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- 1Ben Johns
Ben Johns holds 120 PPA Tour gold medals, more than any player in pickleball history, split between 26 singles titles, 41 doubles titles (31 with brother Collin Johns, 8 with Matt Wright), and a run of 16 consecutive mixed doubles titles with Anna Leigh Waters between March 2023 and February 2024. He's collected a record 21 career Triple Crowns — winning singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same event — a feat only one other male player, Tyson McGuffin, has managed even once, and he built a 108-match winning streak in men's singles along the way. Johns has held the world number one ranking in all three divisions — singles, doubles, and mixed doubles — simultaneously since 2020, and he has medaled in all 59-plus PPA tournaments he's entered, never once leaving a professional event empty-handed. His combination of a record 120 PPA Tour titles and his unmatched 21 career Triple Crowns has made Johns almost universally regarded as the greatest pickleball player of all time.
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0 - 2Anna Leigh Waters
Anna Leigh Waters turned professional at age 12, making her the youngest professional pickleball player ever, and climbed to the world number one ranking by 15 — a ranking she has since held simultaneously in women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, a feat no other player has matched at her age. As of January 2026, she had won 181 career gold medals and a record 39 career Triple Crowns, both the most of any player in professional pickleball, male or female, and she holds the PPA Tour's women's singles record with an 89-match win streak. Her career win rate stands at 93.6 percent across more than 872 matches, sustained largely by playing doubles alongside her mother, Leigh Waters, and mixed doubles for a stretch alongside Ben Johns during his own record-setting 16-title run with her. Her combination of 181 career gold medals and her record 39 Triple Crowns, achieved before turning 20, has made Waters widely regarded as the greatest women's pickleball player in the sport's history.
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0 - 3Tyson McGuffin
Tyson McGuffin played tennis at Scottsdale Community College and briefly cracked the ATP's top 1,500 before switching to pickleball in 2015 and turning professional just six months later, a rapid transition that let him become one of the sport's first true stars. He has won five Grand Slam championships and two U.S. Open titles, including a 2019 singles-and-doubles sweep at that event, plus four National Championships and two career Triple Crowns — one of them at the 2023 Tournament of Champions — putting him behind only Ben Johns among men for career Triple Crowns. Across 110 professional tournaments and 668 career matches, McGuffin has posted a 62.1 percent win rate, and while singles has become tougher for him against the sport's younger generation, he remains ranked in the top 10-15 in both men's doubles and mixed doubles. His combination of two career Triple Crowns and his foundational role helping establish the credibility of pickleball's earliest professional tours has made McGuffin one of the most significant figures in the sport's transition to full professional status.
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0 - 4Catherine Parenteau
Catherine Parenteau played Division I college tennis, first recruited by the University of Arkansas before transferring to Michigan State, and was introduced to pickleball in October 2016 by her former tennis coach, Simone Jardim — just six months before she was already competing in, and winning the 5.0 mixed bracket at, the US Open. She has since won 53 career PPA Tour gold medals, two career Triple Crowns, three US Open titles, and two National Championships, ranking her as the second most decorated woman in professional pickleball behind only Anna Leigh Waters. Parenteau also captains the LA Mad Drops in Major League Pickleball's team format, helping lead the franchise to an MLP Championship title alongside her individual PPA Tour career. Her combination of 53 career gold medals and her rapid rise from a six-months-in US Open bracket win to the sport's second-most decorated woman has made Parenteau one of the most significant players in pickleball's professional era.
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0 - 5Riley Newman
Riley Newman, from Whidbey Island, Washington, has won roughly 20 PPA Tour gold medals and 5 Major championships across an 85-medal career, reaching the world number one men's doubles ranking along the way. He won the 2021 national mixed doubles championship partnered with his sister Lindsey Newman, and the 2021 men's doubles championship the same year, splitting his doubles career between family partnerships and top-ranked pairings with players like Matt Wright and AJ Koller. Across 110 professional tournaments and 545 career matches, Newman has posted a 63.9 percent win rate, sustained specifically through doubles and mixed doubles play rather than singles competition. His combination of a former world number one doubles ranking and his 2021 national titles alongside his sister has made Newman one of the most decorated doubles specialists in professional pickleball history.
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0 - 6Christian Alshon
Christian Alshon, nicknamed the "Tweener King" for his signature trick shots, was once the No. 1 ranked U.S. tennis player in both the boys' 16s and 18s age divisions before winning a Division III NCAA tennis championship at the University of Chicago and switching to pickleball in June 2021. He's since climbed into the top 3 in men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles on the PPA Tour, backed by gold medals at the PPA Cape Coral Open and CIBC Texas Open singles events, including back-to-back singles titles in 2025. Alshon became the first player in Major League Pickleball history to win championships at both the Challenger and Premier levels, and he was the first overall pick in the 2024 MLP Draft, going on to play for the Texas Ranchers with a career win rate of 69.0 percent across 87 professional tournaments. His combination of a rare junior-tennis-to-pickleball transition and his unprecedented Challenger-and-Premier MLP championship double has made Alshon one of the sport's most distinctive rising stars.
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