By Sudipta Biswas

Copyright timesnownews

In the world of pickleball, there are champions, and then there is Ben Johns – a player whose name has become synonymous with the sport’s meteoric rise. From his early days on the court in 2016 to becoming the face of professional pickleball, Johns – unequivocally the greatest player to play pickleball – has lived through the sport’s transformation first-hand. “I started playing quite a long time ago now in 2016, so nine years. At that time, pickleball looked very different. It was not yet really a professional sport… Everyone played because they loved the game, they loved competing, and it was just one big party,” Johns said during an YouTube interview with Michelle Lee. That sense of joy never left him. Even as prize money grew and the sport turned professional, Johns’ philosophy remained grounded. “I would say it took probably three years of playing and traveling and competing all for fun before I actually started to consider it even really a serious sport or a professional sport… By the time I graduated, I was like, ‘I’m definitely doing this, and I’m not going to use what I studied in school.’” Johns’ background in multiple sports shaped his unique edge on the pickleball court. “For me, it was about adapting each sport that I played, baseball, tennis, table tennis, and bringing the strengths of whatever game I played into pickleball and trying to get rid of the weaknesses.” Even now, he stresses the simplicity of mastering the fundamentals. “You want to get very, very good at like three or four basic things. One of my favourite drills was just playing half-court singles cross-court… If you have a good drilling partner, play a lot of half-court singles with them. It’s helpful for everybody. It still is today.” As pickleball explodes worldwide, Johns warns against losing sight of what truly matters. “I guess one of the challenges is that it doesn’t become too much about that. People still kind of keep in perspective that it is a sport and a game at the end of the day, and it’s about enjoyment and health and people. Pickleball is its own mastermind, so let it do its thing.” Dream matchup: Novak Djokovic Despite his unmatched success, he doesn’t dwell on defeats. “Losses can hurt, and they do hurt at the time… but as long as you feel like you did your best, even if you lost, it’s okay. You know there’s more matches to be won and you can’t be perfect every time.” And when it comes to strategy, Johns embraces straightforward brilliance. “Really the best shots in pickleball are the ones that you see coming and are so good that it doesn’t matter.” Even his imagination about dream matchups reveals a blend of competitiveness and admiration. “I’m going to go with Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One driver… Outside of that, I think Novak Djokovic. Novak is the greatest tennis player of all time and just a spectacular mental athlete besides the physical aspect.” For Johns, both on and off the court, fulfillment drives everything. “It’s probably try to do what you enjoy as much as possible… Make sure that what you’re doing is actually what is going to make you happy.” That philosophy, paired with his unmatched skill, is exactly why Ben Johns isn’t just winning tournaments—he’s defining an era.