Jack Sock’s Pickleball Doubles Performance In Charlotte Was A Mix Of Highs And Lows

Jack Sock definitely impressed in his professional pickleball singles debut, showing excellent court coverage and shot making acumen. But pickleball’s focus is doubles, and while the singles game may be relatively straightforward for tennis players to conquer, the doubles game is an entirely different animal. How would Sock fare in Doubles?

Let’s recap his performance in both Men’s and Mixed, which featured two drastically different outcomes. Settle in; this is a long-form review of Sock’s doubles matches, detailing the ups and downs of his game throughout the weekend.

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In Mixed Pro Doubles on Friday, Sock teamed with pro pickleball “cheat code” Anna Leigh Waters. After practicing with the #1 Female pro, Sock and Waters arrived at what sounded like a winning strategy. Commented Sock, “We’ve played the last couple of days. I’m playing mostly on the left, try to rip forehand thirds. Waters is so good at flying across with her Mach-10 backhand.” Their primary strategy seemed to be a Shake and Bake heavy game of aggression, (Shake and Bake is where one partner hits a third shot drive straight at the opponent facing them from the baseline, then the net partner darts over to attempt to slam down the putback), not a bad strategy given how great Waters is in firefights at the net.

In their Round of 32 opener, Sock faced a familiar face in Jake Kusmider (his vanquisher in Pro Singles a day earlier), teamed with the underrated Jill Braverman as the #27 seeds. Thanks to Kusmider’s left-handedness, he plays the right-hand side in mixed doubles, a rarity in a genre of pickleball that frequently sees right-handed males freely roam and cover huge percentages of the court. This also puts Jake face to face across the net from Jack, making for some male-versus-male net battles.

It did not take long for Sock to realize the winning strategy; fire the ball at Braverman and out-dink her using his inside-out forehand technique. If Braverman got the ball back on third shot drives more often than not ALW was there to finish it off, and if Jill got the slow-down dink there, Sock was in his comfort zone putting great inside-out angles and depth on dink shots. It was 8-1 in the first game in the first before Kusmider & Braverman knew what hit them. In game two, Braverman and Kusmider kept it closer, but they couldn’t prevent the inevitable. Sock & Waters win their opener 11-3,11-6.

In the Round of 16, Sock/Waters faced the #22 seeds Rafa Hewett & Milan Rane, upset winners in the opening round over the 11th seeds Dekel Bar & Callie Smith. Hewett is a lefty, and thus Hewett & Rane lined up just like Kusmider and Braverman. And, just as in the first game, the strategy seemed simple; attack Rane, win hands battles against Hewett, and wait for Waters to come crashing across to clean up floaters in the middle. Sock got a nice ATP winner to open the scoring and they were off. The teams traded points until 3-3 when the pressure on Rane became too much for the team to bear. Rafa tried ranging further into Rane’s side of the court, the pair switched sides, but the onslaught of power continued. Sock and Waters took game one going away 11-3.

In game two, it was more of the same. While Hewett had some moments of glory, like a behind the back reset mid-rally that had the crowd grasping and an angled overhead winner that seemed to defy physics, but it was one-way traffic most of the way. Sock & Waters raced to a 7-1 lead and held on for 11-2 in the second and the match winner.

On to the Quarter Finals. With all due respect to their opponents thus far, their opponents in the quarters would really press the team. There they met the #3 seeds Ana Bright & James Ignatowich, Mixed gold medalists in Utah a month prior, and one of the best current mixed pairs going. Sock and Waters battered their female opponents en route to their first two match wins, but Bright would be a different animal to deal with. Ignatowich also plays with a much higher degree of aggression than their first two male opponents.

The early parts of the match were very close; Ignatowich’s dink game was impeccable, and the only thing between the teams were a few errant shots here and there. Bright was forcing Sock to use his actual backhand to dink, and the two pairings played patient, cagey pickleball. Sock & Waters got a couple of points from their shake and bake strategy, surprising James with a couple of inadvertent body shots. The pressure got to Bright, who gave up a couple of points during re-positioning (or in the vernacular of the sport, “unwinding the stack.”). The rest of the game went their way, and Sock & Waters took game one 11-5.

In game 2, Bright and Ignatowich held on for a time, but Waters & Sock went on a 9-1 run to finish off the game. The two started to really show some good court movement and anticipation of each other’s poaching, and both players would frequently end up on the opposite side of the court from where they started. Bright was unable to handle the relentless power shots at her person, and if it wasn’t Sock’s quick, powerful wrist flicks it was Waters’ powerful and accurate ground strokes. Final score: 11-5, 11-2.

The pair moved into the semis and the facility was abuzz. Could Sock really win a gold medal his first time out? Standing in the way of a Sunday gold medal match was #10 Julian Arnold & Vivienne David, who had taken out the #2 seeds veterans Matt Wright & Lucy Kovalova and were making a statement of their own this weekend.

Team “WaterSock” jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in game one primarily by picking on Arnold, hitting most of their service returns to the left side and mostly attacking him on third shot speed-ups. But some sloppy play and missed shots led to an evening of the score quickly at 5-5. As much as Waters likes to poach, so does David, and the #10 seeds scored points with the shake and bake as well. Arnold’s speed-ups from seemingly non-attackable balls combined with David’s excellent hands combined to give their team the advantage. Soon they were up 10-5 and held on against a furious rally by Sock & Waters, who ran off four straight points but could get it no closer. At game point against, Sock couldn’t handle a drive shot and Arnold & David took game one 11-9.

In game 2, Sock and Waters stepped up the aggression, really driving shots early and often, and got a number of easy early points on mis-handled drives. Within a few minutes it was 6-1 and David took a time-out to regroup. A few loose shots later, and it was Sock taking the time-out, leaking points, and dwindling their lead to 7-4. At 8-5, Arnold took a full-force volley right to the throat, sporting a red welt the rest of the way there, and after a trading of serves Team WaterSock took game two 11-6 to force the tiebreaker.

In Game 3, Waters & Sock stuck with their aggressive strategy and showed the challenge of playing them in mixed: both Waters and Sock have incredibly powerful put away strokes and were able to drive mistakes at the feet of their opponents with ease. The third game featured multiple disputed calls, two call appeals, one overturned call, lots of “chirping” on the court, and some really high-level dink rallies that usually led to a slight opening for a put-away. After getting an over-turned call in their favor, Arnold & David went on a run, getting up 5-2 and threatening to put the match out of reach. They stopped pushing the agenda, let the game come to them. But a couple of loose backhand volleys by Arnold tied the game at five. Arnold’s backhand volley betrayed him multiple times in the tiebreaker, putting drives and speed-ups in the net, and suddenly Waters & Sock were up 10-5 with match-point on their paddle. Arnold & David saved match point against and got a couple of points to tighten things, but Arnold flew a backhand volley attempt, then dumped a forehand drive attempt into the net for match point against. Sock & Waters advance (9),6,7 to secure a spot in the Sunday gold medal match.

Sunday’s Mixed Pro final was competed earlier in the day, but the broadcast and results were held so that the sport could be featured on ESPN2 later Sunday evening. Unfortunately, part of the match was pre-empted by Cornhole, so those of us who set DVRs were flummoxed. Luckily, the PPA has the entire final on its YouTube channel. The final, normally competed best 3 of 5 games to 11, was shortened to fit into an hour-long ESPN timeslot and was in the conventional best 2 of 3 to 11.

Sock & Waters faced off against the #4 team of Riley Newman and Allyce Jones. This was a special opportunity for Jones in particular; she’s never won gold on tour, and she’s never medaled in Mixed, so an opportunity for two “firsts” for Jones. Meanwhile, Newman is one of the more accomplished doubles players in the sport’s young history, with 6 Mixed gold medals and another 12 Men’s doubles gold medals on his curriculum vitae. The pickleball newbie had his work cut out for him.

Waters & Sock got a couple quick points early in game one the same way they did all game in the semis; attack the female partner and look for re-kill opportunities. However, two early points would turn out to be all that they would get. Newman & Jones got the serve back, and started forcing the action towards Sock. All their 3rd shot drops went his way, and the team engaged him in hand battles to try to find a weakness. Newman got a floated dink for an easy put-away, Jones attacked Sock’s right shoulder and got a yanked wide response. Sock went for too much and flew a drive attempt on a dink shot, then Newman attacked with a high backhand that Sock netted. Sock missed a simple dink to make it 2-7, then pushed a backhand volley into the net for 2-8. After ALW flew a service return, Sock hit a slam attempt just long for 2-10. They got one point back but the game was effectively over. Riley & Allyce take game one 11-3 in a surprising blow-out.

The story of game one was clearly the inaccuracy of Sock; of the 11 points conceded, nearly all were on Sock errors or miscues. Sock had to turn it around and tighten up. With coach Leigh Waters advising on the side-lines, the pair tweaked their strategy to start game two. And the team started much more positively, playing more away from the range-y Riley and being a little more opportunistic. Sock’s size (6’3”) enables him to essentially stand in an Erne position, and he freely attacked with erne moves as dink shots floated his way. Soon Waters & Sock were up 6-2 and Newman & Jones called time-out to regroup. Soon they were back to their dominant ways, executing shake and bakes, Sock working inside-out forehands, and winning net battles even against Newman and his quick hands, and game two was over 11-2 in a hurry.

The pairs went to the tiebreaker. One game to eleven for the title on ESPN2. Newman started taking over the court on his side, at one point knocking his partner Jones completely into the stands going after a ball. But Jones couldn’t completely hide on the court, and Sock & Waters continued to target her and get free points on netted backups or popped up volleys. When the ball happened to come to Waters, she destroyed backhand swinging volleys for points. Sock got a really impressive poach, flying across the court to take a dink attempt for a point to make it 6-1 and force a time-out. The rest of the game was more of the same; ball after ball pounded Jones’ way, leaking point after point as her stellar defense could only go so far under so much pressure. Two quick errors from Jones under pressure led to match point at 10-3 up, and a speed-up from Waters at Jones led to a netted volley and the match. Sock & Waters win (3),2,3.

The play from Sock was night and day in-between game one and the subsequent games. The adjustment Sock made, as simple as it seems, was to just stop making errors after game one. In the post-game match, when asked about his adjustments, Sock noted, “I was trying to match Riley’s length and athleticism on the court, because I feel like I’m one and the same. I was pretty shocking in the first game, but we were able to turn it around, get the energy going; I do well off of that.”

Mixed Pro Conclusions: Sock has just too much firepower for most of the female opponents he’ll face, and when he was focused and not making simple errors he was able to overpower the female side and be opportunistic. It certainly didn’t hurt that he was playing all weekend with Waters, who is a significant step ahead of any other female double player on tour in terms of her power and abilities, especially on the flying backhand volley coming from right to left.

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In Men’s Doubles on Saturday, Sock teamed with Tyson McGuffin, who has medaled no less than twenty times in Men’s Doubles in PPA tour history. McGuffin won the bronze medal in the PPA’s first ever pro event, all the way back in February of 2020, and has been a fixture on tour ever since. Sock couldn’t have picked a better partner to play with for his debut. Sock’s performance in Mixed on Friday had people murmuring about how far he could go in Men’s, and speculating on the future of the sport.

Ahead of the tournament, I asked Sock what his positional strategy was going to be with Tyson. Sock responded, “Based on our practices, I’m more on the left, more of the forehand drive. Tyson does shake and bakes. he’s really experienced, so have no problem switching around.” Indeed, at the game’s onset this is how the team lined up, with Sock on the dominant left-hand side. The team even stacked to take advantage of Sock’s forehand-heavy game, though McGuffin freely took backhands in the middle when presented the opportunity.

The pair was seeded 5th and faced off against the #28 seeds, relative unknowns in pro pickleball Eric Roddy & Jim Dobran. Roddy and Dobran are no slouches; both are skilled pro-level players who hail from the Charlotte area and boast DUPRs in the high 5s or low 6s. From the first point, the game-plan from the underdogs was clear; slow the game down, test Sock’s prowess at the net, and force him to go inside-out and open up driving lanes through the middle. Both McGuffin and Sock made errors early to leak away points and found themselves down 3-0 quickly. Sock showed some impressive moves to retrieve a net ball from well in the back court, and he came out on the right side of a couple of hand-battles at the net to get the serve back down 0-3. They quickly got those points back, but Sock gave away the serve with a backhand dink error, one of the few times he didn’t attempt to run around that shot from the left-hand side. Roddy and Dobran continued to pound third shot drives at Sock, who answered the call and kept his team in the match.

However, the underdogs got several “free” points from basic errors from McGuffin, and then exploited more than once the seam down the middle between the two players. Sock, playing the left-side, has his forehand in the middle and needs to cover that passing shot; a rookie mistake. Sock also hesitated on attackable balls, perhaps not quite yet recognizing a floater off the paddle, and in the tighter men’s doubles draw, these kinds of slight openings cannot be left on the table. Make no mistake though, Roddy & Dobran earned this match, winning hand battles constantly (even against Tyson), making excellent third shot drops, and generally playing smart pickleball. Towards the end of game one, they were actually targeting McGuffin more than Sock, a strategy that continued into game two, and Tyson’s aggressive play led to multiple over-attack attempts that resulted in free points and he sailed attacks long and wide. After a really loose game all things considered, Tyson dumped a service return into the net to give up game point and the #5 seeds lose, 11-5.

Game two’s vibe was set in the game’s first point, when a long rally featuring fantastic defense, two between-the-legs tweener resets, two lob returns, and eventually a Sock unforced error gave the Charlotte pair their first point. A couple of errors, and a couple of floated dink attempts had Roddy & Dobran up 5-0 in a flash. A timeout by Sock & McGuffin couldn’t do much to stem the tide of the match. They got a couple more points, but the rest of the match featured sailed drives, lost hand battles, and basic errors. Fittingly, Dobran shot yet another drive through the middle on match point to seal the win 11-5, 11-2 and shock the bystanders.

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Men’s Pro Doubles Conclusions: McGuffin was not on his game and made a ton of errors. Sock is not used to covering the middle, and was hesitant on some balls, expecting his partner to be more like Waters when it came to poaching and aggression on floating balls in the middle. One has to wonder if the pair was lined up wrong; if Sock so heavily favors his forehand, why not put him on the right-hand side where he’s not hesitating or running around a forehand dink?

But you have to hand it to Roddy and Dobran, who played nearly flawless pickleball, were not afraid to go right at Tyson, whose third shot drops and resets were fantastic all day, and who would not beat themselves in the face of an error-prone team. No surprise in the result from this observer.