Chris Haworth’s win over Federico Staksrud at the Greater Zion Cup did more than deliver another title. It confirmed a rapid shift at the top of men’s singles, while Anna Leigh Waters once again showed that even when the field pushes her, she still finds a way to finish the week on top.
Haworth won in Utah. The surprise is how little time it took him to reach the top.
His 11-9, 11-5 win in the final made him world No.1. The speed of it is the real story.
Haworth only arrived on tour full-time in August. Men’s singles has usually moved slowly. Players take time to climb. Haworth hasn’t.
That is the part worth paying attention to. This was not a wild run from nowhere or one hot week. Against Staksrud, Haworth looked composed, measured, and clear in what he was trying to do. He had lost to the same opponent at the Texas Open, but this time the match felt different. He controlled the smaller moments, protected his lead, and never let the final drift.
If this is how quickly a player can reach No.1, then the gap at the top was never as secure as it looked.
That matters beyond one result. The men’s game has had elite names for a while, but the sense of order around them is weakening. Hunter Johnson’s hold on the top ranking has gone. Staksrud remains a major threat, but no longer feels insulated. The top of the division is still strong, though it now looks far less settled than it did a few months ago. That is good for the tournament landscape, and more dangerous for everyone trying to stay ahead of it.
Elsewhere on Championship Sunday, Waters delivered another reminder that pressure and defeat are not the same thing. Kate Fahey raced into a 10-0 lead in the opening game of the women’s singles final and took it 11-8, a rare wobble in a match involving the sport’s dominant player. Waters responded immediately, taking the next two games 11-3, 11-2 to complete yet another comeback and secure the singles leg of her 43rd career Triple Crown.
That comeback mattered because it showed both sides of the current women’s game. Fahey proved that the field can land punches. Waters proved that sustaining them is something else entirely.
She and Anna Bright were more straightforward in women’s doubles, closing out the week with an 11-3, 11-3, 11-0 final win over Parris Todd and Fahey after dropping only 15 points across five matches. In mixed doubles, though, the story became far messier. Waters and Ben Johns ripped through a 25-0 scoring run against Bright and Hayden Patriquin and still needed nine championship points to finish the match, eventually winning 11-5, 11-0, 15-13.
That sequence may end up being one of the most revealing passages of the weekend. Even when elite teams take control, matches are no longer closing cleanly. Defensive quality is improving, momentum swings are lasting longer, and leads are becoming harder to convert into quick finishes.
There was similar resistance in the men’s doubles final, where Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio stayed unbeaten for the 2026 season by fighting back to beat Hayden Patriquin and Christian Alshon in five games. It was another result that reinforced the same point. Control is one thing. Closing is becoming something else.
For Haworth, though, the wider patterns only added weight to his own result. He did not win a chaotic final or survive a wild swing. He beat one of the best players in the world in straight games and walked away with the top ranking in the sport.
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Getting to No.1 was quick. Defending it will show whether this is a surge or a shift.
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Chris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at all levels of pickleball. Chris is also an avid player, currently struggling to make the breakthrough from 4.0 to 4.5.