The Journey to Pickleball

In 2019, Jay took the pickleball director position at Chicken N Pickle in Wichita, KS. During that period, Jay loved the friendliness and how accessible Pickleball was. In April 2019, Jay registered for his first professional tournament at the Minto US Open, where he reached the quarterfinal in singles. From there, he started competing in smaller local tournaments and started to scout for partners. In 2020, Jay made a tough decision to go full time competing, at that time, he had no sponsors and two little babies at home. He competed on the both professional tours (APP & PPA) which helped him gained a lot of experience and develop his game. This might be the best decision Jay has made since he has been competing on the tour since then. Jay has now won more than 75 medals on both tour combined including 20 gold. His passion for pickleball keeps growing as well as his goals. He now owns a professional team in the Canadian National Pickleball League and work actively on promoting the sports internationally. The ultimate goal for Jay is to share the love of pickleball to all the world, he is a truly believer that it can help a lot of people to find joy in exercising, socializing, progressing while competing at any ages.

Pickleball Career

APP Tour (2020-2022)

Jay’s career-high on the APP Tour in singles/mixed doubles/men’s doubles ranking is world No. 1 attained in 2021. He won a total of 18 APP titles, 8 silver medals and 5 bronze medals. Jay ended the year as No. 1 in the world on the APP Tour in 2021.

PPA Tour (2020-current)

Jay’s career-high on the PPA Tour in singles/mixed doubles ranking is world No. 2 (2022), and in men’s doubles No. 5 attained in 2021. He won 2 PPA titles and reached 17 other finals. He also have 26 bronze medals on the PPA tour since 2020. In 2023 and 2024, Jay qualified to the Master Final where the 8 best players of the year and the 8 best doubles /mixed doubles teams compete in. Jay qualified in men’s singles and men’s doubles.

Tennis Career

Jay played a lot of sports growing up including soccer, tennis, table tennis, squash, badminton, rugby, skiing, team handball as well as cross country. At age 14, with the support of his family, he decided to dedicate his time to focus solely on tennis to become the best version of himself. He made a life changing decision by going to train in a tennis academy in Barcelona, Spain. Jay, which did not speak Spanish at the time, spent three years there and complete his high school degree in Spanish. The academy was eye opening for Jay, it helped him to learn a lot about the different culture, and the reality of being a professional athlete. After years of intense practices, Jay got severely injured and was unsure to ever be able to compete again. At that point his future was uncertain, but after several months of hard work and recovery he rebounded by deciding to continue to pursue his dream to play tennis professionally. The best way for him to study while competing was in the United States, which led him to go to play college D1. Jay barely knew any English when he arrived at Wichita States University, but accepted the challenge to play for the “Schockers” from 2013-2018 where he graduated with a triple major while reaching a career high of ITA single ranking 86 and ITA doubles ranking 26. Jay then received an amazing opportunity to be a hitting partner at the tennis US Open in 2017 & 2018. During those 3 weeks, Jay was hitting among the best players in the world, all that experience helped him to his next challenge, Pickleball. A year later after graduating from college, 2019, Jay found pickleball and started competing as a hobby, but quickly his competitive spirit forced him to compete full time to challenge himself among the best pickleball players.

Education

Jay Devilliers graduated from Wichita State University where he earned his Bachelor of Administration - International Business & Management degree

Jay is still studying at Wichita State University, where he is currently finishing is Master of Business Administration.

Hobbies

Jay has a lot of hobbies such as traveling around the world, discovering new cultures, learning new languages, playing sports, reading/watching movies and spending time with his family.