his paddle. We have no page for that model, so we cannot link it, and paddle deals change, so check his current setup before you copy it.
From No. 52 seed to the top of the standings
The Kitchen's recap of the Greater Zion Cup describes how quickly he moved. He arrived on the tour in late summer 2025 as the No. 52 seed and lost in the round of 16 to Hunter Johnson at his first event. After that, the same report says, he won three golds and was in the top 10 by the end of 2025.
2026 has been bigger. He won the PPA Masters in Palm Springs in January, beating No. 3 Christian Alshon in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Hunter Johnson in the semifinals and No. 7 Jack Sock in the final. At the Carvana Mesa Cup in February he beat Ben Johns 11-6, 11-6 for the title. In March he won the Greater Zion Cup final over Federico Staksrud 11-9, 11-5, which The Kitchen reported as his third title of the year and the win that moved him to No. 1 in the PPA's 52-week rolling points standings.
Career timeline
| When | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Orange County Cup, San Clemente | Gold, per his PPA profile |
| Late summer 2025 | First PPA Tour events as a full-time player | Started as the No. 52 seed, lost round of 16 to Hunter Johnson, then won three golds before year end |
| January 2026 | PPA Masters, Palm Springs | Gold, beating Alshon, Hunter Johnson and Sock |
| Feb 22, 2026 | Carvana Mesa Cup | Gold, beating Ben Johns 11-6, 11-6 |
| Mar 29, 2026 | Greater Zion Cup, Utah | Gold, beating Staksrud 11-9, 11-5 |
| Sept 2026 | Veolia Arizona Open, Mesa | Gold, beating Staksrud 10-12, 11-9, 11-6 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | Veolia Chicago Cup | Runner-up as top seed, lost to Roscoe Bellamy 11-4, 11-5 |
| Nov 2026 | Opendoor Pickleball World Championships, Texas | No. 1 seed, lost in the quarterfinals to John Lucian Goins |
Rankings differ by system. His PPA profile showed him at world No. 16 with nine career PPA titles when we checked, while the rolling PPA standings that The Kitchen cited had him at No. 1 in March. Treat any single number as a snapshot and check the current standings.
The Arizona Open comeback
His most dramatic win this season came in Mesa in September, where he defended his title against Staksrud. Staksrud took the first game 12-10, and Haworth answered with 11-9 and 11-6 for what The Dink counted as his ninth PPA Tour singles championship.
Beating Ben Johns in Mesa
Johns has been the sport's benchmark for years, and Haworth beat him in straight games in February at the Mesa Cup. The full match is below if you want to see how he did it.
The two recent losses
At the Chicago Cup in October, Haworth was the top seed and reached the final, where Roscoe Bellamy beat him 11-4, 11-5. Bellamy said afterward that Haworth did not play his best, and it was Bellamy's first win over him. At the world championships in early November, Haworth was again the No. 1 seed but lost in the quarterfinals to John Lucian Goins, who went on to win the singles title over Jack Sock 11-5, 12-10.
One lost final and one quarterfinal exit do not undo a season that includes the Masters title and nine singles golds, but they show how thin the margin is in pro singles, where younger players such as Tama Shimabukuro are also winning big matches. For how singles differs from the doubles most people play, see our guide to singles and doubles.
What to watch next
- Rebound after Worlds: how he responds in the next PPA Tour events after two consecutive early losses as a top seed.
- Rematches with Staksrud and Bellamy: Haworth owns recent wins over Staksrud, while Bellamy now has the most recent result between them.
- Year-end standings: check the current PPA rankings to see where he lands after the world championships.
If you are shopping for a power-oriented singles paddle yourself, our paddle finder matches paddles to your style, and the glossary explains the terms used in coverage like this.
Sources
- PPA Tour: Christopher Haworth athlete profile
- The Kitchen: 2026 Greater Zion Cup recap
- The Kitchen: 2026 PPA Tour Masters recap
- Pickleball.com: Haworth topples Johns at the Mesa Cup
- The Dink: PPA Arizona Open recap
- Pickleball.com: Bellamy powers past Haworth in Chicago
- The Dink: PPA Tour Worlds recap
