Carvana Championship Sunday at the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships kicked off with the mixed doubles and men’s singles finals, where Anna Leigh Waters, Ben Johns, and Chris Haworth captured gold in their respective events.

In men’s singles, the top-seeded Haworth defeated the red-hot No. 22 seed Tama Shimabukuro 11-5, 11-1.

The 15-year-old Shimabukuro had taken Atlanta by storm with wins over multiple top players including Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson, but Haworth proved to be too much in the Georgia capital as he cruised to his seventh career PPA Tour singles title.

“I knew most people would be rooting for [Shimabukuro], and you can’t blame them. I mean, I would honestly be cheering for him if he wasn’t playing me,” Haworth told Pickleballtv’s Kamryn Blackwood and Matt Manasse afterwards. “But I played college tennis, so I’m used to people cheering against me. It kind of motivates you a little bit.”

The top seed also gave some insight into how he was able to deal with his opponent’s uncanny anticipation at the kitchen line.

“I felt like playing Connor [Garnett] yesterday was a great pre-match for Tama because they play a little similarly,” he explained. “When they’re at the kitchen, they’re both getting a lot of balls back and almost baiting you to pass them and overhit, so I tried to take a bit off today and focus more on spots than on power and use two, three, or even four-shot passes if I had to.”

On the other side, Shimabukuro had nothing but gratitude for the Atlanta crowd that spurred him on to his first career PPA Tour final.

“This means a lot,” he told Pickleballtv’s Michelle McMahon. “The crowds were so great this whole week. I was just trying to stay calm, and this crowd got me through every match. Thank you to everyone here.”

In the mixed doubles final, Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns defeated No. 3 seeds Anna Bright/Hayden Patriquin by an 11-4, 11-5, 11-4 score line.

It was a brilliant performance from the top seeds, who have now won nine of their last ten games against Bright/Patriquin since losing to them in the final of the Mesa Cup back in February.

Johns spoke about the experience of being on the court when everything seems to be working like it was on Sunday.

“You never expect it to go that way, but it’s certainly the goal,” he mentioned. “You have those nitty gritty matches where you’ve got to work with what you have and win how you can, but when you do play really well, you’re thankful for the preparation that went into it. Sometimes, you get days like these where you both play really well, and when you do, it’s gratifying for sure.”

Both Waters and Johns will be back in action later Sunday afternoon.