
Staksrud avenges Atlanta loss, beats Haworth for second straight singles title
Federico Staksrud secured his second consecutive singles title on Sunday with an 11-9, 11-1 victory over No. 13 seed Chris Haworth.
Haworth had won the last six meetings between the two stars—including their most recent clash in the finals of last month’s LT Open—but Staksrud completely turned the table on Sunday after getting down 0-5 in the opening game.
After opening the year with a gold medal at the PPA Masters, the Argentine went through a bit a title drought. With Sunday’s result, though, he has now won three golds across the past five PPA Tour events.
He spoke about the role that his coach, Mike Wolf, has played in his recent success.
“Coach Mike is a huge part of this because when you’re down, it’s easy to look for excuses and to start thinking of giving up. If you have people believing in you, it’s huge, and that’s what he did,” Staksrud told Pickleballtv’s Kamryn Blackwood and Matt Manasse.
With this title, Staksrud will also overtake Hunter Johnson for the top spot in the PPA Tour men’s singles rankings.
Even though that’s quite the accolade, he asserts that there are more important things than rankings and titles.
“I might sound like I’m lying, but I really don’t care about that,” he said. “It’s great, but the thing that I care the most about is just competing and having fun and playing well.”
He certainly did that on Sunday.
Staksrud will be back in action later on when he and Hayden Patriquin take on JW Johnson/CJ Klinger for the men’s doubles crown.
In the bronze medal match, top seed Hunter Johnson beat No. 4 seed Connor Garnett by an 11-2, 11-0 score line.
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