Brandon French and Grayson Goldin had never played a tournament together before this week, but you’d never guess that judging by how well they’ve played so far in North Texas.

The No. 20 seeds are into the men’s doubles Round of 16 after a 2-11, 11-9, 11-7 victory over No. 12 seeds Connor Garnett/Tyler Loong Wednesday evening.

For French, a tactical change proved to be the key to turning things around in the second and third games.

“I think in Game 1 we were kind of trying to grind dinks, and [Connor and Tyler] are just too solid at that for it to work,” he explained. “We switched our mentality to get a little louder and to try and get the crowd behind us. We just wanted to be more aggressive.”

Getting the crowd on his side wasn’t exactly a challenge for French, who lives in Dallas and works as a senior associate attorney at Braumiller Law Group, located just a ten-minute drive from Brookhaven Country Club.

The 34-year-old says a win like Wednesday’s is particularly special because of friends and family who were able to witness the triumph.

“It’s really cool, especially because my wife was able to come. She works down the street and was able to make it because it was a night match,” French said. “I know everyone here, and I kind of knew if we could just get going and maybe sneak out with Game 2, then we would have a lot of people getting behind us in Game 3, and that helps out a lot when they’re one of the best teams out there.

This partnership came together at the last minute for the biggest tournament of the year, but Goldin is finding that he and French have complimentary game styles.

“I think he’s a great counterbalance to my game,” he noted. “I play very aggressive, and he’s more solid, so I trust him a lot because he’s been playing for a very long time. It’s been a ton of fun so far.”

No. 6 seeds Riley Newman/Jay Devilliers await on Thursday.

This wasn’t the only upset to take place in the men’s doubles draw Wednesday evening, however.

No. 44 seeds Anouar Braham/Chris Crouch, who are also competing together in the PPA Challenger Showdown later this week—stunned No. 9 seeds Dekel Bar/AJ Koller by a 3-11, 11-6, 12-10 score line. They will play No. 5 seeds Eric Oncins/Matt Wright on Thursday.

And finally, No. 46 seeds Claudio Quinones Garcia/Etienne Blaszkewycz took down No. 16 seeds Julian Arnold/Donald Young 11-8, 6-11, 11-7. They will next face No. 2 seeds Christian Alshon/Andrei Daescu.

Catch all of Thursday’s action on Pickleballtv.