Wichita is home to four professional pickleball players — all of whom are ranked in the top 10 nationally and are a big deal in the sport. That’s unusual for a town of Wichita’s size, and their residency adds to the city’s pickleball cache.
Meet Wichita’s four resident pros, all of whom played tennis in college:
Matt Wright finished 2021 as the country’s top-ranked mixed doubles pickleball player and as the second-ranked men’s doubles player. He plans in tournaments on weekends only as he has a full-time job as an in-house lawyer at Koch Industries. Courtesy photo
Wright works full-time as an in-house attorney at Koch Industries, but he’s also Wichita’s highest-ranked pro and one of the top pickleball players in the world. He’s currently ranked as the nation’s No. 2 player, though he only plays in tournaments on the weekends.
Born and raised in Wichita, Wright played college tennis at the University of Michigan then attended law school at the University of Kansas. He started his law career in Kansas City then moved back to Wichita in 2006.
Wright, who has been playing pickleball professionally since 2016, said that he and local pickleball legends Jack Oxler, Chris Heck and Lucy Kovalova had back then created a mini-tennis game using wooden paddles and a deflated tennis ball, which they would play for fun and exercise. A friend who saw them playing told them they ought to try out a similar game called pickleball.
Wright ended 2021 as the country’s top-ranked mixed doubles player, with partner Kovalova, and the second-ranked men’s doubles player on the Professional Pickleball Association tour. He’s also a multi-time national and US Open champion.
Top-ranked pro pickleball player Lucy Kovalova grew up in Slovakia and came to the United States to play tennis at Wichita State University. Courtesy photo
Kovalova was born and raised in Slovakia and started playing tennis at age 7. She traveled and played in tournaments all over Europe, then in 2011 she moved to Wichita to play tennis at Wichita State University.
She first tried the game in the fall of 2015 and played in her first tournament the following year, winning five medals. She finished 2021 ranked No. 1 in mixed doubles with partner Wright and No. 2 in women’s doubles. She has earned several gold medals from the Professional Pickleball Association.
Though she could make pickleball her full-time career, she loves her job teaching tennis and pickleball at the Wichita Country Club too much.
“I like my Wichita people and my clients way too much to give them up and just play pickleball tournaments,” she said.
Patrick Smith is one of four top-ranked pickleball professionals who call Wichita home. Courtesy photo
Smith moved to the United States from his native Munich, Germany, to play college tennis at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and ended up in Wichita. He now works full time as the CEO of a company called Hair by Robotics.
But in his free time, Smith jets off to pickleball tournaments and says he plays in one almost every other weekend.
Smith didn’t start playing pickleball until shortly after Chicken N Pickle opened in 2019. His friend Jay Devilliers, who also is now a pickleball pro, was the new pickleball director there and begged him to join the newly formed leagues.
It turned out Smith was pretty good at the game, then he and Devilliers started playing in tournaments together. Smith is now one of the top 10 mixed doubles and men’s doubles players in the nation.
“I like the competitive part of it,” Smith said. “It’s one thing I missed after all those years of tennis, and now I’ve caught that bug again.”
Jay Devilliers is one of the nation’s Top 10 pro pickleball players. A native of France, he moved to Wichita in 2013 to play tennis at Wichita State University. Courtesy photo
Devilliers, a native of Paris, France, moved to Wichita in 2013 to play tennis for Wichita State University, and after college, he hoped to find a job as a tennis pro in town. He wasn’t able to, but he was offered a job directing pickleball at Chicken N Pickle in 2018, and that’s when he picked up the sport.
Now, Devilliers is so skilled, pickleball is his profession. He plays in tournaments across the country every two weeks and is able to make a living off prize money and sponsorships. He remains in Wichita, he said, because “it’s so quiet, and the people are so friendly. It’s so nice, so easy to live like that.”
Often referred to as the “Flying Frenchman,” Devilliers is married and has two small boys.
Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.
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