Rafa Lenhard found pickleball after tennis burnout left him questioning his identity. Hannah Johns stepped away from professional pickleball after years of relentless travel and life on tour. Speaking separately on two recent podcasts, they told very different stories that point towards the same question: what happens when the thing you love becomes the thing you cannot escape?
- Rafa Lenhard rediscovered his competitive identity through pickleball after burnout drove him away from tennis.
- Hannah Johns stepped away from tour life after years of travel, preparation and emotional pressure.
- Together, their stories raise a bigger question about workload, identity and sustainability in professional pickleball.
Most sports stories are built around a simple idea.
People fall in love with a game. Or they fall out of love with it.
The stories told recently by Rafa Lenhard and Hannah Johns are more complicated than that.
Lenhard, speaking in a podcast interview about his move from tennis to professional pickleball, described a point in his tennis career when he deliberately underperformed because he wanted out. Years later, pickleball gave him back something he thought he had lost: the desire to compete.
Johns, reflecting on her decision to step away from tour life during an appearance on The Kitchen Pickleball Podcast, described waking up in hotel rooms and crying in bathroom mirrors before broadcasts, worn down by travel, preparation and constant visibility.
One found renewal through pickleball.
One stepped away because of it.
At first glance, those stories appear contradictory. They are not.
The Match Rafa Lenhard Wanted To Lose
The most revealing moment in Lenhard’s story happened long before he became a professional pickleball player.
At the time, he was a college tennis player. Years of junior competition had taken him to a tennis academy, then into Division I tennis. From the outside, he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Internally, he was done.
Lenhard said he had burnout as soon as he committed to college and wanted “a bit of a normal life”. The competitive drive that had once defined him had disappeared, but the expectations remained.
The most important line from the interview was not about his ranking, his win over Ben Johns, or his matches with Jack Sock.
It was this: he had tied his identity too closely to performance and results.
That is the real story.
For years, tennis had not simply been something Lenhard did. It had become who he was. When the joy went, the identity crisis remained.
If you’re following how the global game is shifting week by week, the World Pickleball Report breaks this down every day in our morning briefing.
Pickleball As A Light Switch
Lenhard did not immediately return to competitive sport.
There was a six-year gap. Corporate work. Normal life. Distance from the structure that had once consumed him.
Then came pickleball.
What stands out is how quickly the competitive instinct returned. Not because the sport was easier, or because the stakes were lower, but because the relationship felt healthier.
Once Lenhard realised pickleball could become a real career, he described the feeling as a light switch. Within weeks, he was entering tournaments. Within months, he was climbing. Eventually, he quit his corporate job and committed to the sport full-time.
Pickleball gave him something tennis no longer could.
Not success.
Meaning.
Hannah Johns Had The Opposite Journey
If Lenhard’s story is about rediscovering a sporting identity, Johns’ story is about reclaiming a personal one.
For years, she became one of the defining voices of professional pickleball. Championship Sunday often ended with Johns standing courtside, microphone in hand, interviewing winners moments after major finals.
To viewers, it looked straightforward.
Watch the match. Ask the questions. Move to the next tournament.
The reality was very different.
Johns said there was a period of roughly three years when she missed only one tournament, and that was because tonsillitis left her unable to get out of bed.
Every other week involved airports, hotels, long tournament days and constant preparation. She was not simply appearing on broadcasts. She was studying matches, taking notes, tracking storylines, preparing questions and monitoring controversies.
If a disputed moment changed a match, she needed to know. If a player said something across the net, she needed context. If a favourite lost, she needed the right question ready.
The grind players talk about was not exclusive to players.
When Passion Becomes Profession
This is where the stories unexpectedly meet.
For Lenhard, pickleball arrived before it became routine. The sport still felt exciting. The travel felt worthwhile. The opportunities felt new. Pressure carried meaning because it was attached to something he wanted again.
Johns experienced the other side of that equation.
What began as passion gradually became routine. Then responsibility. Then obligation.
The work never became impossible. It simply became constant.
That distinction matters.
People rarely burn out because they hate what they do. More often, they burn out because they never stop doing it.
The Question Pickleball Should Be Asking
For years, the sport’s biggest challenge was growth.
More courts. More tournaments. More sponsors. More viewers.
Those questions still matter, but Lenhard and Johns point towards another one.
Can pickleball grow without recreating the same pressures that pushed people away from older professional sports?
Players are now expected to travel nationally and increasingly internationally. They maintain social media channels, fulfil sponsor commitments, attend clinics, build personal brands and keep competing across compressed calendars.
Broadcast staff, reporters, commentators and production teams operate on their own demanding schedules.
None of this is unique.
That is precisely the point.
The more successful pickleball becomes, the more it starts to encounter the same pressures every mature professional sport eventually faces.
What The Sport Can Learn
Neither Lenhard nor Johns sounds bitter.
That may be the most encouraging part of both conversations.
Lenhard sounds energised by the opportunities ahead. Johns sounds relieved to have reclaimed a life beyond airports, hotel rooms and tournament schedules.
Both appear happier now than they were before.
But their stories should not be treated only as personal journeys. Together, they offer an early warning and an opportunity.
Pickleball is still young enough to learn from mistakes other sports took decades to recognise.
The sport has spent years measuring success through participation numbers, prize money, television coverage and tournament expansion. Those metrics matter.
The people inside the system matter too.
Because every successful sport eventually reaches the same crossroads.
It must decide whether growth alone is enough, or whether protecting the people who create that growth matters just as much.
Rafa Lenhard’s story reminds us what sport can give back.
Hannah Johns’ story reminds us what it can take away.
The future of professional pickleball may depend on understanding both.
Further Reading
- Latest pickleball news from around the world
- Tournament coverage and results
- Rankings and player profiles
- Regional pickleball coverage
For a clearer view of where the sport is heading each month, you can download the latest free issue of World Pickleball Magazine.
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…
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