Who Ben Johns Could Play Men’s Doubles with in 2025
Yesterday, Thomas Shields (founder of The Dink) reported that Ben and Collin Johns would not play together in 2025.
Ben and Collin Johns split 👀 pic.twitter.com/nRJ2tLlqJ8
— The Dink Pickleball (@Pickleball) December 19, 2024
Thomas mentioned that Ben has asked Gabe Tardio to play, but we don’t know Gabe’s status and/or his answer.
Assumptions
Before we get into who I think Ben will play with, I have to talk about some assumptions we have to make.
First, Ben is 25 and very much in his athletic prime – people forget this because he has been the best player in the world for at least three years. He is sticking on the left side for sure. This rules out other men that play the left side exclusively.
Next, there are three types of right side guys in pro pickleball today: the aggressive, offensive player (alpha right side), and the more defensive, steady right side (beta right side). There are also men that can play both roles well, playing a hybrid role.
Lastly, Ben HAS to change his style of play in 2025, no matter who his partner is. He can no longer plate 70% of the court and expect to win. I don’t care who his partner is.
If Ben tries to continue playing 70% of the court with a Gabe Tardio, let’s say, two bad things will happen. First, Ben will get targeted and moved all over the court. Second, he would be playing with Gabe because Gabe is the best right side guy. However, Gabe won’t be playing to his full potential, only taking 30% of the court. I will go into more detail in my discussion of each player option.
Ben’s Top 10 Options for 2025
This list is in order from most likely to least likely, in my opinion.
Gabe Tardio
Tardio is known as the best alpha right side player right now in men’s doubles.
Pros: He has the most offensive options on his forehand side out of any player listed here. He is very mobile and long, taking a lot of dinks out of the air. He doesn’t get too up or down emotionally, which is what Ben prefers.
Cons: Gabe has three cons going against him in 2025. First and foremost, Gabe is not a UPA signed player. He signed a one-year contract in 2024, and as of publication, he was not signed to the UPA for the 2025 season. Unless he gets a contract he is willing to sign, playing PPA events will likely be a financially losing situation for Gabe, even if he were to win a lot.
The second con for Gabe is that he plays a big right side. He even straddles the middle line sometimes. Ben is used to taking 60-70% of the court, and Ben will have to be willing to change his game style if he plays with Gabe. Gabe will not be nearly as dynamic of a player if he is forced to play 30% of the court on the right side.
The third con for Gabe is the fact that he was supposed to play 2025 mostly with JW Johnson if he did sign with UPA and play on the PPA Tour. If he does, in fact, play with Ben, Gabe will have to drop JW for some events and may not play all events with Ben.
Final thought: Gabe is the front runner to partner with Ben in 2025.
Christian Alshon
Alshon is more of a hybrid right side player – he can play both alpha and beta roles.
Pros: Alshon is probably the most athletic player on this list (him or Loong), and he is certainly one of the top two versatile players. Alshon has played the right side with Riley Newman in 2023 with the DC Pickleball Team and they had massive success.
Cons: Christian and Ben have had some battles, especially in mixed doubles. Ben even made fun of Christian for trying to hard against him and Anna Leigh on one occasion. Alshon wears his emotions on his sleeve and Ben likes to keep things more even keeled. Personality conflicts may be an issue here.
Final thought: Ben may look to put aside his personal feelings if Alshon presents the best option of winning.
Dekel Bar
Dekel is another versatile player in men’s doubles and he is able to play both sides at a high level.
Pros: Dekel is very good friends with Ben and they train together some. They also own pickleballgetaways together, so they already have a business partnership. Bar is very lengthy and does a great job taking the ball out of the air at the kitchen line. He played the right side very well for the DC Pickleball Team this year with James Ignatowich. Additionally, they live near each other and Ben likes to drill with his partner a lot, so this is a big pro for him.
Cons: Honestly, I can’t think of too many cons for Bar. His athleticism and size is good. Is he “super-duper right side guy”? No. He is probably more comfortable on the left, but he is easily a top 10 right side guy as well.
Final thought: Dekel serves as a very viable steady option that can also bring athleticism, erneing ability, and a great backhand counter.
Matt Wright
Matt and Ben have played together before and had much success. The last time they played together was the 2023 PPA Kansas City Open, where they won the entire thing.
Pros: Matt is a beta right side player with phenomenal counter-attacks. In terms of hands at the kitchen line, Wright is still considered a top five guy. His experience playing with Ben helps him in this situation.
Cons: Matt isn’t getting any younger, and the 47-year-old struggles athletically, compared to most of the players on this list. This isn’t necessarily as big of an issue though, because Ben doesn’t need his partner to be super athletic. Additionally, while Matt has great counters and attacks, his defensive abilities to reset attacks from the mid-court is not nearly as good as the reset king, Collin Johns.
Final thought: If Ben is looking for familiarity, Matt is going to be top of the list.
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Hayden Patriquin
Hayden is one of, if not THE most coveted men’s doubles partners for 2025. He is SUPER versatile and is easily top five on the right side and left side.
Pros: Hayden has some of the quickest hands on tour, a great backhand flick, very good quickness, and can play both right and left. Even with his smaller stature, Hayden is able to take dinks out of the air and take time and space away from his opponents. Additionally, he is known as an energy infusing teammate.
Cons: Two cons for Hayden. First, he can be a very emotional player, and as previously mentioned, Ben seems to like to play with people a little more even keeled. Secondly, I believe Hayden is scheduled to play with Fed Staksrud for a majority of the 2025 season, so I don’t know if he would want to drop Fed for Ben. (That’s a crazy sentence I just wrote, and I can’t believe I wrote it).
Final thought: Big H is the hottest commodity in men’s doubles right now – I would be surprised to see Ben and him not play together at least once in 2025.
Dylan Frazier
Dylan and JW seem to have broken up after 2024, so Dylan is kind of a free agent. Rumor has it that he is playing some in early 2025 with Pablo Tellez, but might be mixing it up.
Pros: Dylan at one point this year was the #1 rated men’s doubles player on the PPA Tour. He plays a great right side and has elite level hands. He does play more of a passive, beta right side, but does have better than average offense with his forehand. Furthermore, he is looking to add some of that, so that could fit well with Ben. Dylan also has a very good temperament and doesn’t have too many highs or lows.
Erik Tice
Cons: Dylan has spent the better part of the last year and a half playing against Ben – Ben may not want to play with him. Additionally, Dylan may not want to drop his previously made commitments to play with Ben.
Final thought: I don’t think playing with Dylan is very likely, but I could see them doing well, if they did partner up.
Tyler Loong
Loong and Ben played very well together in the 2023 MLP Season 1 on the Seattle Pioneers together.
Pros: Tyler has a lot of familiarity with Ben due to them being teammates on the Pioneers (now the Carolina Pickleball Club). Tyler is an elite athlete and has the ability to cause chaos at the kitchen line with his erneing. Additionally, Tyler has a top 10 overhead finish, which will help keep points shorter.
Cons: Tyler sometimes struggles with backhand thirds and dinks. His chaotic game style may not be what Ben is looking for, but if Ben is looking for chaos – Tyler will be high on the list.
Final thought: If Ben is looking to partner with a lefty, he is very familiar with Tyler and I think Ben will value familiarity.
Augie Ge
Speaking of lefties, Augie Ge might be the hottest lefty in all of pickleball right now, coming off an MLP victory with the Dallas Flash.
Pros: Augie brings a unique combination of skills for a lefty. His backhand dink is very good – he can two-handed roll it and slice it with one hand. He also has elite level hands and a great speedup off the bounce (one of the best in all of pickleball). Ben may covet Augie’s offensive abilities.
Cons: I don’t think Ben is very familiar with Augie and has never played with him in a competitive match. It would take a while to get the chemistry down, but these are two of the smartest players in pickleball.
Final thoughts: I think Augie is the other lefty that Ben could play with due to his offense off the bounce and his elite level defense.
Collin Johns
Wait, they aren’t playing together!?!?! No one knows how the 2025 year will go, though.
Pros: Let’s see – they have won a bazillion games, matches, and tournaments together and they have been playing partners for over two years. They are also brothers and have immediate chemistry even if they haven’t played together in a while.
Cons: Obviously, there are two big cons to Collin’s game. The first is the fact that he is not a good counter-attacker and has very little offense in his game. Secondly, especially toward the second half of the 2024 season, it seemed like he drained energy from Ben during play, rather than adding it. I would guess these items led to them not playing together in 2025.
Final thoughts: I could very easily see the brothers play together again by the end of 2025. I don’t think it happens in the first part of 2025, but depending on results, I think a resurgence is very possible.
Thomas Wilson
Yes, I know he has a health issue with his breathing. Yes, I also know he hasn’t played pickleball in over six months.
Pros: Thomas is known as one of the nicest guys on tour and when he is fit, he is also one of the most athletic players in pickleball. Don’t forget how great Thomas played on the right side with Riley Newman early in 2024 before Riley’s contract issues and Thomas’ health issues. Thomas is a top tier player on both sides and is super consistent.
Cons: Obviously this can only happen if Thomas can get healthy and if the stars align in terms of Ben needing a partner in the second half of 2025. If Thomas does become available, I would love to see them play together a bit.
Final thoughts: Yes, this is a huge long shot, but anything is possible.
Three bonus players outside my top ten list that Ben could play with
- Riley Newman – they don’t like each other and I don’t see it happening
- Zane Navratil – I could see this happening at a one-off tournament
- CJ Klinger – I would argue CJ is easily a top three lefty in pickleball right now, but his youth might dissuade Ben from playing with him
Tice’s Final Take
I don’t think Ben plays with less than four partners in 2025. At the highest level of men’s doubles play, some partnerships are already set.
Additionally, if this breakup was happening two years ago, Ben would have been the best men’s doubles player by a very wide margin. That is not the case anymore. I still rank him as the best men’s doubles player in the world, but the margin is closer than ever.
It sounds crazy, but Ben may need to piece together multiple partnerships throughout 2025.
Here is the final breakdown of the number of PPA tournaments I think Ben will play with each partner in 2025:
- Gabe Tardio – 10-12 tournaments
- Dekel Bar – 5-7 tournaments
- Matt Wright – 2-3 tournaments
- Tyler Loong – 2-3 tournaments
- Hayden Patriquin – 1-2 tournaments
- Collin Johns – 1-2 tournament (late in the year)
