Professional pickleball players you didn’t know played tennis

Jack Sock. Eugenie Bouchard. Donald Young. Sam Querrey. These names are associated with both professional tennis and pro pickleball tours, but there's more then just these four.

By our count, there are 22 other PPA pickleball players who made a run at pro, tour-level tennis before trading the racquet for a paddle.

Here's a few notables:

• Collin Johns, brother of pickleball star Ben Johns—he's been regarded as the “Michael Jordan of Pickleball.” Collin reached a career-high ATP ranking of No. 978 in singles and No. 939 in doubles.

• Altalf Merchant was once India’s top ranked junior player, representing his country at Orange Bowl.
• Parris Todd began competing on the ITF tour at 14 years old, winning over 85 titles.

Twelve of these former tennis pros also competed collegiately. The PPA has first-team All-Americans like Lea Jansen, NCAA champions like Pablo Tellez, and prolific doubles teams like brothers Yates and Hunter Johnson.

Fun fact: Hunter would go on to defeat Alexander Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime during his run on the ATP tour, and reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 198. He became one of the first pro tennis players to join the PPA, and now competes on the 20ft-by-44ft courts alongside his brother.

A percentage of these former tennis players also coached, with a handful attributing their time at country clubs to their introduction to pickleball. Tyson McGuffin, who briefly competed collegiately and professionally, was a head tennis pro for six years before finding his passion on the pickleball court.

For some pro pickleball players, tennis was a catalyst into the fastest-growing sport. Anna Leigh Waters, arguably pickleball’s biggest star, was playing tennis (and soccer) before becoming the youngest pickleball pro at 12 years old. There are also high school tennis players like Alix Truong who played first singles and doubles before transitioning into pickleball.

So Sock, Bouchard, Young and Querrey? We know them. But of 144 players currently listed on the PPA tour, 130 have some level of a tennis background, in other words—a whopping 90 percent.