Fans of the Johns Brothers—Collin and Ben—will have one final chance to see arguably the best pickleball duo of all time in action at The Zimmet Masters.
After that, the gloves are off as the two will officially go their own separate ways after a fruitful partnership that has yielded 33 titles and 43 medals in just four years. The two split up in December and had hinted at exploring new partnerships in the post-Johns era. Ever since, fans of the Johns Brothers—and even pickleball fans in general—have been keenly awaiting news on Ben’s and Collin’s new partners.
Ben Makes the First Move, Chooses Gabe Tardio
The wait is over now—at least on Ben’s end as he has announced Bolivia’s Gabe Tardio as his new partner. And, evidently, the 19-year-old Bolivian was at the very top of Ben’s wish list as partner. In fact, according to the most decorated pickleball player of all time, Tardio was more or less his first call.
“Gabe was certainly kind of my first call. I contacted him first and was like, ‘Are you available? Do you want to play?’ He was definitely interested and wanted to,” said Johns on the most recent episode of The Hannah Johns Podcast. “I think you will see us play a good amount of the year. Gabe was the first call.”
Given Tardio’s banner 2024, it’s easy to see why Ben wanted him as partner. Tardio won seven medals in all last season—4 gold and 3 silver in men’s doubles and 1 gold and 1 silver in mixed doubles—as he proved himself as one of pickleball’s brightest young stars. And by Ben’s admission, the 19-year-old pickler caused him plenty of problems in the times they met, and this cemented his decision to make the call to the dynamic Bolivian.
“How I do most of my analysis as far as playing with people goes is really just how difficult is it for me to play against them? That’s usually how I just kind of have my best benchmark or measure of players,” Ben pointed out. “I think in the past year, Gabe has definitely been the most difficult player for me to play. I think he just applies a lot of pressure. He makes people make errors. He attacks really well in so many different positions. You can definitely feel his presence. He’s a shot-maker and he’s competitive. He’s got everything you’d want in a partner.”
Variety Is the Spice of Life
While Ben and Tardio will be partners for the foreseeable future, don’t be surprised if the latter pairs up with other picklers, notably Hayden Patriquin and Max Freeman. Ben isn’t even ruling out a return partnership with Collin down the line. As far as he’s concerned, he’s just looking to switch things up this 2025 every now and then.
I think variety is really good and key for kind of just keeping things fresh and keeping yourself interested. I think it was probably just healthier for both of us to get a little bit of a change and maybe get some more enthusiasm for the game and all that going into next year,” Ben said. “That’s not to say this is forever. I mean, obviously we still really enjoy playing together and we’d like to come back together at some point. I think it’s more just like, ‘Let’s take a break, refresh mentally, and just kind of maybe even develop our games a little bit outside of playing with each other.’”
Ben seems to have some sort of plan for 2025, and the pickleball community will surely be watching closely.
