Ranking the Best PPA Pros Based on 2025 Medal Counts
The 2025 PPA Tour season has come to a close, and with it comes an opportunity to reflect on which professional pickleball players truly dominated the year. Rather than relying solely on rankings or prize money, this analysis takes a comprehensive look at medal counts across all events to determine who had the most successful season. The approach here mirrors methods used in Olympic Games analysis, where countries are ranked not just by total medals but by a weighted system that values different achievements accordingly.
Looking back at a full season of professional pickleball provides fascinating insights into consistency, partnership dynamics, and individual brilliance. Some players shine brightest at the most important tournaments, while others accumulate medals steadily throughout the year. This article breaks down the 2025 season using multiple lenses to paint a complete picture of professional pickleball excellence.
Understanding the 2025 PPA Tour Season Structure
For those new to professional pickleball, the PPA Tour operates with a tiered tournament structure that assigns different levels of importance to various events. This system recognizes that not all tournaments carry equal weight in determining the best players. The 2025 season included 20 tournaments spanning from December 2024 through December 2025, with four distinct tournament categories that shaped how the season unfolded.
Open tournaments represent the most common event type and form the backbone of the tour schedule. These events happen frequently throughout the year and provide regular competitive opportunities for professionals. Cup tournaments carry more significance, offering higher point values and increased prize money. Slam events rank even higher in importance, typically drawing larger crowds and media attention. Finally, the World Championships stands alone at the pinnacle of the competitive calendar, representing the ultimate achievement for any professional pickleball player.
This tiered structure means that winning a gold medal at the World Championships carries substantially more weight than winning at a standard Open tournament. The PPA uses this differentiation to reward players who perform when the stakes are highest, creating a system where strategic tournament selection and peak performance timing matter significantly.
The 2025 season included the Daytona Beach Open to kick things off, followed by The Masters in January. International expansion continued with the Australia Open in February, demonstrating pickleball’s growing global footprint. Major stops throughout the year included the Atlanta Pickleball Championships and the Bristol Open, with the season culminating in another Daytona Beach Open in December.
The Simple Numbers: Gold Medal Winners
Starting with the most straightforward metric, gold medal counts reveal which players stood atop the podium most frequently in 2025. Across the 20 events counted in this analysis, 31 unique players managed to capture at least one gold medal, demonstrating both the competitive depth of professional pickleball and the difficulty of winning at the highest level.
Anna Leigh Waters absolutely dominated the gold medal count in 2025, establishing herself as the unquestioned leader of the sport. Her gold medal total exceeded that of several top players combined, showcasing a level of consistent excellence rarely seen in any professional sport. Waters competed in three disciplines at most tournaments: singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, giving her more opportunities to medal than players who focus on fewer events. However, opportunity alone does not guarantee success, and her conversion rate on those opportunities proved exceptional throughout the year.
Ben Johns secured the second-highest gold medal count among all players, maintaining his position as one of the sport’s elite competitors. Johns has been a dominant force in professional pickleball for years, and 2025 provided further evidence of his sustained excellence. His gold medals came primarily from men’s doubles partnerships and mixed doubles play, where his court positioning and strategic decision-making continue to set the standard for the sport.
Among women, the gap between Waters and the rest of the field was substantial. Her ability to win across all three disciplines gave her a significant statistical advantage, but the margin of victory suggested something beyond mere opportunity. She won at every type of tournament throughout the season, showing that her game elevated regardless of the venue or competition level.
The men’s gold medal race featured more parity below Johns, with several players clustered in similar medal count ranges. JW Johnson, Federico Staksrud, and Gabe Tardio all had strong seasons measured by gold medals, each finding success through different partnership combinations and strategic approaches. The competitive balance among these players suggests the men’s side of professional pickleball may be entering an era of increased competition where multiple players can legitimately claim elite status.
Total Medal Counts Tell a Broader Story
While gold medals capture the pinnacle of achievement, examining total medal counts including silver and bronze provides insight into consistency and sustained excellence. Across the 2025 season, 63 unique players earned at least one medal of any color, revealing significant competitive depth on the PPA Tour. This number indicates that the path to the podium remains achievable for a substantial portion of tour professionals, though the top tier clearly separates itself through repeated success.
Anna Leigh Waters again led all players in total medals, but this metric reveals additional dimensions to her dominance. Not only did she win more often than anyone else, but when she did not win, she still frequently found herself on the podium with silver or bronze medals. This consistency across an entire season demonstrates remarkable physical durability and mental fortitude, as maintaining peak performance through 20 tournaments requires managing both training intensity and competitive pressure.
The total medal standings also highlight players who excel at reaching the medal rounds even if gold medals occasionally elude them. These players demonstrate the consistency required to compete at the professional level week after week, tournament after tournament. Their ability to navigate deep into tournament draws, handle pressure situations, and perform against varied opponents marks them as legitimate professionals even if they do not always finish first.
Catherine Parenteau stood out among women for her total medal accumulation, showing the value of competing in multiple disciplines and maintaining partnerships that consistently reach finals. Her season exemplified the path for professionals aiming to build sustainable careers through reliable performance rather than sporadic brilliance. Similarly, Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu demonstrated their ability to medal regularly on the men’s side, establishing themselves as players who elevate their partnerships and consistently threaten top seeds.
The spread of medals across 63 players also speaks to the health and competitiveness of professional pickleball as a sport. Unlike some professional sports where podium finishes concentrate among a tiny elite, pickleball’s relatively young professional structure still allows for breakthrough performances and emerging talent to capture meaningful achievements. This competitive balance likely contributes to fan engagement and player motivation throughout the season.
Creating a Weighted Point System for Comprehensive Rankings
Determining the best season becomes more complex when considering that not all medals carry equal significance. A gold medal at the World Championships represents a dramatically different achievement than a bronze medal at a standard Open tournament, yet simple medal counting treats these equally. To address this limitation, a weighted point system provides a more nuanced view of season-long performance.
The system employed here draws inspiration from various Olympic medal counting methodologies used by different countries and sports analysts. The basic framework assigns three points for gold medals, two points for silver, and one point for bronze, creating a 3-2-1 structure that weights winning appropriately while still rewarding consistent podium finishes. This approach recognizes that second place represents a significant achievement even if it falls short of ultimate victory.
Building on this foundation, the system incorporates the PPA Tour’s own tournament hierarchy by applying multipliers based on event importance. Open tournaments serve as the baseline with a 1x multiplier. Cup events receive a 2x multiplier, reflecting their elevated status on the tour calendar. Slam tournaments get a 3x multiplier, acknowledging their importance as tentpole events that draw maximum attention and competition. The World Championships stands alone with a 4x multiplier, representing the pinnacle achievement in professional pickleball.
These multipliers create scenarios where a single gold medal at the World Championships equals three gold medals at Open tournaments in point value. This weighting aligns with how the PPA itself structures prize money and ranking points, ensuring the analysis reflects the priorities established by the tour itself. It also creates a system where players who peak at major championships can potentially overcome competitors who accumulate more medals at lesser events.
One important note about this methodology: all disciplines receive equal weighting within this system. A singles gold medal counts the same as a doubles gold medal at the same event level. This choice recognizes that while singles may receive more individual glory, doubles requires different skills and presents its own challenges. Treating all medals equally across disciplines avoids subjective judgments about which form of competition matters more.
The Definitive 2025 Season Rankings
When applying the weighted point system across the entire 2025 season, Anna Leigh Waters emerges as the unquestioned champion of professional pickleball for the year. Her point total exceeded all other players by a significant margin, driven by her unprecedented achievement of earning the triple crown at multiple tournaments throughout the season. A triple crown means winning gold medals in all three disciplines at a single tournament: singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Waters accomplished this feat eight times during the 2025 season, meaning she swept all available gold medals at more than one-third of the tournaments she entered.
This triple crown dominance represents something historically significant in professional pickleball. The physical demands of competing at the highest level across three disciplines at the same tournament are immense, requiring not just skill but exceptional fitness and recovery capacity. The mental challenge of maintaining focus and peak performance through multiple championship matches in a single tournament weekend adds another layer of difficulty. That Waters sustained this level of excellence across eight different tournaments throughout an entire season marks an achievement that may stand as a benchmark for years to come.
Ben Johns secured a clear second place in the weighted rankings, establishing himself as the second-best season among all players in 2025. His point total came from a balanced approach that included two singles titles, multiple men’s doubles championships with Gabe Tardio, and extensive success in mixed doubles. The partnership with Waters in mixed doubles proved particularly valuable, as their chemistry and complementary skills allowed both players to accumulate significant points through that discipline.
The battle for positions three through six revealed fascinating competitive dynamics. Anna Bright, JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, and Federico Staksrud finished within four points of each other, creating essentially a four-way tie for the third-best season. Bright narrowly edged the others thanks to her dominance in women’s doubles with Waters and her success with multiple mixed doubles partners throughout the year. This ability to succeed with different partners demonstrates adaptability and individual skill rather than reliance on a single partnership dynamic.
JW Johnson’s placement in this cluster reflected his strong performance across men’s doubles and mixed doubles, showing his versatility and ability to compete at the highest level in multiple disciplines. His season included breakthrough performances at key tournaments and consistent medal finishes that accumulated into an impressive point total. Jorja Johnson, JW’s sister, mirrored this success on the women’s side, establishing herself as one of the tour’s elite competitors through consistent excellence.
Federico Staksrud’s presence in this top group confirmed his status as one of the most improved players on tour. His partnership combinations evolved throughout the season, and his ability to reach finals at major tournaments contributed significant points to his total. His game showed particular strength at Cup and Slam events, demonstrating an ability to elevate performance when tournament importance increased.
Beyond the top six, the rankings revealed several players who had quietly excellent seasons. Gabe Tardio’s consistent success with Ben Johns in men’s doubles placed him in the upper echelon of season-long performers. His steady presence alongside Johns, combined with his own mixed doubles success, resulted in a point total that reflected genuine elite-level performance. Catherine Parenteau continued her streak of being one of the most reliable performers on the women’s side, consistently reaching medal rounds and occasionally breaking through for gold medals.
What These Rankings Mean for Professional Pickleball
The weighted point system reveals patterns that simple medal counting obscures. Most notably, players who performed well at Cups, Slams, and especially the World Championships received appropriate recognition for succeeding when stakes were highest. This aligns with how most sports fans intuitively evaluate greatness: players who win the biggest tournaments deserve special recognition beyond those who compile wins at lesser events.
The system also highlights the value of competing in multiple disciplines. Players like Waters and Johns who excel in three different partnership configurations naturally accumulate more opportunities for points. However, this advantage feels justified given the additional demands placed on these players. Competing in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same tournament requires managing increased match load, varied strategic preparation, and the mental challenge of switching between different partnership dynamics and individual play.
For players focused primarily on one or two disciplines, the path to the upper rankings requires extremely consistent performance. A player competing only in doubles must win or medal more frequently to match the point totals of multi-discipline competitors. This creates an interesting strategic calculation for professionals: spread efforts across multiple disciplines to increase medal opportunities, or specialize to maximize win probability in fewer events.
The competitive depth revealed by 63 unique medalists suggests professional pickleball remains in a healthy growth phase where new talent can break through while established stars maintain their positions through continued excellence. Unlike mature sports where the same names dominate year after year with little variation, pickleball’s relatively young professional structure still allows for meaningful upward mobility and breakthrough performances.
Understanding the Statistics for Pickleball Newcomers
For readers less familiar with professional pickleball, understanding these rankings requires some context about how the sport operates at the highest level. Professional pickleball tournaments typically feature three main competition categories: singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. In singles, one player faces another in individual competition, similar to tennis. Doubles features same-gender pairs competing against each other. Mixed doubles pairs one man and one woman as partners against another mixed pair.
Most professional pickleball players specialize in one or two of these disciplines, making someone like Anna Leigh Waters who competes at an elite level in all three relatively rare. The physical demands differ across disciplines, with singles requiring more court coverage and cardiovascular endurance, while doubles emphasizes positioning, communication, and strategic shot selection. Mixed doubles adds another dimension as partners must account for the different playing styles and strengths that men and women typically bring to the court.
The tournament structure with Opens, Cups, Slams, and World Championships creates a season-long narrative similar to professional golf or tennis. Opens happen most frequently and serve as regular competitive opportunities where players can earn prize money, ranking points, and medals. Cup events feel like elevated Opens with more on the line. Slams represent major championships that draw maximum attention from media and fans. The World Championships stands alone as the single most important event of the year, where winning a medal carries exceptional prestige.
Medal counts matter in pickleball because the tour typically awards gold, silver, and bronze medals to finalists and semifinalists in each discipline at each tournament. This means a single tournament weekend might see a player compete for three different gold medals if they enter singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Successfully winning all three constitutes the triple crown mentioned frequently in these rankings, representing the highest achievement possible at any single tournament.
The weighted point system used here attempts to answer the question: who had the best season overall? This proves challenging because players compete in different numbers of tournaments, different numbers of disciplines, and achieve success at events of varying importance. By applying multipliers based on tournament tier and points based on medal color, the system creates a common measurement that accounts for these variables. Think of it as similar to how other
