What Paddles Do The Pros Use? Pro Paddle Tracker (Updated November 2026)

Ask what paddle a top pro plays, and the honest answer starts with a date. Contracts expire, certifications change, and some pros compete on prototypes that are not on sale yet.

This tracker lists what the top PPA Tour players are using in November 2026, checked against tour profiles, brand pages, and dated reporting. New to the tour? Read our explainer on what the PPA Tour is first.

Last checked: November 2026. One warning before the table: most pro contracts run to December 31, so January is moving season, and several rows below will change.

Wondering how the rating scales work at this level? Our pickleball ratings hub explains the numbers these players sit on top of.

The Tracker: November 2026

Every row below was verified against a tour profile, a brand page, or dated tour reporting. A star marks a paddle you cannot buy yet, because it has not been released.

Men

Women

★ Not yet on sale. † Parenteau plays the Glider as a free agent; Luzz is not her sponsor.

The Brand Scoreboard

JOOLA leads the top 20 with five players: Johns, Staksrud, Khlif, Fahey, and Bright. Franklin and PIKKL hold three each, and Luzz holds two, one of them unsigned.

Thickness splits by draw. Nine of the top ten men play 16mm, while the women’s side divides, with five of nine reported at 14mm or thinner, including Todd’s 13.25mm.

The empty chair is Selkirk’s. In about a year it lost Parenteau, Rohrabacher, Frazier, and Quang Duong, leaving no Selkirk player in the current top 20.

Selkirk’s own site still surfaces old recaps presenting departed players as current pros, which is exactly how stale claims keep circulating. Our Selkirk Amped review covers the paddles; the tour roster has moved on.

Player By Player

Ben Johns — JOOLA Perseus Pro V 16mm

Johns is the anchor of this tracker because almost nothing about his setup is in doubt. The PPA Tour’s own athlete profile names the Perseus Pro V 16mm as his paddle.

He is on a lifetime JOOLA contract, and the Perseus is not his first signature line. His earlier Hyperion CFS 16 generation is reviewed on this site.

Anna Leigh Waters — Franklin, With An Asterisk

Waters is the biggest paddle story of 2026. Her seven-year Paddletek contract expired on December 31, 2025, and Franklin announced her long-term deal on January 8, 2026.

Her retail signature model is the C45 Aurelius. It received UPA-A certification on February 6, 2026, and shipped on March 1 in 12.7, 14, and 16mm versions.

The complication is what she actually competes with. The tour’s own profile answers C45 Hybrid, while late-2026 reporting has her on an unreleased black Franklin prototype.

At the January Masters she played an already-approved C45, because the Aurelius was not certified yet. Certification, not preference, picked that week’s paddle.

We do not print one Aurelius thickness as her competition paddle, because sources split between 12.7 and 14mm. Anyone offering a single settled answer is guessing.

For the brand’s wider range, our Franklin Sports Pro review covers what Franklin sells beyond the C45 line.

Federico Staksrud — JOOLA Kosmos Pro V 16mm

Staksrud’s pairing is one of the cleanest in the table. The PPA Tour’s athlete profile states it directly: he plays the JOOLA Kosmos Pro V 16mm.

The Kosmos is his first JOOLA signature shape, a model built around his name rather than borrowed from another pro’s line. No conflicting reports surfaced in our checks.

Anna Bright — JOOLA Scorpeus Pro V 14mm

Bright is a Scorpeus Pro V signature pro on JOOLA’s own store, and she plays the 14mm version where most of the brand’s pros choose 16mm.

That thinner core makes her one of the few top-20 players on 14mm. Collin Johns is the Scorpeus line’s other signature name, in its 16mm version.

Dylan Frazier — Volair, After A Free-Agent Detour

Frazier held a Selkirk contract from 2022 until 2025, then spent a free-agent stretch before signing with Volair. The tour currently lists his paddle as the Volair SHIFT HYB.

Volair has since released the CMD HYB, billed as his new signature paddle, so a mid-season model change looks likely. Treat the SHIFT HYB as the tour’s listing, the CMD HYB as the retail signature.

During free agency he was spotted playing a JOOLA Magnus 3S in Tucson. That was a trial, not a signing, despite how the headlines read at the time.

Catherine Parenteau — The Unsigned Exception

Parenteau competes with the Luzz Glider 16mm, but Luzz is not her sponsor. She has no announced deal and is currently the only unsigned player in the top 10.

She is a former Selkirk star, so any page still presenting her as a Selkirk player is describing a previous era. Her current setup is a free agent’s pick.

That makes her row one of the most informative in this tracker. With no contract shaping the decision, the Glider is simply the paddle she chooses to play.

Tyson McGuffin — JOOLA Magnus Signature Line

McGuffin left Selkirk for JOOLA in 2024, and the Magnus is his signature line across generations, running from the Magnus CAS through the 3S to today.

Retailer listings describe the current Magnus Pro IV 16mm as co-designed with him, so we name the line and its current generation rather than a single fixed model.

Anything calling McGuffin a Selkirk player predates that 2024 move. Those pages are describing the Power Air Invikta era, not his current setup.

Andrei Daescu — CRBN TruFoam Barrage

Daescu was a long-time Proton player before he was seen testing CRBN paddles during 2026. The PPA Tour profile now lists his paddle as the CRBN TruFoam Barrage.

One detail stays hedged here. The tour writes the shape as CRBN2, while a secondary paddle database lists CRBN1, so we print TruFoam Barrage without the numeral.

Brand Confirmed, Exact Model Not Officially Stated

For the players below, the signing itself is confirmed by a brand announcement or tour reporting. No official source names the exact model, so we list the brand only, on purpose.

Paddletek Group’s own press release, dated January 27, 2026, added three names at once. Our Paddletek Bantam EX-L review covers the brand’s best-known paddle while their models settle.

• Riley Newman — Paddletek. Named in the January 2026 group release; previously a Takeya-sponsored player, so older content is stale.
• Zane Navratil — Paddletek. Named in the same release; he was previously ProXR’s flagship name.
• Connor Garnett — Paddletek. Named in the same release, and ranked fourth in men’s singles at the time of signing.
• Dekel Bar — 11SIX24. Left JOOLA and signed in the January 2026 wave.
• Chris Haworth — Luzz. Left Babolat; he has played both the Glider and the Pro 4 Tornazo recently, including the Tornazo in competition.
• Quang Duong — Sypik. Left Selkirk for the Vietnamese brand in October 2026.
• Hunter Johnson — Mehau. Recently reported playing the S5 Airpoom; treat this recent switch as current but soft.
• Yuta Funemizu — Diadem. Japan’s top-ranked pro, signed in January 2026.
• Blaine Hovenier — Six Zero. Signed in the January 2026 wave.
• Simone Jardim — JOOLA. Listed as a Perseus Pro V signature pro alongside Johns; her Jardim edition uses a smaller 4.125-inch grip.
• Lea Jansen — JOOLA. An April 2026 pro list placed her on the Agassi Pro V 14mm.

Two watch items stay out of the table. Tina Pisnik’s sources conflict, with a September 2026 list showing Eleven Zero and October news reporting a Warping Point move, so we assert no model.

Parris Todd has also been spotted playing the same unreleased Franklin prototype as Waters. Julie Johnson left Franklin in January too, and her next deal was not confirmed in the sources checked.

How Sponsorship Works

A Signature Model Is Not Always The Gamer

A signature model is a retail product built around a player. JOOLA sells the same Perseus Pro V in two signature editions: Johns, with a 4.25-inch grip, and Jardim, at 4.125 inches.

Sometimes the signature difference is only grip size and colorway. A signature name tells you who helped sell the paddle, not always what is in their hand on Sunday.

Paddletek’s TKO-CX is a design collaboration carrying Christian Alshon’s name, yet his current competition paddle is the newer Honeyfoam TKO-X. The signature and the gamer are different paddles.

Franklin’s Waters deal goes furthest: she competes on the C45 line and co-designs a signature range of paddles, bags, and accessories. Patriquin’s own edition of the C45 Dynasty sits between stock and bespoke.

The December 31 Contract Calendar

Most pro contracts expire on December 31, which makes January moving season. January 2026 alone brought moves by Waters, the Johnson siblings, Tardio, Oncins, Rohrabacher, Haworth, and Dekel Bar.

That calendar is why this tracker carries a date. A pro paddle list without one is quietly expiring from the moment it is published.

Certification Can Force A Pro’s Hand

Since September 2025, pro-level play has required full UPA-A certification. At one Cincinnati Slam week, the PIKKL Hurricane Pro and Vantage Pro still lacked it while their players were mid-switch.

Our banned and delisted paddles guide explains how approval lists change, and why a legal paddle can stop being one mid-season.

Selkirk’s 008 episode is the clearest case. Selkirk certified only that one model for the start of 2025, so its signed players had to play it at the Hyundai Masters.

Waters worked the same rule from the other side, playing an already-approved C45 at the Masters while her Aurelius awaited certification. Certification shapes pro gear as surely as contracts do.

You Can’t Always Buy What They Play

Three of the current top 20, Waters and both Johnson siblings, compete on unreleased paddles. The starred rows in the table above are paddles you cannot buy today.

The Johnsons’ most recent retail model is PIKKL’s Hurricane Pro 16mm, and Waters’ is the C45 Aurelius. A prototype is a glimpse of a brand’s pipeline, not a shopping list.

Stock Shape, Personal Setup

Pros tune stock paddles rather than playing them untouched. Johns’ last documented setup, from 2025 on the previous Perseus generation, added two strips of tungsten tape along the throat and lower edges.

The roughly 5.5 grams stayed off the top third of the face. Our lead tape guide and swingweight explainer show how placement changes what a paddle does.

He also wraps one overgrip higher than standard, leaving room for his two-handed backhand. Waters, in her Paddletek years, reportedly taped a 7.6-ounce paddle up to about 8.4 ounces.

Those details carry a caution: neither setup is a current published spec. They show the practice, and the practice is the point worth copying, not the exact numbers.

How We Keep This Tracker Honest

We build this tracker from tour athlete profiles, brand pages, and dated tour reporting. Where sources disagree, we print the disagreement instead of picking a winner quietly.

Rows change when moves are announced, not on a publishing schedule. If a pairing matters to you before a purchase, check the date at the top of this page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What paddle does Ben Johns use?

The JOOLA Perseus Pro V 16mm, according to the PPA Tour’s own athlete profile. JOOLA also lists him as the model’s signature pro, and he is on a lifetime contract.

What paddle does Anna Leigh Waters use?

Franklin, since January 2026. Her retail signature model is the C45 Aurelius, but late in 2026 she has been competing with an unreleased Franklin prototype.

What paddle does Anna Bright use?

The JOOLA Scorpeus Pro V in 14mm. That thinner core makes her one of the few top-20 players not playing a 16mm paddle.

Is Catherine Parenteau sponsored?

No. She plays the Luzz Glider 16mm as a free agent with no announced deal, which makes her the top 10’s only unsigned player right now.

Do pros play the same paddle I can buy?

Sometimes. The top 20 mixes stock models, signature editions of stock models, and three unreleased prototypes that are not on sale at all.

Why do pros change paddle brands so often?

Most contracts expire on December 31, so January brings a wave of moves. Co-design offers pull players too, and certification decisions can force further switches mid-season.

Copy The Setup Thinking, Not The Contract

A pro’s paddle is a business decision first and an equipment preference second. Contracts, certification lists, and prototype pipelines all shape what ends up in their hand.

Match shape and thickness to your own game instead. Use our Paddle Finder or the how to choose a pickleball paddle guide to start.