As the new PPA Tour season gets underway, Chris Haworth took a moment to reflect on the journey that brought him to the top in men's singles.

“It’s a huge privilege and it’s a big accomplishment for me to be in this spot. It’s a grind for everyone on tour,” said Haworth. “We play week after week, and I feel privileged that I was able to achieve number one, but there’s a lot of players out here grinding that are still working towards that goal. For me, I’m just really grateful.”

Haworth is among the select few on tour to reach the No. 1 spot, but he admits the opening rounds of a draw can be the most nerve-racking.

“It’s a different feeling going into tournaments. When I was seeded at 50, there was no pressure on me and I could play as freely as I wanted to because I didn’t have to worry too much if I lost,” he explained. “There was no added pressure to maintain a status or a ranking. I just played my best and saw good results from that.”

Now however, Haworth has added pressure in the early rounds because he’s going into matches against lower seeds—and theoretically, he shouldn’t lose in those situations.

But upsets are always inevitable.  

“Now, the first few rounds have a lot more pressure because I have more to prove,” he said. “But as I get later into the tournament, I get more settled and then I feel like my game elevates.”

While Haworth has had incredible success, there are tournaments where he doesn’t get the results he was hoping for. So how does he combat that and come back stronger?

“Of course I’m disappointed when I have an early exit, but I think you learn more from losing than you do winning,” he mentioned. “I’ll take a good look at the match I lost and think about the tournament as a whole. Sometimes I don’t play my best because of the pressure or certain conditions, but I think losing teaches you a lot and so I've got to take the losses and learn what I can.”

Haworth said he didn’t make any major changes to reach the top.

Instead, he simply stayed true to his game.

“I just stayed the course and believed in myself. I told myself I’m not going to play a tournament if I don’t think I can win. I go into a tournament with the belief that I can win,” he explained. “I don’t think that’s going to happen every time necessarily, but I trust what I do off the court and hope that it pays off on the court.”

But with every other men’s singles player in the draw looking to beat him, how does he maintain his competitive edge?

“It sounds super cheesy, but I really believe in 1% better every day,” he noted. “Just doing the little things better and better, and if you do them consistently, you start to improve over time. That’s what I’ve stuck to.”

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