Ben Johns and Collin Johns may have taken men’s doubles gold at the Masters in what will be their final tournament together in 2025, but Sunday’s result actually means more—rankings wise—for Federico Staksrud.

The Argentine overtook C. Johns for the top spot in the PPA men’s doubles rankings after earning silver with Hayden Patriquin.

Now, I get how this sounds. How can Johns lose the top ranking after winning a tournament?

Well, here’s how.

The PPA rankings (different from The Race, which calculates points earned from January to December of each year) operate on a rolling 52-week system. A player’s point total is calculated from their best 16 tournament results within the past 52 weeks.

This means that players have rankings points to ‘protect’ at each tournament from year to year.

Because the Johns bros won the Masters in 2024, they were protecting 2000 rankings points last week in Palm Springs. Even though they won again in 2025, they didn't earn any additional points; rather, they kept the 2000 they already had from that tournament.

The difference, then, comes from Staksrud’s performance at the Masters in 2024 compared to 2025. Last year, he netted 1000 points after he and Pablo Tellez split the bronze medal with Jay Devilliers and Pat Smith.

His silver medal this year earns him 1600 points, granting him a 600-point jump.

Staksrud was at 14500 points (compared to Johns’ 14700) entering last week, so the 600 additional points he earned propelled him to 15100 points and the top spot in the rankings.

That’s why we have a new No. 1 in men’s doubles.

Staksrud now holds the top PPA ranking in both men’s singles and men’s doubles. He also currently holds the No. 5 spot in mixed doubles, but Ben Johns has a comfortable lead there thanks to his unmatched success with Anna Leigh Waters.

This shift in the rankings comes on the heels of Staksrud making the final of each event he played at the Masters, his first time accomplishing the feat.

Staksrud is not playing at the Australia Pickleball Open later this month, so he’ll look to build on his terrific start to the year at the Proton Tucson Open, set to run Feb. 5-9.