15 Greatest Pickleball Players To Follow Right Now

Ben Johns is a right-handed player and since turning pro in 2016 has arguably become the greatest pickleball player of all time.

Johns is originally from Maryland and his family split their time between the East Coast and Naples, Florida, the unofficial 'Pickleball Capital of the World.'

Racquet sports are in his family's blood and his older brother Collin is a former pro tennis player.

Johns is the most complete and feared Pickleball player in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles formats. Moreover, he routinely triple crowns at all the top PPA events nationwide.

The latest rankings put him at number 1 in the world and he achieved all this starting in his late teens. He began his career as a Pickleball player right after his junior year in high school.

He also co-owns two pickleball-related businesses. Jigsaw Health and JOOLA Pickleball sponsor him and he helped develop the JOOLA Perseus paddle he plays with.

Tyson McGuffin was introduced to a new sport called Pickleball in 2015 by a friend who he played tennis with. At the time, McGuffin played and coached competitive tennis. After a few casual games of pickleball, he entered the Coeur d’Alene Classic and took gold in the Men's 4.5 singles division.

McGuffin started playing Pickleball at the very young age of 24. Before discovering his pickleball, he was an accomplished wrestler and tennis player.

Furthermore, he is a top-ranked player in all three pro pickleball divisions but is mostly known for his singles play and his rivalry with Ben Johns.

He currently uses the same Selkirk VANGUARD Power Air Invikta paddle as his Mixed Doubles partner Catherine Parenteau. Not only that but his first major win came at the 2017 USA Pickleball National Championships. 

His style of playing is athletic and quick. He plays doubles with James Ignatowich and mixed doubles with Catherine Parenteau in addition to playing for the New York Hustlers MLP team. 

Anna Leigh is the youngest professional pickleball player at 16 years old and is widely regarded as the best women's professional Pickleball player.

Leigh is a right-handed played turned pro in 2019 at the age of 12 and she competes in Women's doubles, singles, and mixed doubles events. 

She took up pickleball when her family evacuated Florida due to Hurricane Irma in 2017 which is when her grandfather introduced her to pickleball in his Pennsylvania backyard.

Furthermore, she may have started competing with Grandpa but now plays doubles with her mom Leigh Waters, and partners with Ben Johns in Mixed Doubles.

Anna has used the Paddletek Bantam TS-5 paddle. She has been with Paddletek since 2018 and has no plans to change anything because she keeps winning.

Lucy Kovalova is originally from Slovakia and is mostly known for her tightly controlled persona on-court. Her game face never slips as she cracks wicked two-handed backhands back at her opponents. 

She played mixed doubles with long-time on and off-court partner Matt Wright. Not only that but she started her pickleball journey with tennis as a member of the Junior National team in her home country of Slovakia. 

In 2015, she was introduced to Pickleball and has since racked up many titles including a triple crown at the 2018 USA Pickleball National Championships in which she won gold in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles categories. 

Kovalova was one of the few to be dominant before pickleball exploded after the pandemic and continues to be highly ranked despite an influx of new and talented players. 

Kyle Yates was one of the first in the world to enter the pro league. He collects Gold Medals, earning six from the US Open and five from USAPA. 

Yates has been playing pickleball since before most people even knew the sport existed. He is a force to be reckoned with on the pickleball court and also knows the game like no one else. 

Furthermore, he is helping usher in the next generation of professional athletes through his coaching and mentoring. 

He has been unable to sustain a level of game that is competitive enough to go deep in tournaments on the PPA tour. 

Kyle is still a sought-after player and makes an impact on the APP tour and Major League Pickleball events.

His uncle introduced him to the sport and he quickly became known as a leading player and he was one of the first in the world to go pro. 

Zane Navratil is an American professional pickleball player who came onto the professional pickleball scene with fury. He left an accounting career at Deloitte to pursue pro pickleball and teaching full-time. 

Navratil is ranked number 3 in singles play by the Pro Pickleball Association and number 9 and 2 for doubles and singles respectively by the Association of Pickleball Professionals. 

He is 26 years old and has won 27 matches in 6 events since turning pro in 2020. Moreover, he rocketed up the rankings quickly which is well known for his speed on the court.

Zane has had a sponsorship with Franklin Sports since 2021 and won over 80 medals over the course of his professional pickleball career. 

He is also famous for pioneering new varieties of serves including the chainsaw serve which was then adopted by numerous other professional players like Ben Johns. 

Collin Johns made his pro pickleball debut at the 2019 US Open where he made the semifinals in men's pro singles. He and his brother Ben are the #1 ranked doubles team. 

Although Ben Johns gets most of the credit, his brother works hard to be the perfect compliment and as a result, they tear through draws and pick up gold medals left and right.

In high school, he proved to be a natural athlete. After trying his hand at baseball and tennis by the age of 16, he became a tennis professional by age 20 and played on the professional tennis tour for many years.

Over the following year, he quickly climbed to the top 10 rank in both divisions. He is the regular doubles partner of his younger brother Ben Johns with their partnership yielding over 25 professional titles to date. 

Jay Devilliers turned pro in 2020 following a collegiate tennis career at Wichita State University. He has already amassed over 60 podium finishes between singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in his short time as a pro pickleball career. 

He is a top ten-ranked Pickleball player and was a previous tennis player. Hailing from France, his aggressive and fiery play on the court has earned him the nickname the Flying Frenchman.

He burst onto the pickleball scene in 2020 and started making noise on the PPA tour right away.

Devilliers transitioned into playing pickleball after playing a few times with Jack Oxler, and then he took the pickleball director position at Chicken N Pickle. Not only that but he also won his first Mixed Doubles title in 2021. 

Riley Newman is one of the most successful players on the PPA Tour and is almost always competing in the Championship, sometimes in Mixed Doubles with his sister Lindsey Newman.  

After Ben Johns and Collin Johns, he is considered to be the 3rd best men's doubles player in the world right now. 

He was introduced to pickleball in the summer of 2017. He was a natural at pickleball and quickly educated himself on the strategy and nuances of the game. Soon after, he entered his first 5.0 tournament with his sister Lindsey and took gold in the mixed doubles bracket.

Moreover, Newman is a tall player with a big wingspan and is very active on the court. He is one of the few men’s players that exclusively uses a two-handed backhand. 

Riley plays with his Gamma Signature 206 paddle and his Gamma Signature paddle features a long extended handle that makes the paddle perfect for ex-tennis players.

A former best tennis player in Canada, Catherine Parenteau also made the transition to pickleball and is now the number 2 ranked women’s pickleball player in the world.

Her journey to Pickleball started with a successful tennis career, ranking top 5 in Canada and competing for NCAA Division 1 teams.

Moreover, Catherine has won several National Championships and Open championships. She is known for her excellent volleys and her ability to control the pace of the game. 

She was quick to rise to the top of the pickleball world with 3 US Open titles to her credit. After being introduced to the new rising sport Pickleball by her former tennis coach, she fell in love with the sport and quickly excelled, winning championships and titles.

Matt Wright was  turned on to pickleball by a member of a local country club after he was spotted playing a makeshift mini tennis game. He began playing pickleball in 2016 and was immediately hooked.

Wright is a veteran of the sport and has enjoyed watching pickleball grow and adapt to new players and styles, yet is reluctant to give the competition a chance to usurp his spot at the top. 

He is also unique because he got his introduction to pickleball when he and his friends were seen playing a version of the game they had made up with wooden paddles. 

Moreover, he has been a pro player since 2016. He has been a 4x USA National Champion, a 7x US Open Champion, and a 2x Tournament of Champions Gold Medalist. This is a long list of achievements for someone who has only played for this short time. 

Callie Smith started her pro pickleball career in 2020 and has become a top player on the court.  She continues to rise to the top in Women’s Pro Doubles and Mixed Pro Doubles. She is widely known for her incredible fitness and consistency on court.

Smith has quickly built a name for herself as an impressive force on-court and someone hungry for victory since turning pro in 2019. 

Furthermore, she is a former tennis player who played D1 at University of Utah. She continues to teach tennis, and pickleball when she is not traveling on the pro tour playing singles and doubles with Catherine Parenteau. 

Callie has medaled in almost every tournament since she began playing the sport back in 2018 and she became a U.S. Open Champion in Women's Doubles in April of the year 2021. 

Wesley Gabrielsen started his pickleball journey while he was a student in middle school.

In 2013, Gabrielsen stopped competing in tennis tournaments and made the full time switch to competing in pickleball.

He has accumulated success on the courts in singles, doubles and in mixed doubles during his career. 

Wesley is an 11 time USAPA National Champion, six time Canadian National Champion, two time Tournament of Champions Gold Medalist and two time US Open Champion.

Career Highlights: 

• 11x USAPA National Champion
• 6x Canadian National Champion
• 2x US Open Champion
• 2x Tournament of Champions Winner
• Won over 160 gold medals open/pro in career
• Selkirk Sponsored Player 
• IPTPA Founding Member
• IPTPA Level 2 Instructor 
• Head Pickleball Professional at Illahe Hills Country Club

The 23-year-old Anna Bright is a right-handed player and turned pro in 2018. Anna began her Pickleball career in February of 2022 after playing tennis at UC Berkeley.

Anna has made a name for herself in the rising sport of Pickleball as a composed and fierce competitor and quickly gained recognition as a player to watch.

Moreover, she played tennis in her college life and discovered that she loves pickleball as a sport after playing with her parents.

Ben Johns dubbed her as 'something special' when she first came on the Pickleball scene and had some early success. Bright now routinely partners with ALW and they consistently win gold medals at the top events on the tour.

Anna credits her early success as a pickleball player because of the consistency, fast hands, and good anticipation that she developed as a tennis player. JOOLA is her current sponsor and she plays with a JOOLA Scorpeus CFS 14 paddle.

Dylan Frazier is the only top 10 Pickleball player without a high-level tennis background but has been playing pickleball since the age of 14 and playing pro league starting at 17.

Frazier competes on the APP and PPA pro tours and participated in the Major League Pickleball League for the 2022 season.

Furthermore, he continues to rise up the world rankings and is quickly becoming one of the younger talents in Pickleball. Dylan is the biggest asset for Major League Pickleball which is competing with the ATX. 

He is still attending college at the University of Missouri while also playing pro pickleball. Selkirk Sports is proud to have Dylan on the team and looks forward to watching his continued success on and off the court.

Missouri-born and raised player Dylan won his first gold medal at APP Hilton Head. Not only that but he was introduced to Pickleball by his mom while visiting family in Florida in 2016.