UPA Player Power Rankings Men – January 2026

We want to do some different content this year. Keep things fresh. Ya feel? Something we hope to be able to do approximately bi-monthly is doubles power rankings. We’re not going to do too much on the singles side because, frankly, we don’t watch nearly as much singles and also because the singles stuff isn’t as interesting to us.

To be clear, these power rankings are not how we would rank the players if we were to take them in an MLP draft or where we would slot them in on the tour. They are intended to be a reflection of how well or poorly a player is doing at the current moment in time. It’s all very subjective, which is really the point of this.

Here are NML’s first set of UPA doubles power rankings for 2026.

(1) Ben Johns – There isn’t much to say other than he is top dog in men’s and mixed. He’ll have to start losing for that to change.

(2) JW Johnson – It’s so easy to forget that JW and Jorja were exceptionally good in 2025 as a mixed duo because of how dominant Ben and ALW are. Add on to the fact that JW should have made the finals at World’s and won gold with Augie Ge, and he’s #2 on the list to start the year.

(3) Andrei Daescu – It was hard to envision a great deal of improvement for Daescu a couple of years ago, but has kept getting better. The incoming partnership with Staksrud for 2026 feels like a higher floor, lower ceiling situation. The most impressive thing with Andrei is that he wins with everyone he plays with. His mixed run with Kaitlyn Christian in Daytona was notable.

(4) Hayden Patriquin – He is going to be playing with Christian Alshon in 2026, which is not a partnership we like for Hayden as much given the higher volatility. We’ll see how it plays out but the golden finish to the year for Patriquin in men’s at World’s lands him at #4.

(5) Gabe Tardio – You could quibble with putting Gabe slightly higher on this list after a strong finish to the year in mixed with Jessie Irvine. Catherine Parenteau will be his mixed partner in 2026, and we’ll get to see what Gabe is made of against the top dogs with Parenteau.

(6) Christian Alshon – He ended off the year with a silver in men’s with Daescu, and he is always a dangerous mixed player.

(7) Federico Staksrud – The high-end mixed results have not been there, but he had the big gold medal at world’s with Patriquin. One of the highest floor guys in pro pickleball.

(8) CJ Klinger – Klinger could be slightly lower in these power rankings due to his less than elite mixed results, but he has been such a consistent men’s doubles performer that we couldn’t put him any lower than this spot. We are ignoring the Daytona performance with an injured Jaume Martinez Vich.

(9) Eric Oncins – It was a clear top 8 in men’s doubles for the second half of 2025. However, Oncins is on the rise and he just needs to find a partnership that can allow him to crack that top 8 somehow in men’s. He got a bronze with Anna Bright in mixed as well towards the end of the year in Lakeland.

(10) Riley Newman – As the game continues to evolve, Riley Newman remains mostly the same. Nevertheless, his fast hands and elite defence keep him in the conversation as one of the better men in the sport. His showing with Noe Khlif in Daytona reminded us that he can still get it done. 

(11) Will Howells – Wait, how does a guy who hasn’t played a PPA Tour event in 2025 get to #11? He won double gold at the APP Championships in December, and we want to see it before we believe that he is a top 10 doubles player right away on the PPA.

(12) Dylan Frazier – Frazier’s stock is the lowest it has been in a long time. He had a nice bronze with Eric Oncins in Daytona, but he and JW lost to Matt Wright/Eric Oncins in Vegas in a tight 3 game match. Mixed has never really been his strong suit. The Eric Oncins partnership should be beneficial for Frazier, who seems to have conceded he has to be on the right.

(13) Jay Devilliers – It is very surprising to have Jay so high in the power rankings to start 2026. One of the best grinders in the sport, Devilliers has made improvements to his game, and it hasn’t hurt to finally put a competitive paddle in his hands. He had a good run in Daytona with Callie Smith and Tom Protzek.

(14) Noe Khlif – Unsurprisingly, Khlif has slowly worked his way up the ranks and finally proved himself to be capable of a higher end performance in Daytona with Riley Newman. Can he be anything more than a high floor, low ceiling guy?

(15) Jaume Martinez Vich – Jaume has bene playing a quality men’s and mixed doubles, including pushing Staksrud/Patriquin at World’s with Jonathan Truong. He hurt his back in Lakeland and was not healthy in Daytona.

(16) Augie Ge – It was a big win with JW in Daytona but that win feels like it speaks more to what JW provides as a left side beast rather than Ge making some magical leap in the final tournament of the year. Outside of Daytona, Ge’s results have not been overly encouraging.

(17) Tyson McGuffin – It is impressive that Tyson has continued to hold his own as a doubles player despite making very few adjustments to keep up with the evolution of the game. It’s unclear if he’s working as hard as he used to so we’ll have to see if he can stay relevant in 2026.

(18) Matt Wright – It’s hard to place a guy like Matt Wright in a doubles power ranking list. He and Lucy Kovalova have basically checked out of mixed, but he’s still a legitimate contender as a right-side men’s doubles player.

(19) Dekel Bar – If this wasn’t a power ranking, Dekel would be higher. Bar had a strong 2024 and first half of 2025, but illness and injuries have left him unable to find his footing at the end of 2025.

(20) Connor Garnett –Garnett is another guy who has stagnated in his play and appears to be a clear stock down heading into the 2026 season.

(21) Jack Sock – If you think this is too high for Sock, then you aren’t paying close enough attention. He still doesn’t appear to be putting in the necessary work to maximize his talent, but Sock’s doubles results have quietly been solid towards the end of 2025 – beating Augie Ge twice with Roddy and Hovenier as partners, and his MLP Cup play was unexpectedly solid.

(22) Hunter Johnson – The progression in Hunter’s doubles play has not come close to matching his singles surge. He and Vivienne David had a good win over Frazier/Fahey at World’s, but he’s mostly getting the wins he should and losing the matches you would expect him to lose. He didn’t have a good finish to MLP either after the Ben Johns trade either.

(23) Jonathan Truong – There’s some good buzz around Truong. He has a unique game and has shown an ability to hold his own against top end talent. He is in the running to be one of the breakout stars of 2026.

(24) AJ Koller – He might be best suited as an MLP hired gun, but he deserves major props for how he filled in for Dekel Bar for a good chunk of the MLP season. Consistent tour results remain elusive for Mr. Koller.

(25) Tom Protzek – This is too high if it were a pure rankings list, but we wanted to highlight a guy who is showing very real promise without the high level tennis background most of his peers have. Protzek had a good little run in Daytona with Jay Devilliers, and has had some sneaky good results with John Lucian Goins.

(26) Pablo Tellez – The mixed results continue to be tough to come by for the lefties in pro pickleball. Tellez’s men’s doubles results were fine in 2025.

(27) Max Freeman – It is getting harder to break into the sport’s more elite ranks and maybe 2026 is the year for the only remaining member of the Ignatowich trio. The tools remain high end for the lefty.

(28) Tyler Loong – A non-pickleball related injury to his off-hand did not help Loong at all in 2025, so it may be even more impressive that he remains somewhat relevant as a pro player.

(29) Zane Navratil – This is a legacy power rankings for Zane as it’s been a long time since Zane has had any good results. It’s quite possible he should be outside these top 30 power rankings.

(30) Will MacKinnon – He just got signed by the UPA and he’s a hot name among the lesser known players. Fun story. We actually saw Will playing rec games back in 2019 at the Grand Canyon State Games in Arizona. Will’s older brother and Dad were playing in the tournament, and there was a decent amount of buzz around the venue about the little brother ‘Willsy’. This was a time before any kids of that age were playing. Not surprisingly, Willsy looked very good for his age. 

So, MacKinnon is in that new generation of kids that are growing up playing pickleball. He looks very good and has some strong results to back it up. A good run with Luc Pham in a PPA main draw in Vegas, a mixed gold at the Raleigh Challenger event and bronze with Rafa Hewett at said Raleigh event. On the other hand, MacKinnon lost in the main draw of both men’s doubles events at the last APP Next Gen event right before World’s. We’re not ready to anoint him the next one yet but he’s undoubtedly a breakout guy to watch. 

Honorable Mention: Martin Emmrich, Wyatt Stone, James Delgado, Blaine Hovenier, Roscoe Bellamy, Michael Loyd, John Lucian Goins, Tama Shimabukuro

An interesting question when looking at the UPA signed players list is at what point in the rankings do you get into JAG (just another guy/girl) territory. There are good chunk of quality non-UPA signed players that are competing on the APP Tour and it feels like once you get into the 30’s for both genders, you are in the territory where there are a healthy number of unsigned players who would be competitive.

It’s far from a given that the Ryan Fu’s of the world are going over to the APP and dominating the likes of Tanner Tomassi, Richard Livornese, Max Manthou, Erik Lange, Thomas Yu, Len Yang, Randy Blanco, Casey Diamond, Aiden Schenk etc. 

Zane Navratil suggested on a podcast recently that the PPA Challenger series is an equal or better level than the APP. We are fully on board with PPA Challenger being good for the development of players, but we still cannot get on board with that sentiment yet. However, we are already starting to see a pipeline of talent develop that is coming directly from the PPA Challenger tour.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com! You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @nmlpickleball