Anouar Braham/Bruno Faletto knocked out No. 2 seeds Ben Johns/Jack Sock 8-11, 11-5, 11-3 in the men’s doubles Round of 32 late Wednesday evening at the Veolia Chicago Cup presented by Storm.

The No. 27 seeds simply overpowered their opponents, with Faletto staying with Johns in the crosscourt and Braham creating chaos when presented with the opportunity.

Johns and Sock, of course, were partnering up for the very first time this week; their early exit demonstrates the growing depth of the men’s doubles field.

This is the second time in three tournaments where Johns has been eliminated in his first match of the week in men’s doubles; he and Federico Staksrud also fell in their first match together at the Arizona Open in September.

And just like at that tournament, Johns and his partner drew a challenging opponent for their first match.

Braham and Faletto had played two PPA Challenger events together in 2026 before teaming up for Chicago, taking gold at the Houston Challenger in February and silver at the Tampa Bay Challenger in March.

That prior experience competing together paid off handsomely on Wednesday evening, and Braham/Faletto will look to continue their run in the Round of 16 on Thursday against No. 16 seeds Kenta Miyoshi/Clayton Powell.

Live broadcast coverage starts at 2pm CT / 3pm ET, and you can catch all the coverage on Pickleballtv.