Ben Johns: A QNA with pickleball's reigning World Number One

Ben Johns entered 2023 widely considered as the world’s best pickleball player — his official No. 1 world ranking solidifies the assumption.

Nothing he’s done this past month will dent his current dominance in a sport he didn’t even know existed all that long ago.

The 6-foot-1 Maryland native (he now lives in Austin, Texas) and University of Maryland grad turned 24 on March 18. Just prior to that, he came to Holly Hill’s Pictona facility and reminded everyone why he’s No. 1, sweeping all three of his events — singles, doubles and mixed doubles — at the Professional Pickleball Association's inaugural Florida Open.

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On his birthday weekend, he returned home and swept all three again at the PPA's ONIX Austin Open — singles, doubles with his older brother, Collin, and mixed-doubles with Anna Leigh Waters. Less than a week later, it was back to Pictona this past Friday-Sunday for Major League Pickleball’s MLP Daytona, where he led his team — the Seattle Pioneers — to the championship.

MLP and the PPA are affiliated.

Johns won four of his five games this past weekend — all doubles, including the championship-clinching mixed-doubles win with Pioneers partner Etta Wright.

Along the way, after a third-round shutout of Frisco, he found some shade behind the Championship Court bleachers and answered some questions about his introduction to the game and how he sees its rapid evolution playing out on the professional level.

Take us back about seven or eight years, to your very first glimpse of pickleball.

JOHNS: “I lived in a community in Southwest Florida, Estero, and I would train with my brother there. They built some pickleball courts next to the tennis courts, and I saw it being played. Thought it looked like fun.

“I think the first time I played, I got some wooden paddles from Dick’s Sporting Goods and played with my mom. I just said, ‘hey mom, let’s go hit around, this looks like fun.’ I think the second time was with my dad, and then we went and got better paddles and started to play with a local group in Estero.”

When did you realize there might be a future in the game for you?

JOHNS: “The first time I played was the first ever U.S. Open. That was 2016, two months after I started playing. I wouldn’t say I thought much of it. I was thinking, ‘this is more of a game than a sport.’

“There were no thoughts of playing professional. I didn’t think there was a pro tour. I’d say that continued for more than a year, at least, when I had some aspirations to do well in the pro tournaments once I learned there were pro tournaments. But I didn’t think it was like a career, by any means.”

When did it become a career?

“I went to the University of Maryland in 2017. It was probably around my junior year, 2019 and 2020 … there were bigger sponsorships and then there was a pro tour in 2020. That’s when I began to think, maybe I’m not gonna use my degree after this. Maybe I’ll play pickleball. By the time I graduated, I knew I was going to do this.”

Was tennis your original pro dream?

“No, not really. That was my brother’s dream. He did play professionally and I was more like his hitting partner. I didn’t want to play professionally. I didn’t enjoy tennis that much.

“I guess a lot of kids had those dreams, but I was more into variety. I just liked to play a bunch of different things. I was in a baseball family growing up, so I guess, early on, I had some aspirations of playing professional baseball when I was very young.”

Do you play much social pickleball anymore?

“Not really. Very rarely, I’d say, and I don’t really miss it very much (laughing).”

What drew you to the game?

“I think I found a sport that fits everything I like about sports. It was a blend of everything I like, just the right blend, where I really enjoyed playing and really enjoyed competing.”

Pickleball is obviously still in its professional infancy. Do you see a dramatic evolution coming, and coming soon?

“I do think it’s gonna change a lot. It happened in other sports, so I don’t see why pickleball will be any different. I feel like we’ve gotten to a point where we’re seeing very good athletes get in.

“Now it’s more of ... we need a higher density of them, more of those types of athletes. I think we need to see a bigger sample size to see some really interesting stuff.”

Can you click off your endorsement deals and sponsors?

“Joola (pronounced yola), they primarily make paddles, but they do apparel, too. Jigsaw Health supplement company. Our Pickleball 360 online instruction videos. And Pickleball Getaways (with fellow pro Dekel Bar), which is luxury vacations where we include pickleball and instruction.”

When doing demonstrations with amateurs, anyone ever take aim at you with an overhead?

“Occasionally, but it doesn’t work out that often (more laughter).”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ben Johns QNA: Pickleball's World #1 on his career, the game's future