The Dink's Top 20 Men's Pickleball Power Rankings

Welcome to The Dink's Power Rankings, a new feature that we'll roll out every Monday, spotlighting a different category each week.

This week, fresh off the PPA Mesa Arizona Cup, we'll start with the men's game.

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Note: These are a subjective view of the field. I am taking into account a variety of factors, including stats, recent form and the competitive landscape. Here are some factors used to determine the rankings:

• Recent finishes
• PPA Points - both total points (52 weeks) and the race points (just points in 2024)
• PPA seedings
• Head-to-head competitions

This is NOT a scientific algorithm or an AI bot making picks. I'm just a guy who watches A LOT of pickleball. With that being said, I am only including players who have recently played on the PPA Tour.

Since I only got to see Hunter Johnson once thus far at the APP Punta Gorda, he is not included on the list. As the APP continues to hold more events, those players will become more prominent. 

20. Marcel Chan - The friend and mentee of Jaume Martinez Vich has been training hard with Vich and Phuc Huynh at Tyson McGuffin's house. While he didn't have a great outing in Mesa, he finished 9th at the Masters and 10th at PPA Desert Ridge. He is tall, has a big reach, and is deceptively quick.

Marcel Chan

19. Aanik Lohani - Lohani has a top 3 two-handed backhand in the game. The amount of spin and power he creates when he gets low is incredible. He didn't play in Mesa but finished 7th at Desert Ridge and 16th at the Masters. His best finish came in October in Vegas, winning a silver.

18. Gabe Tardio - Tardio doesn't play singles enough to warrant him being any higher. Tardio finished 27th in Mesa and 38th at the PPA Masters. However, in November, he finished 4th in Holly Hill. The youngster has all the potential in the world, but needs to play and win more to work his way up the rankings.

17. Hayden Patriquin - Patriquin finished 5th in August in the Kansas City Open and 7th in October in PPA Las Vegas. Ever since then his singles outcomes have not been great. He followed that up with a 21st in Holly Hill, 32nd at the Masters, and 29th this weekend in Mesa. He is known as a good singles player, but is currently trending in the wrong direction.

16. Gabriel Joseph - The Cali native is a singles specialist who has had some serious success in the last year. Gabe won the Takeya Showcase at his home courts in Los Cab, California. Of the last 11 PPA events, Joseph attended seven of them and his worst finish was 14th. He would easily be top 10 if he committed to a full schedule. Maybe he will this year.

Gabe Joseph

15. Collin Shick - Shick came screaming onto the scene at the PPA Florida Open, finishing in second. He is partners and friends with Jack Sock and practices with him in North Carolina. Shick will become top 10 on this list if he continues to put up top 10 results. This weekend in Mesa he fell victim to Cason Campbell. In a smaller field in Minnesota, I am looking for Shick to bounce back in a big way.

14. Julian Arnold - Arnold is very turbulent – both emotionally and with his results. In August in the Kansas City Open he finished 4th and a few weeks later he finished 5th in the Cincinnati Open. He followed that up with a 26th finish in Vegas. In 2024 he sandwiched two 11th-place finishes at The Masters and Mesa, with a 30th-place finish at Desert Ridge.

13. Chris Haworth - Haworth is seeded poorly due to PPA's policy on seeding. Seeding is based on the last 52 weeks' worth of points accumulation. Since Haworth hasn't been on the PPA scene full-time, he is constantly under-seeded. He recently won the APP Punta Gorda and has three top 10 finishes in the last eight months on the PPA Tour. Haworth could easily crack the top 10 this year.

12. Quang Duong - Duong screamed onto the scene last year and hasn't really slowed down. He is a human highlight reel and has some of the best passing shots from both the forehand and backhand on tour. His average finish over the past eight months has been 12th, and he finished 12th at Mesa. Duong is closing in on the top 10 if he can consistently finish high over the next month or two.

11. Pablo Tellez - Pablo is definitely the best lefty player in men's singles. He plays in most of the events and is very consistent. In the last 11 PPA events, he has finished outside of the top 20 only twice. The reason he is not higher on this list is he has never finished higher than 6th. While Tellez is almost always a quarterfinalist, he hasn't medaled at all in the last eight months.

10. Jay Devilliers - Jay is playing great with his new Vulcan paddle. In the middle of 2023 he had a string of so-so finishes and his paddle definitely had something to do with it. Since he got his new paddle, here are his results: Hertz Gold Cup - 9th, PPA Tour Finals - 7th, Masters - 5th, Desert Ridge - 3rd (bronze). He was upset in Mesa, but Jay is back on the singles scene in a big way. His epic battles with Martinez Vich are captivating.

9. JW Johnson - Johnson won the 2023 Biofreeze Nationals in November. The reason he is not higher here is because he skips more tournaments than almost anyone else. JW has skipped four of the last 10 tournaments on tour when it comes to singles. In the last eight months he has two bronze medals to his name in addition to the Nationals title. He also finished the PPA Tour finals in last place in singles, got a 21st-place finish at The Masters and finished 8th in Mesa.

JW Johnson

8. Dylan Frazier - Frazier just won The Masters to start out 2024, how can he be 8th?!?! Well, for starters, Frazier skipped Nationals in November and then also skipped PPA Desert Ridge. Outside of his win at The Masters, here are Frazier's last six finishes, including PPA Mesa: 21st, 11th, 18th, 11th, 6th, 12th. Frazier has all the tools necessary to move into the top five, he just needs to be a little more consistent.

7. Connor Garnett - Garnett had a rough start to the 2024 year in singles. He lost to Jack Sock in three games at The Masters and then followed that up by losing to Chris Haworth in the PPA Desert Ridge in three games. Mesa was a great bounce back tournament for him, securing the bronze medal over Jack Sock for a little bit of revenge for The Masters. In the last eight events of 2023, Garnett's worst finish was 10th at the Takeya Showcase.

6. Jack Sock - Sock has stormed onto the scene since involving himself in pickleball. In 2024, he has a bronze medal and a 4th-place finish. He is easily a top-five athlete on tour and has all the shots necessary to be a regular podium player in singles. Sock seems to really be enjoying himself while playing pickleball and that means trouble for the rest of the field.

5. Jaume Martinez Vich - Martinez Vich is so fast, has all the shots, and has an engaging personality. Within a year of starting on tour, Vich is undeniably a top-five singles player. He has two bad finishes in the last year or so. Other than those two events, he has two silver medals and four more top 10 finishes. The crowd favorite has all the ability in the world to move up in the rankings.

4. Christian Alshon - Alshon and Vich are extremely close in our rankings. The slight edge goes to Alshon because in the last eight months, his worst finish was 12th in Las Vegas. Christian is one of the most athletic players on tour. He has eight top 10s in the last eight months and consistently makes the quarterfinals in singles.

3. Tyson McGuffin - Somehow, the 33-year-old just posts results. Sure, he lost to Sock in the Round of 16 this weekend in Mesa, but prior to that, he hadn't finished outside the top eight in any event in the last eight months. He has four podiums and one gold medal from the Tournament of Champions in Brigham City last year. McGuffin continues to defy his age with his disciplined routine and focus on his body.

2. Federico Stakrud - Fed has solidified himself as the clear second-best men's singles player. His worst finish in his last 10 events is 13th. He has also found the podium in eight of those 10 events, winning two of them. His most recent win came in what some consider to be the best singles match in history with Jaume Martinez Vich. If Fed continues on this path, he may be top dog in the rankings by the end of they year.

1. Ben Johns - Yes, Ben is susceptible to early-round losses. He finished 13th in the Takeya Showcase in August, 11th at Nationals, and 20th at The Masters in California. In between those upsets, he has won five tournaments and finished second in the Cincinnati Open (to Staksrud). Fed is more consistent than Ben, but Ben gets more wins. The gap is closing.

Ben Johns