We all devote a lot of attention, and deservedly so, to debating who are the best players. Who is the best? Who is top 5? Which are the best partnerships? All fun topics. But let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about the most underrated player in pro pickleball. I have two names to answer the question, one on the women’s side and one on the men’s side.

1. The most underrated women’s player

 

It is Genie Erokhina. Erokhina is currently ranked #31 among women in mixed doubles and #33 in women’s doubles. I would rank her more around #15, especially in mixed doubles.  

 

Erokhina is a tall, lanky player, with good reach. She uses her size well to cover the court, especially at the net. But, what separates her from the pack is her forehand roll.  As I have written about before, the single most important shot for a woman pro to master is the forehand crosscourt roll, both as a drop from the baseline and as a crosscourt dink at the kitchen line. Women in a mixed doubles game will most typically play the right side, facing the opposing man across the net. Thus, in order to hit the ball to the opposing woman, the player needs to be able to effectively hit crosscourt forehands. Such a shot is most effective when played with heavy topspin.  The topspin helps keep the ball in even when hit at a sharp angle, and the more topspin, the better the angle, the less likely the opposing man can poach.

 

 

Erokhina’s bread and butter shot is the crosscourt forehand roll. She does it as well as any woman in the game. Her drops are money and her dinks are almost as solid. When your crosscourt roll is A+, it gives you a big leg up to being a great player. 

 

Erokhina is held back from being a top 5-10 player by just a couple of things. First, she does not get top 5-10 partners. Partners matter; a lot. We often see players with a lot of talent break through when they get a chance to play with a top player. Often it can be luck. A year ago, Augie Ge was a relative unknown. But, he caught a break and was able to play with Tyra Black at the Desert Ridge Open, just about one year ago. They made the medal round, people noticed Augie, he went on to help Dallas win MLP, and now he gets, deservedly, top partners. Ge was good before his run with Black, but it took that run for him to get noticed.

 

 

Second, Erokhina’s volleys can be improved. She has a tendency to stand up during a firefight, leading to balls going into the net. Staying down through the shot and through the point can cure this issue.

 

Erokhina is a solid player and she is my most underrated female pro.

 

 

My candidate for most underrated man is also my most underrated player, period. He is not just top 15 talent; he is top 5-7 talent, but the public has no idea. It is DJ Young. Young is ranked #31 in men’s doubles and #39 in men’s mixed. He could be top 10 in the right situation.

 

Young has it all. He has good size. He moves exceptionally well. When you watch DJ play, you do not notice him move very much. It is because he is so smooth in his movements. He has incredibly soft hands for a man of his size. His drops are money. His dinking is solid. His best skill is his defense and counters. Speeding up to Young is a losing proposition. He is especially skilled on the right side; he slides right and counters off the backhand. He can play left or right side, but is especially good on the right. His serve and drives are good, but I would say may be the weakest part of his game. That is not to say he lacks power, just more that he is A+ in other areas so if i give him a B+ for power it is still relatively speaking the weakest part of his game.

 

 

At the recent Tucson Open, Young and Ryan Fu played a very close match against Gabe Tardio and JW Johnson. Young was the best player on the court that day, and it was not particularly close. After Ben Johns, Christian Alshon, and Andrei Daescu, Young was the best player I saw at Tucson. And he was not far behind those top three.

 

Why is Young not better known, why doesn’t he win medals? Young was doing well about 18-24 months ago. He had some big wins. But, injuries intervened. He probably came back too soon and it affected him at MLP. He played poorly in 2024 MLP and got dropped. That hurt his reputation and he did not have the results other pros were looking for, so the quality of partners he has been getting is not what he deserves. Young should be getting partners like Dekel Bar, Dylan Frazier, or Riley Newman. If he did, he would get better results. One of the top 15 players is going to pair up with DJ and when they do, they will be glad they did.