Here is the short version: the most talked-about new doubles team of the week was gone before most fans had found a seat. At the Veolia Chicago Cup, the Carvana PPA Tour stop played October 5-11 at Life Time Northbrook in Illinois, the sport’s No. 1 player, Ben Johns, paired with tennis crossover star Jack Sock for the very first time, drew the No. 2 seed in men’s doubles, and lost their opening match to the No. 27 seeds. One match, one exit.
Anouar Braham and Bruno Faletto beat Johns and Sock 8-11, 11-5, 11-3 in the Round of 32 on the Wednesday evening of the event. Johns and Sock took the first game and then managed only eight points across the next two. It was the first and only time the pairing stepped on a pro court together.
| Men’s doubles, Round of 32 | Veolia Chicago Cup 2026 |
|---|---|
| Winners | Anouar Braham / Bruno Faletto (No. 27 seed) |
| Losers | Ben Johns / Jack Sock (No. 2 seed) |
| Score | 8-11, 11-5, 11-3 |
| Round | Round of 32 (their first match of the week) |
If you want the full rundown of who won what in Chicago, I covered every pro final in the Veolia Chicago Cup 2026 results recap. This post is about one storyline only: what the Johns-Sock experiment was, why it happened, and what it actually tells us.
Why Johns was lining up with Sock in the first place
This pairing was not some grand plan. It was a fill-in. Johns’s regular men’s doubles partner, Gabe Tardio, was playing overseas and was not in the Chicago field, which opened the spot next to the best player in the sport. Sock slid into it.
That context matters, because it tells you how much these two had worked together before the first serve: essentially not at all. Men’s doubles at the top level is about movement, stacking, and knowing where your partner is going to be a half-second before they get there. You do not build that in a warmup. Johns is still Johns, a player whose game I broke down in our Ben Johns pro spotlight, and if you are curious about the gear he actually competes with, we keep a current page on what paddle Ben Johns uses. None of that changes the fact that a brand-new tandem drew a tough early match and did not have the reps to grind out of it.
It was not just a bad night. It is becoming a pattern.
Here is the detail that makes this more than a one-off upset. This was the second time in three tournaments that Johns went out in his first men’s doubles match of the week. The other came at the Arizona Open in September, where he and Federico Staksrud also lost their opening match together. You can see how that event played out in our Veolia Arizona Open 2026 results, and Staksrud’s own game is worth a look in our Federico Staksrud pro spotlight.
Two different partners, two first-match exits, same underlying issue: Johns keeps showing up to big events without his settled partner and without time to build chemistry with the replacement. That is not a knock on his ability. It is a scheduling and continuity problem. The best doubles teams on tour are not just two good players stapled together. They are the same two players, over and over, until the patterns are automatic.
And to be fair to Braham and Faletto, this was no fluke. The No. 27 seeds did not just beat the top of the bracket and fade. They rode that win all the way to the semifinals before losing to Nico Acevedo and Jaume Martinez Vich. They played well enough to be there.
The tennis-crossover moment, and what it really means
The reason this match got attention at all is Jack Sock. He is one of the highest-profile athletes to cross from professional tennis into professional pickleball. On the tennis side he was a former world No. 8 in singles, a multiple-time Grand Slam doubles champion, and a 2016 Olympic gold medalist. He announced his retirement from tennis around the 2023 US Open and moved into the pro pickleball ranks, debuting on the PPA Tour that same year, when he won a mixed doubles title alongside the sport’s top woman, Anna Leigh Waters. If you want to see what he plays with now, we track what paddle Jack Sock uses.
So the honest question is: why does a player with that resume lose a first-round pickleball match 11-5, 11-3? Because tennis and pickleball reward different things. Sock’s hands, serve-return instincts, and shot power translate. What does not translate instantly is the kitchen game, the dinking patience, the reset under pressure, and the doubles spacing that pickleball lifers have drilled for years. Star power from another sport gets you the No. 2 seed on paper. It does not get you chemistry with a brand-new partner against a team that has grooved its patterns together.
That is the real lesson of the tennis-crossover moment. The crossover is good for the sport. It brings eyeballs, it brings names, and it brings players who can genuinely compete. But a famous name plus the No. 1 player does not automatically equal a finished doubles team. Pickleball at the top is a chemistry sport, and chemistry is the one thing you cannot buy or borrow at check-in.
What I would actually take from this
For the rec players I coach and talk to around New England, there is a genuinely useful takeaway buried in a pro upset. If the best player in the world can lose badly with a brand-new partner, then the single biggest edge you can build in your own doubles is not a new paddle or a bigger serve. It is reps with one partner. Learn each other’s tendencies. Agree on who takes the middle. Practice your stacking so it is boring. That is the stuff that beat a star pairing in Chicago, and it is free.
Johns will be fine. Once Tardio is back and the partnership is settled again, these first-match exits almost certainly stop. But for one night in Illinois, the scoreboard made a point that every doubles player should write down: the team usually beats the names.
FAQ
Did Ben Johns and Jack Sock lose in their first match at the Veolia Chicago Cup?
Yes. The No. 2 seeds lost their opening men’s doubles match in the Round of 32 to No. 27 seeds Anouar Braham and Bruno Faletto by a score of 8-11, 11-5, 11-3. It was the first and only time the pair played together.
Why were Ben Johns and Jack Sock playing together?
Johns’s regular men’s doubles partner, Gabe Tardio, was playing overseas and was not in the Chicago field. That opened the spot next to Johns, and Sock stepped in. The two had not partnered before.
Who is Jack Sock and why is he playing pickleball?
Sock is a retired professional tennis player, a former world No. 8 in singles, a multiple-time Grand Slam doubles champion, and a 2016 Olympic gold medalist. He left tennis around the 2023 US Open and moved into pro pickleball, making him one of the sport’s most prominent tennis crossovers.
Is this a recurring issue for Ben Johns?
Recently, yes. It was the second time in three tournaments that Johns lost his first men’s doubles match of the week. He also lost his opening match at the Arizona Open in September while partnering Federico Staksrud, which points to a chemistry and partner-continuity problem rather than a decline in his play.
How far did the team that beat them go?
Braham and Faletto were no one-win wonder. After upsetting Johns and Sock they advanced to the semifinals before losing to Nico Acevedo and Jaume Martinez Vich.