Ben Johns

About

Benjamin Ellingham Johns (born March 18, 1999) is an American professional pickleball player. As of April 2026, he is ranked No. 1 in the world for mixed doubles, No. 13 for singles, and No. 1 for men’s doubles by the Pro Pickleball Association (PPA). His current DUPR rating is 7.112.

Johns was raised in Laytonsville, Maryland. He was homeschooled as a child and graduated from the University of Maryland with a materials science and engineering degree. His elder brother Collin is also a highly ranked professional pickleball player and Johns’s former doubles partner.

Johns played tennis and table tennis as a child, showing some proficiency in both sports and helping his older brother Collin train for the pro tennis circuit. He first played pickleball in 2016 at the age of 17 while vacationing in Florida and took fifth place in Men’s Pro Singles at the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships just a few months later. He began to play in tournaments consistently and earned his first gold medal at the Riverbend RV Resort Pickleball Tournament a little less than a year later. That same year, he returned to the U.S. Open and took gold in Men’s…