A Pickleball.BZ Feature

Center Court to the Kitchen Line

There's a version of pickleball's origin story that never makes the highlight reel: a Wimbledon finalist. A Michigan tennis captain who now argues corporate cases by day. An NCAA doubles champion who once stood in for Emma Stone on a movie set. Somewhere along the way, a huge share of the best players in this sport put down a tennis racquet and picked up a paddle — and never looked back.

PICKLEBALL.BZ STAFF · JULY 2026 · A FEATURE STORY

Walk into almost any PPA Tour stop this season and you'll hear the same joke in the players' lounge: half the field used to beat each other in a completely different sport. It's not really a joke. Ben Johns was a four-time Maryland state tennis champion before he ever touched a paddle. His brother Collin chased an ATP ranking for years before switching codes. Matt Wright, still ranked among the best doubles players alive at 49, spent his college years as the No. 1 singles and doubles player at Michigan — then went to law school instead of chasing the tour, and only found pickleball by accident at a Wichita country club two decades later. Pickleball didn't recruit these players. It inherited them.

And that's before you get to the women's side, where a Wimbledon finalist and an NCAA doubles champion who once played a Hollywood tennis legend's body double are currently grinding out PPA Tour brackets against teenagers. This is the story of how that happened — and a full accounting of just how many of today's top 25 men and top 25 women got their start on a very different kind of court.

The Men

From the baseline to the non-volley zone

Start with the sport's greatest player and the pattern is already there. Ben Johns won four Maryland state tennis titles before a Florida vacation introduced him to pickleball at 17 — and he still lists chess among his hobbies, the same restless, pattern-hunting mind that made him a junior tennis champion now aimed at a smaller court. His older brother Collin spent years grinding through the ATP rankings, cracking the top 1,000 in singles, before switching sports in 2018 and eventually coaching college tennis at Florida Gulf Coast University on the side. Between them, the Johns brothers turned a family racquet-sports habit into the winningest doubles partnership pickleball has ever seen.

Matt Wright

Attorney by day, world-class doubles player by weekend

Wright played No. 1 singles and doubles for four years at Michigan, earning two captaincies and three All-Big Ten nods. Then he did something almost no elite athlete does: he walked away from competitive racquet sports entirely, went to law school, and built a career as a corporate attorney in Wichita. Pickleball found him again in his late 30s at a country club, and he's been ranked among the world's best ever since — squeezing tournaments in around a caseload most lawyers would find exhausting on its own.

Christian Alshon

The "Tweener King" almost stayed a tennis pro

Ranked in the nation's top 10 as both a 16- and an 18-year-old junior, Alshon played for the University of Virginia before finishing his college career at the University of Chicago with a perfect 18-0 senior season. He was talked into giving up his final year of tennis eligibility by Leigh Waters — Anna Leigh's mother — and finished his economics degree the same summer he broke onto the pickleball podium.

Federico Staksrud

From coaching college tennis to world No. 1

A top-seven junior in Argentina, Staksrud played Division I tennis at the University of New Orleans, then closed out an NAIA All-American career at Tennessee Wesleyan. He coached tennis and earned a master's degree in Information Systems at Florida Gulf Coast University before making the leap — and today he's a world No. 1 in both pickleball men's singles and doubles.

Jack Sock

Grand Slam champion turned pickleball headline act

Sock skipped college to turn pro in tennis as a teenager and went on to win Grand Slam titles in men's and mixed doubles, reaching a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 2. His 2024 PPA Tour debut, alongside fellow tennis convert Genie Bouchard, was one of the loudest crossover moments the sport has seen.

The list keeps going deeper than the marquee names. Tyson McGuffin played two years of college tennis at Scottsdale Community College and cracked the ATP's top 1,500 before six years as a head tennis pro — the same club job where a student first put a paddle in his hand. Riley Newman turned a tennis-and-basketball scholarship at Seattle University into one of the most durable doubles careers on tour. Noe Khlif played Division I tennis at Illinois. Eric Oncins did the same at Florida Gulf Coast. Jaume Martinez Vich and Dekel Bar both spent years grinding the ATP Tour before switching codes. Julian Arnold arrived as a five-star UCLA recruit. And JW Johnson's whole pickleball career exists because his family uprooted from Kansas to Naples, Florida, chasing his junior tennis dream in the first place.

Christian Alshon has said the hardest part of the switch wasn't learning a new sport — it was accepting that the instincts built over a decade of junior and college tennis translate almost directly, just compressed into a smaller box and a shorter fuse. Paraphrased from PPA Tour player profile reporting — see sources

The Women

A Wimbledon final and a movie set lead to the same place

If there's a single story that captures how far this crossover reaches, it's Genie Bouchard's. In 2014, she was a 20-year-old climbing to world No. 5, the first Canadian-born player to reach a Grand Slam singles final, a semifinalist at the Australian Open and French Open in the same season. A decade later, she's on the PPA Tour learning to read a dink instead of a second serve. She's not alone in bringing that kind of pedigree with her.

Genie Bouchard

Former world No. 5, 2014 Wimbledon finalist

Bouchard's tennis résumé is one of the most decorated in the sport's modern history. She joined the PPA Tour in 2024 as one of the highest-profile names ever to make the switch, bringing a massive built-in following with her.

Kaitlyn Christian

NCAA doubles champion, Emma Stone's tennis double

Christian won an NCAA doubles title and three All-American honors at USC, then spent a decade on the WTA doubles tour, peaking at world No. 38. In her spare time, she trained Emma Stone to look convincing on court in Battle of the Sexes. She went all-in on pickleball in January 2024 and medaled almost immediately.

Anna Bright

Pac-12 champion who hiked away from tennis first

A top-15 nationally ranked player at UC Berkeley who helped the Golden Bears win their first Pac-12 title, Bright hiked all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail after graduation before a casual invitation from her father led her into pickleball — in the gap between college and a corporate job she never actually started.

Kate Fahey

The winningest tennis player in Michigan history

A three-time ITA All-American and two-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year, Fahey turned pro after Michigan and reached career-high WTA rankings of No. 505 in singles and No. 492 in doubles before wrist injuries ended that chapter. A coworker's invitation to a local tournament in 2023 started the next one.

Catherine Parenteau, a top-5 ranked junior in Canada, played Division I tennis at Arkansas before transferring to Michigan State, where her own tennis coach put a paddle in her hands and changed her career within six months. Rachel Rohrabacher's path ran through South Carolina's tennis program before a former coach nudged her toward the sport that would actually pay off. Between the six women above alone, there's a Wimbledon final, an NCAA doubles title, a Pac-12 championship, and a Big Ten Athlete of the Year award — and none of it happened on a pickleball court.

The Full Field

Top 25 Men & Top 25 Women, Name by Name

This composite ranking blends 2026 PPA Tour points standings, DUPR global ratings, and season-long doubles power rankings from major pickleball outlets — no single governing body publishes one unified top 25, so this reflects the best-supported consensus as of mid-2026. Names in cyan below came up through college or professional tennis; the rest either built their game elsewhere or simply haven't had that history reported publicly.

A note on the reporting: Where a tennis background isn't listed, that means none is publicly documented — not that one doesn't exist. Several younger tour players haven't had detailed bios written yet. We didn't fill those gaps with guesses.

Top 25 Men

Composite ranking · PPA Tour / DUPR / MLP, 2026 season

1. Ben Johns — four-time Maryland high school tennis champion before turning to pickleball at 17. 2. Christopher Haworth — background not publicly disclosed. 3. Federico Staksrud — Division I tennis at Tulane's neighbor, the University of New Orleans, then an NAIA All-American career at Tennessee Wesleyan. 4. Hayden Patriquin — background not publicly disclosed. 5. Christian Alshon — top-10 national junior; played at Virginia and Chicago. 6. Gabe Tardio — background not publicly disclosed. 7. Andrei Daescu — a tennis profile exists on tour databases, but specifics are unconfirmed. 8. JW Johnson — his family moved from Kansas to Florida to chase his junior tennis career. 9. CJ Klinger — background not publicly disclosed. 10. Eric Oncins — Division I tennis at Florida Gulf Coast University. 11. Jack Sock — ATP Tour pro and Grand Slam doubles champion; skipped college entirely. 12. Riley Newman — tennis and basketball scholarship athlete at Seattle University. 13. Dylan Frazier — background not publicly disclosed. 14. Noe Khlif — Division I tennis at the University of Illinois. 15. Gabriel Joseph — background not publicly disclosed. 16. Tyson McGuffin — college tennis at Scottsdale Community College, then the ATP's top 1,500 and six years as a head tennis pro. 17. Matt Wright — No. 1 singles and doubles at Michigan; now a practicing corporate attorney. 18. Jay Devilliers — background not publicly disclosed. 19. Will Howells — background not publicly disclosed. 20. Connor Garnett — background not publicly disclosed. 21. Armaan Bhatia — background not publicly disclosed. 22. Tama Shimabukuro — background not publicly disclosed. 23. Jaume Martinez Vich — former ATP Tour professional from Spain. 24. Collin Johns — multi-year ATP Tour pro who later coached collegiate tennis at Florida Gulf Coast University. 25. Zane Navratil — background not publicly disclosed.

Top 25 Women

Composite ranking · PPA Tour / DUPR / MLP, 2026 season

1. Anna Leigh Waters — soccer, not tennis, was her sport growing up; homeschooled, no college. 2. Anna Bright — top-15 nationally ranked Division I tennis at UC Berkeley; Pac-12 champion. 3. Tyra Black — background not publicly disclosed. 4. Kate Fahey — the winningest player in Michigan tennis history; former WTA Tour pro. 5. Jorja Johnson — no formal tennis background; built her game purely through pickleball. 6. Catherine Parenteau — Division I tennis at Arkansas and Michigan State; top-5 ranked Canadian junior. 7. Parris Todd — background not publicly disclosed. 8. Rachel Rohrabacher — Division I tennis at the University of South Carolina. 9. Jade Kawamoto — background not publicly disclosed. 10. Jackie Kawamoto — background not publicly disclosed. 11. Lacy Schneemann — background not publicly disclosed. 12. Lea Jansen — background not publicly disclosed. 13. Brooke Buckner — background not publicly disclosed. 14. Genie Bouchard — former WTA world No. 5 and 2014 Wimbledon finalist. 15. Mari Humberg — background not publicly disclosed. 16. Danni-Elle Townsend — background not publicly disclosed. 17. Sofia Sewing — background not publicly disclosed. 18. Etta Tuionetoa — background not publicly disclosed. 19. Jamie Wei — background not publicly disclosed. 20. Allyce Jones — background not publicly disclosed. 21. Kaitlyn Christian — NCAA doubles champion at USC; decade on the WTA doubles tour, career-high No. 38. 22. Meghan Dizon — background not publicly disclosed. 23. Zoey Wang — background not publicly disclosed. 24. Cailyn Campbell — background not publicly disclosed. 25. Alix Truong — background not publicly disclosed.

Last Word

The racquet changed. The instincts didn't

None of this means you need a tennis background to win at the highest level of pickleball — Anna Leigh Waters built the most dominant résumé the sport has ever seen without one, and plenty of names on both lists above never played competitive tennis at all. But it's hard to look at a leaderboard with a Wimbledon finalist, an NCAA doubles champion, a sitting corporate attorney, and a pair of ATP Tour brothers all near the top and call it a coincidence. Tennis spent decades teaching these players how to read an opponent and build a point. Pickleball just gave them a smaller box to do it in — and a much shorter runway to get it right.

Sources

Reporting & Fact-Check

This feature was compiled and cross-checked in July 2026 against player biographies from the PPA Tour, Wikipedia, Major League Pickleball, DUPR, university athletics departments, and independent pickleball outlets. Every tennis-background claim above was verified against at least one primary or player-facing source before publication.