Ranking the Best PPA Pros Based on 2025 Medal Counts

As the 2025 Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour calendar has ended, it is worth looking back on the year to see which players fared the best.

This article is a unique look at the entirety of the 2025 year, with a calculation I created, by looking at different models from the Olympic Games. Before we get into that, though, let’s have a view of some very easy to understand stats.

I am using the following 20 tournaments as part of the 2025 year, because the PPA counted them as that:

• Daytona Beach Open - December 2024 - Open
• The Masters - January - Slam
• Australia Open - February - Open
• Tucson Open - February - Open
• Mesa Cup - February - Cup
• Cape Coral Open - March - Open
• Texas Open - March - Open
• Red Rock Open - March - Open
• North Carolina Open - April - Open
• Atlanta Pickleball Championships - May - Slam
• Orange County Cup - June - Cup
• Bristol Open - August - Open
• Las Vegas Strip Open - August - Open
• Cincinnati Showcase - September - Slam
• Sacramento Vintage Open - September - Open
• Virginia Beach Cup - October - Cup
• Vegas Cup - October - Cup
• World Championships - November - Worlds
• Lakeland Open - November - Open
• Daytona Beach Open - December - Open

Gold Medalists

Of the 20 events I am counting as part of 2025, there were 31 unique gold medal winners. Here are the top 10 gold medalists from 2025:

Top 10 Gold Medalists - Women 

Top 10 Gold Medalists - Men

It is crazy to think about, but Anna Leigh Waters had MORE gold medals than Anna Bright, JW Johnson, Catherine Parenteau, Christian Alshon, Federico Staksrud, and Andrei Daescu - COMBINED.

Total Medals

There were 63 unique medalists on the PPA Tour in the 2025 season, which shows the parity of the tour.

Top 10 Total Medalists

Top 10 Total Medals - Women

Top 10 Total Medals - Men

My Calculation for Best Season

The Olympic Games have a tough time discerning which country had the best event. Is it based on total medals? Most gold medals? Some sort of hybrid of this?

This is where the calculation comes in. I am using a simple 3-2-1 method. A Gold Medal is worth 3 points, a Silver is worth 2 and a Bronze is worth 1. Additionally, since the PPA Tour makes Cups, Slams, and Worlds more important than Opens, I have built those calculations in as well. 

One note - I am treating all events equally, meaning a singles gold is worth just as much as a doubles gold. 

Here are the values for each of the four types of events:

Obviously, this puts more weight on the tournaments that were more important (according to the PPA Tour). For example, Hayden and Fed won men’s doubles at Worlds, which is essentially worth three Open tournament wins, according to the PPA Tour scoring.

Top 10 Overall Points Winners 

Top 10 Women

Top 10 Men

Obviously, no matter which way you dice the numbers, Anna Leigh Waters had the best 2025 season overall. She was the only one to triple crown on the tour in 2025, and she did so eight times in 2025. That's right - Anna Leigh Waters Triple Crowned in over one third of the tournaments in 2025.

Ben Johns easily had the second-best season on tour, which makes sense because Ben and Anna Leigh win so much together in mixed. He also won two singles titles and a bunch of medals with Gabe Tardio in men’s.

Then comes the 3-6 battle, and Anna Bright, JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, and Federico Staksrud are all within four points of each other. Bright narrowly beat the other three in this category, thanks to her dominance with Anna Leigh Waters in women’s doubles and her play with multiple mixed partners throughout the year.