Ben Johns

Benjamin Ellingham Johns (Born March 18, 1999) is an American professional pickleball player. He is ranked No. 1 in the world for both doubles play and singles play by the Pro Pickleball Association (PPA) and No. 6 and 4 for doubles and singles respectively by the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP). He currently holds over 50 medals from professional events and is continuing to add to that number, with some already referring to him as the “Greatest Of All Time.” He has had a sponsorship deal with Franklin Sports since 2019.
Personal life.
Johns was raised in Laytonsville, Maryland. He was homeschooled as a child and currently studies Materials Science at the University of Maryland: College Park’s School of Engineering. He is the middle child of 7 children, including his elder brother Collin Johns, who is another highly-ranked professional pickleball player and Johns’ set doubles partner. 
Pickleball career.
Johns played tennis and table tennis since he was a child, showing some proficiency in both sports and helping his older brother Collin Johns train for the pro tennis circuit. Johns 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. Having caught the pickleball bug, Johns began to play in tournaments consistently and captured his first gold medal at the Riverbend RV Resort Pickleball Tournament a little less than a year later. That same year, Johns returned to the U.S Open and took gold in Men’s Pro Singles. Shortly thereafter, Johns won three gold medals at the Canadian Nationals, bringing him to the forefront of the sport. Johns has won more than 23 gold medals in his professional career, 4 of which were triple crowns (gold medals in all three events). In 2019, Johns became the first male professional player to win a triple crown at one of the world’s three major pickleball events when he captured it at the Tournament of Champions in Brigham City, Utah.
In 2019, Ben Johns signed a sponsorship deal with Franklin Sports. The company began producing the Ben Johns Signature Paddle, a paddle known for both power and grit, that Ben Johns actually helped them design and has used at all professional tournaments since. 
In 2019, Ben Johns, along with fellow professional pickleball player Dekel Bar, launched Pickleball Getaways, a company that combines all-inclusive vacations to exotic destinations with professional pickleball instruction on-site. Johns and Bar have already led trips to the Mayan Rivera, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and many other locations.
In 2021, Ben Johns, along with his brother Collin Johns and Dekel Bar, released a instructional video subscription service titled "Pickleball 360". The service has a monthly and yearly subscription that grants access to instructional videos from the aforementioned professional players.