Ben Johns Unleashes His Secret Left-Handed Weapon at Worlds

Ben Johns, widely considered the greatest male pickleball player of all time, has reached deep into his past at this week's Opendoor Pickleball World Championships.

He is using a left-handed forehand in singles matches.

The shot is not new to Johns, but it has been absent from his game for years.

Johns originally played the left-handed forehand in men's singles during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Over time, his playing style evolved, and the shot gradually disappeared.

In the early days of singles pickleball, rallies were built almost entirely around powerful drives.

Johns later adopted a more tactical approach, relying on drop shots and moving to the net to pressure opponents.

“Back in the day when people played singles, it was pretty much all drives,” Johns explained in a post-match interview.

“Then, I started dropping and coming in — the cat and mouse style as we know it today — and that required me to just hit backhand slices, basically backhand drops.”

“So I stopped using my left hand and I stopped really hitting a bunch of passing shots, as I would just drop and come in… that’s kind of the style I just continued to play for singles after that.”

The game has changed considerably over the past decade.

Equipment developments have altered the demands of singles play.

New balls, such as the LT Pro 48 used on the PPA Tour, behave differently than older models.

Paddles have also become more powerful, generating more spin.

Johns believes the traditional drop-and-approach strategy is no longer as effective as it once was.

“You can’t really drop and come in super well with this ball,” he noted.

“You can hit accurate drops, but the ball bounces pretty high and people have a lot of spin on their paddles, so they can just take a drop and do a lot with it, so cat and mouse doesn’t really work very well.”

Johns added that drops remain useful to stay in rallies, but they are no longer a reliable way to build his game.

Since he does not generate much power with his backhand, the left-handed forehand offers an alternative.

The lefty forehand allows him to attack shots he would otherwise have to slice or block.

Johns debuted the revived shot in his opening singles match against Brandon French.

He won that match 11-7, 1-11, 11-5.

The next day, he faced ninth seed Noe Khlif in the Round of 32.

Johns lost that match 8-11, 8-11, ending his singles run at the tournament.

Despite the early exit, the left-handed forehand drew significant attention from fans and analysts.

According to The Dink Pickleball, the shot was described as a series of “devastating left-handed forehands” against French.

Johns has a tennis background, and he has said he originally preferred having two forehands when he played that sport.

He brought that approach into pickleball early in his career.

When the cat-and-mouse style took over, he stopped using it.

Now, with the changing equipment and strategies, he is bringing it back.

Johns is uncertain how frequently he will compete in singles going forward.

But he has made one thing clear: the left-handed forehand is here to stay whenever he takes the court.

“When I do play singles, you can expect to see it,” Johns said.

The shot is not the only thing people are talking about at this year’s PPA Worlds.

Johns also made headlines for a fashion mishap during mixed doubles with partner Anna Leigh Waters.

The pair usually coordinate their outfits.

This time, they did not.

Waters wore a teal skirt and black shirt from Nike.

Johns wore bright blue shorts and a white shirt.

The mismatch was noticed by broadcasters Sarah Ansboury and Michelle McMahon on Pickleballtv.

They asked about it during a post-match interview.

“Ben, I don’t think you did your job today with matching Anna Leigh’s outfit, so what’s going on here?” Ansboury asked.

Johns, Waters, and McMahon laughed at the question.

“It’s entirely my fault,” Johns said.

“She told me what to wear in the morning and I think I packed in the dark. I packed the blue instead of the teal, and somehow, I didn’t have a black shirt. It was a catastrophe this morning, I take full responsibility. Blame being color blind and dressing in the dark.”

Waters interrupted to correct him.

“I’m sorry you can’t blame your partial color blindness. He’s not actually color blind,” she clarified.

Johns has said in the past that Waters handles the fashion decisions for their partnership.

She establishes the color combinations, and Johns matches.

So far this season, he has worn several well-coordinated looks.

This particular look did not match hers at all.

However, during the Round of 32, Johns appeared for singles in one of his best outfits of the tournament.