The Top Singles Pickleball Players by DUPR on Each Continent

Think your singles DUPR rating is something to brag about? Let's see how it stacks up against the best in the world.

Everyone wants to feel like the best player on the pickleball court.

But have you ever wondered who the actual best pickleball player on any court could be? Just pound for pound the greatest player around? We're not just talking about your local park here, either; we're going global.

Our friends at DUPR have put together a comprehensive list of the best singles players, men and women, ranked by DUPR rating across each of the continents (sorry, Antarctica, there's simply not enough data for you quite yet). They also included Central America for fun. We're not mad about it.

They'll be publishing the same list for doubles soon. But the singles results are here. There are some familiar faces, and a few surprises, too.

Scroll through below to see them all:

The Best Singles Players by Continent

Here are the top DUPR-rated men and women as of January 11, 2026, across the different continents analyzed. All players must have a DUPR reliability score of 80% or above.

Interestingly, nobody is below a 5.0 and nobody yet has hit the coveted 7.0 mark (at least as of January of this year). Not even Queen Anna Leigh Waters herself, though she has the highest DUPR of any female by a wide margin. The USA's Hunter Johnson is the top male, and the closest of anyone to 7.0.

ASIA

• Women: Chao Yi Wang, Chinese Taipei – 5.679
• Men: Quang Duong, Vietnam – 6.758

AUSTRALIA (OCEANIA)

• Women: Seone Mendez – 5.765
• Men: Vuk Velickovic – 6.132

EUROPE

• Women: Judit Castillo, Spain – 5.717
• Men: Jaume Martinez Vich, Spain – 6.733

NORTH AMERICA

• Women: Anna Leigh Waters, USA – 6.478
• Men: Hunter Johnson, USA – 6.927

SOUTH AMERICA

• Women: Mari Humberg, Brazil – 5.257
• Men: Federico Staksrud, Argentina – 6.755

CENTRAL AMERICA

• Women: Lauren Hidalgo-Smith, Dominican Republic – 5.213
• Men: Emanuel Dickson, Dominican Republic – 5.475

AFRICA

• Women: Sally Otieno, Kenya – 5.072
• Men: Mota Alhouni, Libya – 6.377

Want more DUPR-related news? We've got lots more where this came from right here.