Yes, Pickleball now has world rankings
· Yahoo Sports
The PPA Tour has become the home to the biggest pickleball stars in the sport. However, the widely-popular American sport is going global with its latest initiative.
Top superstars like Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns have held claims to being the best pickleball players in the game for some time. Although, the PPA is actively looking to find the best player in the world now.
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The World Pickleball Rankings are the latest creation to help establish top talent from around the globe. That’s a huge step in the right direction for the PPA Tour, who’s initiating an international calendar of events for the 2026-27 season.
The unique aspect to pro pickleball is that most elite players compete across multiple divisions of play, unlike tennis. That includes gender singles, gender doubles and mixed doubles.
That means players like Waters regularly play several full-length tournaments each weekend en route to winning trophies across several competitions.
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Pickleball goes global
Texas Rangers Pat Smith returns a shot during the Major League Pickleball Tournament. Credit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect (Reuters)The new World Pickleball Rankings aim to take that success into account for Waters and others. The weighted scoring format for the rankings certainly favors gender doubles because of the immense competition.
PPA Tour founder/CEO Connor Pardoe reveals that players’ rankings will be based on their top 14 results over a 52-week period. That gives players many opportunities to boost their value during the course of a calendar year.
- Gender doubles: 50%
- Mixed doubles: 35%
- Singles: 15%
This next step for pro pickleball is massive considering how popular the sport has become in America. However, it’s clear that the expansion into more international events could be major for how the game expands in future years.
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The PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball already play full-length schedules and have matches shown on various sports media platforms. Both tours regularly have matches includes on CBS, ESPN and Fox Sports.
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