Championship Sunday in Utah will not just produce a winner. It will produce a new world number one.
Key Takeaways
- The winner will overtake Hunter Johnson to become PPA world number one
- Federico Staksrud arrives with volume and presence across the week
- Chris Haworth enters with efficiency, control, and a recent loss to correct
The men’s game will have a new centre of control by the end of Sunday.
Federico Staksrud and Chris Haworth meet in the PPA Tour Greater Zion Cup final with more than a title at stake. The winner will move past Hunter Johnson and take the number one ranking in PPA men’s singles.
That makes this less about position, and more about ownership.
Because neither player arrives having fully controlled the week.
Staksrud has been the more visible presence, pushing deep across multiple brackets and reinforcing his status as one of the most complete players on tour. But his run has been built on accumulation as much as dominance. He has stayed in matches, rather than taken them over early.
Haworth, by contrast, has moved through the draw with fewer complications. His 11-8, 11-4 semi-final win over John Lucian Goins was clean, built on shot selection and control rather than pressure. He has not needed to extend himself. He has not yet been forced into difficult, late-match decisions.
That is what gives this final its edge.
One player has absorbed the week. The other has moved through it.
But neither has been pushed to the point where control had to be taken, rather than maintained.
That moment arrives now.
The recent history between them sharpens it further. Haworth lost the last final between the two, a detail that shifts this from a ranking opportunity into something closer to a correction. He is not just playing for number one. He is trying to change a result that still sits close.
Staksrud, meanwhile, is playing to confirm something more fragile. That his current level holds when the stakes tighten, and that his presence across the week translates into control when it matters most.
This is why the semi-finals matter, even in what they did not show.
Neither player was stretched deep into a deciding moment. Neither was forced to solve under pressure late in a match. That leaves the final as the first real examination of both.
Which turns this into something slightly different from a standard number one decider.
It is not about who arrives in better form. It is about who can impose control when neither has yet been forced to do so.
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The ranking will change. Control is harder to keep.
Further Reading
- Latest pickleball news from around the world
- Tournament coverage and results
- Rankings and player profiles
- Regional pickleball coverage
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris 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…
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