Origins — Family, Childhood & the Road to Pickleball

Benjamin Ellingham Johns was born on March 18, 1999, in Laytonsville, Maryland — a small community in the heart of Montgomery County just north of Gaithersburg. He entered the world as the middle child of a family that would eventually grow to seven siblings, raised by his parents, Mark and Heather Johns. Mark works as a software designer, and Heather — who served as the family's primary educator — is a former schoolteacher. The Johns family owned a 12-acre property complete with a private tennis court and a barn converted into a practice facility, a setup that proved formative in shaping the athletic identities of their children.

Heather and Mark placed a high premium on independent, self-directed learning. Rather than conventional schooling, they homeschooled all seven children, and by the time the kids were ten or eleven, they were largely expected to learn material on their own. As Hannah Johns — Ben's sister and later a PPA Tour sideline reporter — recalled: "My parents really believed in individuality and independent-minded thinking. By the time we were 10 or 11, we were basically given our textbooks and expected to learn the material ourselves." This environment fostered deep intellectual curiosity and self-motivation, qualities that would later define Ben's approach to pickleball strategy.

The Johns household was a sports-first environment. Ben's older brother Collin Johns pursued a professional ATP tennis career, and Ben served regularly as his hitting partner. Starting tennis at age seven, Ben became a four-time state champion in tennis at high school in Sandy Spring, Maryland. The family also spent winters in Estero, Florida, giving Ben early exposure to the warmer, court-heavy culture of South Florida. Another sister, Maggie Johns, pursued a completely different path — concert pianist and PhD candidate — while Hannah carved out her own broadcasting career in professional pickleball. The family's breadth of achievement reflects the independence their parents encouraged.

At just three years old, an anecdote perfectly captures Ben's unusual motor aptitude: he was found in the basement hitting foosballs into the air with a pool cue. By age eight he was drilling on the tennis court. He also excelled at table tennis, developing improvised techniques in the family basement by hitting around household obstacles. His sports progression followed a clear trajectory: tennis, table tennis, baseball briefly, and then — almost by accident — pickleball.

The discovery of pickleball came in 2016 during a family vacation to Florida, when Ben was 17 years old. He encountered the sport at the Veterans Community Park in Naples, Florida, and was immediately captivated by the unique blend of tennis footwork, ping-pong hand speed, and strategic depth it demanded. Within months he was competing professionally.

Ben completed his formal education at the University of Maryland, graduating with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. He balanced academics with his rapidly ascending professional career — a combination that many peers noted gave him an unusually analytical framework for the game. His engineering mindset would become the foundation of the strategic, chess-like playing style that earned him the nickname "The Grandmaster."

Professional Career — Rise, Dominance & Legacy

2016–2018: The Rapid Ascent

Ben Johns entered his first major tournament — the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships — just months after picking up a paddle for the first time, finishing fifth in Men's Pro Singles. The result would have been remarkable for any rookie; for someone who had been playing the sport for only a matter of weeks, it announced the arrival of a generational talent. He turned professional in 2018, but the trajectory was already steep.

In 2017, he won his first gold medal at the Riverbend RV Resort Pickleball Tournament, then returned to the U.S. Open to capture the Men's Pro Singles title. That same year he swept three gold medals at the Canadian Nationals, signaling to the professional circuit that a new dominant force had emerged. He was 18 years old.

2019: The Triple Crown & Professional Explosion

The year 2019 marked Ben Johns' full coronation as pickleball's dominant force. He became the first male professional player in history to win a Triple Crown — gold in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same major event — at the 2019 Tournament of Champions in Brigham City, Utah. Partnering with Matt Wright in doubles and Catherine Parenteau in mixed doubles, Johns swept the field and announced a new era for the sport. He also signed his first professional equipment deal, with Franklin Sports, covering paddles and apparel. By the end of 2019 he had accumulated numerous PPA titles and was unambiguously the world's top-ranked player.

Also in 2019, Johns co-founded Pickleball Getaways with pro player Dekel Bar — an all-inclusive instructional vacation concept — marking his first foray into pickleball entrepreneurship.

2020–2022: The Unbeatable Streak

During this period, Ben Johns achieved statistics that redefined what dominance meant in professional pickleball. He embarked on a 108-match winning streak in men's singles — the longest in professional pickleball history — and went undefeated in mixed doubles for 22 consecutive tournaments. He held the #1 ranking in all three divisions simultaneously for the majority of this period, a feat no other player had ever matched.

In 2021, Johns appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan alongside brother Collin, in a match set up outside the show's New York City studio, becoming one of the sport's first mainstream television ambassadors. He also co-launched Pickleball 360, an instructional subscription video service, with Collin and Dekel Bar. That same year, prize money was paid partially in Ethereum — a sign of pickleball's unconventional, forward-thinking moment in its early growth phase.

He followed his 2019 Triple Crown by winning the Triple Crown at the U.S. Open in both 2021 and 2022, making him the only player in history to win three Triple Crowns at major events. On April 1, 2022, Johns signed a landmark partnership with JOOLA Pickleball — a collaboration that was later extended to a lifetime deal in June 2023. He collaborated closely with JOOLA engineers on the design of his signature paddle, the Hyperion CFS 16, incorporating a carbon friction surface, 16mm polypropylene honeycomb core, and Hyperfoam-injected edges.

2023–2024: The Waters Partnership & Continued Supremacy

Ben's partnership with Anna Leigh Waters in mixed doubles became the most dominant in the history of the sport. Beginning in March 2023, they won 16 consecutive mixed doubles titles — a record that still stands. By February 2026 (after the Mesa Cup), their career mixed doubles finals record stood at 59–3, with a combined win percentage of 97.71%. Their three finals losses came at the Austin Open in 2024 (to Anna Bright and Andrei Daescu), the North Carolina Cup in 2025 (to JW and Jorja Johnson), and the Mesa Cup in February 2026 (to Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin, 11-8, 11-9, 11-3).

In men's doubles, Johns competed alongside brother Collin Johns from 2021 to early 2025, accumulating 33–35 titles and 43 total medals together — the most decorated men's doubles partnership in PPA history. In January 2025, the brothers competed in their final PPA tournament together — the Zimmer Biomet Masters — and departed with a men's doubles gold medal, defeating Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin 11-5, 12-10, 11-3. A fitting farewell to one of pickleball's most iconic partnerships.

2024 also saw Johns cross the 100 PPA title milestone — a historic achievement the tour celebrated as "BEN JOHNS 100TH TITLE" — while his net income was publicly confirmed to CNBC at $2.5 million in 2024 alone, making him one of professional pickleball's first multimillionaires.

2025: New Partnerships, Continued Dominance

In 2025, Johns transitioned to a new men's doubles partnership with Gabriel (Gabe) Tardio, and the combination proved highly effective almost immediately. Together they captured golds at the Veolia Atlanta Pickleball Championships, the Fasenra Virginia Cup, the Veolia Bristol Open, the Rate Vegas Cup, and the Veolia Lakeland Open. In mixed doubles, he and Waters won the UPA Pickleball World Championships (defeating JW and Jorja Johnson 11-7, 11-4, 11-7) and extended their dominant finals record to 56–2 by mid-season. Across 2025, Johns and Waters claimed 12 PPA gold medals together in mixed doubles alone.

His desire to compete in singles lessened through 2025, as paddle technology changed the game and the physical toll of competing in all three divisions at full intensity across a grueling tour calendar mounted. He began to focus more selectively on singles events while maintaining elite standards in doubles and mixed doubles.

2026: Current Status

As of June 2026, Ben Johns holds the #1 ranking in Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles on the PPA Tour, with a ranking of #24 in singles (1,637.5 pts per PPA's rolling 52-week standings) — a reflection of his highly selective singles schedule rather than any decline in ability. Independent outlets like The Kitchen rank him #11 in their qualitative men's singles top 20 for early 2026, and he reached the singles final at the PPA Mesa Cup in February. His current DUPR rating stands at 7.112. He has competed in 122 professional tournaments with a career win rate of 87.3% across 939 career matches, posting a 10-0 record in his most recent 10 matches as of May 2026. He now resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

Career Timeline — Key Milestones

Records, Stats & Achievements

The Man Off the Court — Business, Personality & Legacy

Ben Johns is widely described by fellow players, coaches, and observers as a "jock-nerd" — someone who possesses elite physical gifts but approaches competition with an engineer's mind. Known for his quiet, impassive demeanor on court, he prefers to let his game speak rather than engage in the gamesmanship or showmanship common among peers. He has been credited with inventing the backhand roll in professional pickleball and pushing for important structural changes to the tour, including single-elimination formats, progressive draws, and randomized seeding.

His business ventures extend well beyond sponsorships. He co-owns Pickleball Getaways (all-inclusive instructional vacation packages, expanded to India in 2025), Pickleball 360 (instructional video subscription platform), and Johns Design & Consulting (court design services). He has been featured in Forbes, CNN, ESPN SportsCenter, MSN, and Sports Business Journal, and his pickleball play has been broadcast on all five major U.S. television networks.

Outside the sport, Ben Johns enjoys weightlifting, hiking, reading, chess (rated 2000+ on chess.com), Magic: The Gathering, and Fortnite. He is an active investor in stocks, startups, and cryptocurrency — famously receiving prize money in Ethereum in 2021. He supports youth initiatives through the Naples Children & Education Foundation, donating paddle sale proceeds that raised over $50,000 by 2025 according to JOOLA reports.

His training regimen is rigorous and recovery-focused: hours on court and in the gym daily, followed by cold plunge and sauna sessions. He identifies as a visual learner and describes his eclectic game style as "Frankensteined" together from diverse influences accumulated over a lifetime of racket sports exposure.

Ben Johns has not publicly confirmed any romantic relationship as of 2026. He keeps his personal life private, maintaining the focused, professional composure on and off court that has defined his career. His family — parents Mark and Heather, brother Collin, sister Hannah, and four other siblings — remain deeply connected to his journey and to professional pickleball writ large.

Perhaps no single statistic captures Johns' stature better than this: he has over 100 more PPA gold medals than any other male player except his brother Collin. He was one of pickleball's first multimillionaires from the sport itself, not merely from adjacent media deals. And at 27 years old — turning 27 on March 18, 2026 — he shows no signs of relinquishing his doubles throne. His legacy, already assured, is still being written.

Origins — Family, Childhood & a Hurricane That Changed Everything

Anna Leigh Waters was born on January 26, 2007, in Allentown, Pennsylvania — though she barely had time to form memories of her birth city. Her family relocated to Clinton, North Carolina when she was young, and then moved again to Delray Beach, Florida in 2015, when Anna Leigh was eight years old. It is in South Florida — with its year-round sunshine, abundant courts, and competitive tennis culture — that the story of the greatest female pickleball player in history truly begins.

Anna Leigh's parents are both former Division I collegiate athletes at the University of South Carolina. Her mother, Leigh Waters, played NCAA Division I tennis for the Gamecocks and went on to practice law. Her father was a standout collegiate golfer. This athletic lineage was not merely symbolic — it shaped the competitive environment in which Anna Leigh was immersed from her earliest years, and it placed expert coaching just one dinner-table conversation away. The family would go on to become professional pickleball's only active mother-daughter competing duo — a storyline that captured the imagination of sports fans worldwide.

Before pickleball, Anna Leigh was a passionate soccer player with serious ambitions of competing at the collegiate level. She also played tennis, benefiting directly from her mother's expertise. She was, by all accounts, an exceptional multi-sport athlete — fast, coordinated, competitive beyond her years — but had not yet found the sport that would channel all of those gifts into a single, world-altering pursuit.

The catalyst arrived in the form of a natural disaster. In September 2017, as Hurricane Irma bore down on South Florida, the Waters family evacuated to Allentown, Pennsylvania — Anna Leigh's birthplace — to stay with her grandparents. During those two weeks away, her grandfather introduced the family to a peculiar backyard game he loved: pickleball. Ten-year-old Anna Leigh was initially skeptical. "I thought it was for grandmas and grandpas," she later told a PPA Tour interviewer. But once she picked up a paddle, the sport took hold immediately. She and her mother played nearly nonstop for the entire two-week evacuation, and by the time they returned to Florida, pickleball had replaced soccer as the center of their lives.

Back in Delray Beach, the Waters family joined the Delray Beach Tennis Center pickleball community. Leigh, immediately recognizing Anna Leigh's extraordinary talent, left her legal career to coach her daughter full-time — one of the most consequential career pivots in the history of the sport. They found more competitive play at 5 a.m. in Davie, Florida, driving before dawn to get court time against serious players. It was an unglamorous beginning, but it forged the discipline and competitive hunger that would come to define Anna Leigh's career.

Anna Leigh was homeschooled from third grade onward by her grandmother, a structure that allowed her to balance the demands of a professional training schedule with academic progress. She graduated high school in May 2024, at age 17 — an accomplishment she managed while simultaneously dominating the most competitive pickleball tour on the planet. Her current residence is Boynton Beach, Florida.

Professional Career — Youngest Pro, Most Dominant Champion

2017–2018: First Tournaments, First Gold

Just months after Hurricane Irma introduced her to the sport, Anna Leigh entered her first tournament — the 2017 Florida Open — at age 10, partnering with her mother. They won the Women's Doubles gold medal, defeating players decades their senior. The result stunned the pickleball community and immediately announced that something unprecedented was in motion. Anna Leigh continued to compete and improve rapidly through 2018, gaining national recognition in junior circuits.

2019: The Historic Professional Debut

In 2019, at 12 years old, Anna Leigh Waters officially turned professional — becoming, at that moment, the youngest professional pickleball player in history. She also became the youngest tournament champion ever when she won Women's Singles at the Florida Open International, defeating seasoned adult opponents. That same year, she and Leigh Waters defeated U.S. Open Triple Crown winner Simone Jardim and Carrine Carr to win doubles gold at the 2019 Florida Grand Slam — a result that announced the mother-daughter duo as genuine elite competitors, not merely a novelty act.

Anna Leigh and Leigh Waters became the first and only mother-daughter professional team in pickleball history. The PPA Tour recognized their historic achievement, and both were welcomed as full-fledged touring professionals. The family dynamic added an extraordinary human dimension to professional pickleball that resonated deeply with fans and the media alike.

2020–2022: National Recognition & Media Breakthrough

As the pandemic interrupted sports globally in 2020, pickleball emerged as one of the fastest-growing participation sports in America, and Anna Leigh's profile grew with it. She accumulated wins across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles through 2020 and 2021, collecting gold medals at events including the Newport Beach Showcase, the Texans Open, and multiple PPA Tour events. In 2022, at just 15 years old, she was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2022 — one of the youngest honorees in the list's history — following a year in which she captured four PPA Triple Crowns, six U.S. Open gold medals, and six USAPA Nationals Gold Medals.

The same year brought another historic milestone: Anna Leigh and Leigh Waters competed in the first nationally televised pickleball match in history on CBS Sports at the Skechers Invitational Summer Championship in Los Angeles. They won. The broadcast introduced millions of Americans to Anna Leigh's electrifying, aggressive style of play — a tennis-inspired power approach that stood in stark contrast to the dink-heavy game most audiences expected from pickleball.

2022–2024: The Reign of the Phenom

By 2022–2023, Anna Leigh Waters was not merely dominant — she was historically unprecedented. She held the #1 ranking simultaneously in women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles on the PPA Tour, a feat never before achieved in women's pickleball. Her playing style — aggressive drives, powerful serves, exceptional fast hands, and low error rates — had fundamentally changed how the professional women's game was played. Opponents began training specifically to counter her, and coaches across the sport incorporated her techniques into their curricula.

Her partnership with Ben Johns in mixed doubles produced the most dominant team in the sport's history. Beginning a historic run in 2023, they won 16 consecutive mixed doubles titles and built a career finals record that by February 2026 stood at 59–3. Her mixed doubles titles alone (59 entering 2026) outnumber the total career gold medals of most professional players.

She achieved a milestone known as the "Triple 50" at the Orange County Cup in 2025 — winning her 50th title in each of singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles in a single event. The accomplishment required 50 titles in all three divisions, underscoring the breadth of her dominance across the entire tour.

2025: Record-Setting Season

The 2025 season was the most decorated in Anna Leigh's career to that point. She captured eight Triple Crowns, posted a 105–20 record in gold medal matches (84% win rate), and extended her women's singles winning streak to 89 consecutive matches — beginning in May 2024 and continuing through late 2025, the longest streak in the history of women's professional pickleball. She ended the year with 181 gold medals and 39 Triple Crowns — both all-time records for any player, male or female, in professional pickleball.

In the 2025 U.S. Open Women's Doubles, she and Leigh Waters won the gold medal match against Megan Fudge and Jillian Braverman. She competed in MLP representing the New Jersey 5s, earning MVP honors and leading championship runs. Her 2025 tournament prize money alone exceeded $500,000, with approximately $340,000 from MLP guarantees on top of that, plus sponsorship income and appearance fees.

2026: Nike, Franklin & Continued World Domination

January 2026 brought two seismic announcements. On January 8, 2026, Anna Leigh signed a long-term deal with Franklin Sports, ending her seven-year partnership with Paddletek. The Franklin agreement is widely reported as the largest contract in professional pickleball history, described by insiders as worth in excess of $10 million. It includes development of her signature paddle line — anchored by the Aurelius — plus bags, accessories, and collaboration on a new pro-level ball design.

Five days later, on January 13, 2026, it was announced that Anna Leigh had become the first pickleball athlete ever signed by Nike in a multi-year deal covering apparel and footwear across all her events. Nike named her a global pickleball ambassador. "Growing up, I watched my idols wear the Swoosh in their biggest moments, so joining the Nike family is a dream realized," Waters stated. "We are going to push the boundaries of what's possible in pickleball through this partnership." She had previously held an apparel and footwear deal with FILA, which expired in 2025. She also carries sponsorships with Delta Air Lines, DoorDash, Ulta Beauty, Carvana, and Pilla eyewear.

She also receives $2 million annually from the United Pickleball Association in guaranteed league salary, per sources familiar with her earnings. Entering 2026, Anna Leigh owns 172 career titles across all formats — 57 singles, 56 doubles, and 59 mixed doubles — per PPA Tour's own official 2025 season review. PickleWave's cross-tour tally (including APP and MLP events) shows 184+ gold medals with additional titles accumulated through mid-2026. Her current DUPR rating is 6.882.

Career Timeline — Key Milestones

Records, Stats & Achievements

The Person Behind the Legend — Personality, Brand & Impact

Anna Leigh Waters is, by any measure, the most accomplished athlete in the history of professional pickleball — yet by all accounts she remains remarkably grounded and relatable for someone carrying that distinction. Journalists and fellow players consistently describe a young woman who is fiercely competitive on court and immediately warm and approachable off it. She is known for an infectious smile, genuine fan engagement, and an ability to switch from fierce competitor to personable teenager almost instantly after a match concludes.

Off the court, Anna Leigh enjoys cooking (she has discussed plans for a YouTube cooking channel), fashion, shopping, travel, and gaming. She has a dog named Archer. She plays exhibition matches with extraordinary regularity — her celebrity partners have included Michael Phelps, Jamie Foxx, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, and more — giving her a cross-cultural reach that extends well beyond pickleball's core audience.

Her impact on the sport's culture is generational. She has been credited with transforming pickleball's image from a retiree pastime to a legitimate professional sport. As she told the Miami New Times: "When I used to go to pickleball tournaments, it was all older people, and I was the only kid under 50 or 40. Now you go to a tournament, and there's like 300 kids there. I hope I played a role in that." Tournament registrations for junior players have spiked dramatically since her rise, a trend the sport directly attributes to her visibility and inspiration factor.

Her mother Leigh Waters remains not just her coach and manager but her primary doubles partner. Leigh's decision to leave her law career to coach Anna Leigh full-time has become one of professional sports' most celebrated backstories. Their relationship — equal parts professional athletic partnership and mother-daughter bond — adds a human dimension to Anna Leigh's career that no amount of statistics can fully capture.

Represented by the agency Octagon, Anna Leigh now carries a brand portfolio including Nike, Franklin Sports, Delta Air Lines, DoorDash, Ulta Beauty, Carvana, and Pilla eyewear. The Nike deal in January 2026 marked a watershed moment not just for her but for the entire sport — the world's most iconic athletic brand endorsing a pickleball player signals that the sport has permanently arrived in the mainstream consciousness of global sports.

At just 18 years old as of June 2026 — born January 26, 2007 — Anna Leigh Waters has won more gold medals, more Triple Crowns, and compiled a higher career win rate than any player in the history of professional pickleball. She has done so while growing up in public, balancing adolescence with the demands of being the face of the world's fastest-growing sport, and maintaining the kind of character and composure that makes her as admirable off the court as on it. The records she has already set are staggering. What comes next is almost impossible to project. The pickleball world, and increasingly the broader sports world, is watching.