by Matty Pickles
Updated Through: PPA Orange County Cup (6/22/25)
I went through all this trouble to make some fun charts only to realize that they don’t really tell you anything that you don’t already know: Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters are very good at pickleball. Despite this, I still enjoyed making them and I hope you find them as satisfying to watch as I do.
On June 24, 2021
Ben Johns and
Simone Jardim stood together at the top of the podium and the all-time leaderboard with 28 gold medals apiece. A few months later
Anna Leigh Waters won the first gold medal of her career and from that moment the chase to take the top spot was on. Roughly four years later – despite the fact that playing mixed doubles with Ben means there are only two chances to gain on his lead per tournament - the honor is almost hers and every triple crown takes her just a little bit closer. It’s only a matter of time.
The list of players who have won a gold medal on the PPA Tour in men’s singles is shorter than I thought it would be at 15, and the multiple titles club is even more exclusive with just nine members. This highlights what a fun spot men’s singles is in in 2025 as five players have won multiple gold medals this year alone
1.
Ben Johns still claims nearly half of all the gold medals ever awarded in this division and
Federico Staksrud’s remarkable 2024 campaign has earned him a comfortable spot in second place.
Anna Leigh Waters has won 52 of the 88 PPA women’s singles gold medals that have ever been awarded. She has only lost 13 times and four of those losses came when she was just 14 years old. I have no interest in rehashing the recent
clickbait Serena Williams comparison discourse, but I’ll just say ALW’s dominance cannot be overstated. It has reached a point where any tournament that she sits out is a little extra special for me as a viewer – a rare chance for someone else to win and it always feels like the rest of field knows it too.
Special shout out to
Irina Tereschenko who’s lone women’s singles title was the first ever women’s singles title.
The Johns bros had one heck of a run at the top of this young sport, but the early returns in the post-bros era for Ben have been strong enough that it feels like we have probably seen the last of that partnership in any meaningful sense. The Bros vs Riley/Matt era was fun, but the newly anointed “Big 4” era has brought a new excitement to men’s doubles on the PPA Tour. After some partner hopping to start the year – as we discussed in my last blog – semifinal Saturday has turned into must watch TV as it really feels like any of the top 4 teams can get hot and make a run at a gold.
Way back in the summer of 2022 - before there was
Anna Leigh Waters and [insert partner] -
Lucy Kovalova and
Simone Jardim led the field with 18 and 14 gold medals respectively. Within a year ALW would claim the lead and never look back. As of today she has 50 titles to her name and the lead over #2
Catherine Parenteau figures to grow with every passing tournament now that
Anna Bright has received the call up.
What else is there to say? I said it in the intro and I’ll say it again in the outro:
Ben Johns and
Anna Leigh Waters are very good at pickleball.
A few more bonus charts:
Who would be the GOAT in the alternate universe where Ben and ALW never touch a paddle?
Who would be the GOAT in the alternate universe where Ben and ALW never touch a paddle and also the person you picked in the last hypothetical also never touched a paddle?
If you enjoy these charts please consider checking out my YouTube channel and follow me on Instagram and X for more fun like this and even more underwhelming amateur pickleball clips.
