High Pickleball Gamers: Who’s on the High of the Sport?

In the event you haven’t been dwelling beneath a rock for the previous couple of years, you’ll be properly conscious of the expansion of pickleball. It’s merely exploded. And with this progress in recognition, we’re seeing many tennis gamers transition over leading to fierce competitors.

Because it stands, the highest pickleball gamers in 2023 are:

• JW Johnson (#1 singles, #3 doubles)
• Ben Johns (#2 singles, #2 doubles)
• Colin Johns (#1 doubles)
• Anna Leigh Waters (#1 singles, #1 doubles)
• Andrea Koop (#2 doubles)
• Salome Devidze (#2 singles)

However these are solely a glimpse of the most effective gamers that pickleball presently has to supply. Learn on we cowl the top-ranked pickleball gamers and focus on their story of how they got here to be the most effective.

A Fast Phrase on Pickleball Rankings

Not like most sports activities with a unified rating system, pickleball isn’t fairly there but. There are, the truth is, a number of organizations that monitor pickleball rankings, and so they all use totally different standards. Which means the most effective pickleball gamers in 2023 fluctuate relying on which group you go by.

The totally different organizations embrace:

In our opinion, the most effective rating system to go by is WPR. It is because they’re trying to combine the ranks of varied different organizations. For instance, the PPA tracks the result of their tournaments, not others. So gamers who compete elsewhere don’t get any rating factors which isn’t precisely honest.

Because of this, we’ll use WPR’s rankings going ahead.

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Males’s Doubles Rankings

Males’s Singles Rankings

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The High Pickleball Gamers (Male)

JW Johnson

• DoB: November 6, 2002
• Turned professional: 2020
• Enjoying hand: Proper

JW Johnson could also be a latecomer to pickleball, however this hasn’t stopped him from leapfrogging the remainder of the competitors to turn into the most effective pickleball participant on this planet, at the least, in relation to doubles.

Like many professional pickleball gamers, Johnson transitioned from tennis, but he lacks the expertise of performing on the prime degree as he was born in 2002, making him one of many youngest elite gamers.

He claimed his first skilled win at simply 19 years of age and overcame the legend Ben Johns two years later. Within the subsequent 12 months, he swept all three gold medals at a event, in any other case often known as a triple crown (singles, doubles & blended doubles).

Ben Johns

• DoB: March 18, 1999
• Turned professional: 2016
• Enjoying hand: Proper

Who’s the most effective pickleball participant on this planet? Many would argue it’s Ben Johns. Whereas he ranks second in each the singles and doubles, he has held a #1 worldwide for longer than every other participant and secured in extra of 80 wins on the PPA Tour.

This outstanding document is made all of the extra profitable by his age. Born in March 1999, he has achieved greater than most will of their profession, and an argument can definitely be made that he has not but even hit his prime.

One in all his finest achievements was his 108-match unbeaten run in singles again in 2019. On the time, he was simply 20 years of age. Johns additionally holds extra triple crowns than every other participant, and was the primary to win a triple crown at a serious event — he made historical past on the Match of Champions in Utah. He’s additionally probably the most well-known pickleball participant proper now.

Colin Johns

• DoB: June 15, 1993
• Turned professional: 2018
• Enjoying hand: Proper

Pickleball dominance should run within the household as a result of Colin, Ben’s older brother, is a world-class pickleball participant in his personal proper. He presently sits because the #1 pickleball participant in doubles, based on WPR.

A key distinction between him and his brother is that Colin has way more skilled expertise in racket sports activities. He was a proficient tennis participant and competed for five years professionally earlier than pickleball, peaking at an ATP rating of #939 in doubles.

He first dipped his toes into pickleball in 2018, and the following 12 months he was competing on the US Open. Remarkably, he made the semis — an indication of what would come. Inside the 12 months, he was a top-10 participant for singles and doubles.

Previously, he served as a coach on the Baltimore Nation Membership, educating pickleball, tennis, and desk tennis. Nevertheless, in 2022 he determined to maneuver to Austin, Texas, to focus his efforts on skilled pickleball.

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Ladies’s Doubles Rankings

Ladies’s Singles Rankings

The Finest Pickleball Gamers (Feminine)

Anna Leigh Waters

• DoB: January 26, 2007
• Turned professional: 2019
• Enjoying hand: Proper

The place Ben Johns is taken into account the best male pickleball participant, Anna Leigh Waters is the primary pickleball participant on this planet for ladies. This isn’t solely as a result of she ranks first each in singles and doubles which Johns doesn’t, but in addition as a result of she achieved her feats at a a lot youthful age.

Anna Leigh Waters is the youngest participant to compete professionally at solely 12 years previous. You would possibly contemplate this somewhat pre-emptive — however you’d be mistaken. She secured titles that exact same 12 months and in addition turned the youngest pickleball champion as properly.

She competes within the doubles together with her mom, Leigh Waters, who’s presently ranked eighth in doubles. Leigh Waters additionally serves as her supervisor and coach. Beforehand, Anna used to play soccer to a superb customary. Nevertheless, she has largely stopped this to give attention to her pickleball profession.

Andrea Koop

• DoB: October 6, 1988
• Turned professional: 2018
• Enjoying hand: Proper

Andrea is far older than the gamers mentioned to this point. She was born in 1988 and didn’t flip professional till the age of 30. She obtained her begin in tennis and purchased the NCAA Ladies’s Crew Championship again in 2011 whereas she was part of the UCLA Bruins.

Her introduction to pickleball was largely by probability. After noticing a buddy from her childhood tennis days was visiting, she reached out for a catch-up. Nevertheless, the buddy advised they as an alternative play pickleball, and because the saying goes, the remainder is historical past. She would turn into an expert pickleball participant lower than a 12 months later, having acquired many of the crucial abilities already from tennis.

So far, she holds 17 gold medals from her pickleball profession, 3 of that are US Open medals. It appears she focuses a lot of her efforts on doubles play reasonably than singles, as she ranks #2 within the former and #82 within the latter.

Past pickleball, Koop has loads to be pleased with. She is a lawyer and in addition based and serves because the director for the Beer Metropolis Open Pickleball Championships.

Salome Devidze

• DoB: January 2, 1986
• Turned professional: 2022
• Enjoying hand: Proper

Salome Devidze undoubtedly has extra skilled expertise than the opposite prime gamers we’ve lined. Born in Georgia, she started taking part in tennis at 4 years of age and competed as an expert for 18 years from 2002-2020. Her highest rating was #250 for doubles and #254 for singles. Sadly, she was pressured to retire resulting from recurring accidents.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom. After a number of years off, Salome’s accidents healed, and her pals confirmed her pickleball which re-lit her aggressive drive. After solely changing into a professional pickleball participant in 2022, she by some means managed to claw her technique to a rank of #2 within the doubles in a 12 months. Merely wonderful!

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Closing Ideas

There’s little question the standard of pickleball is on the up. It’s solely pure, given the inflow of recent gamers — with extra folks taking part in, the usual rises.

Proper now, a number of the prime pickleball gamers embrace JW Johns and Ben Johns, however for us, it’s not the highest males’s pickleball gamers we’ve obtained our eyes on, however reasonably one girl. And that’s Anna Leigh Waters. It’s powerful to actually grasp what she has achieved at such an early age. What’s even scarier is that she is nowhere close to her prime, so she’s going to solely get higher if she stays match and trains laborious.

Freelance author. Desk tennis fanatic. Lover of all issues on-line. Once I’m not engaged on my loop sport I’m most likely binge-watching some fantasy present.