Most of the recent discourse surrounding men’s doubles on the PPA Tour has revolved around the ‘Big 4,’ the consensus top four teams in the field who almost always find themselves competing on Semifinal Saturday and Carvana Championship Sunday.

Those pairings are as follows: 

• Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio (undefeated together in 2026)
• Hayden Patriquin/Christian Alshon
• JW Johnson/CJ Klinger
• Andrei Daescu/Federico Staksrud
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But on Thursday, two of those teams fell in the Round of 16 at one of the biggest tournaments of the year, showing that the rest of the men’s doubles field may be catching up.

No. 19 seeds Tama Shimabukuro/Yuta Funemizu stunned No. 2 seeds Hayden Patriquin/Alshon 4-11, 11-5, 11-8 in one of the day’s most entertaining matches on Humana Championship Court.

They had lost to this same team 5-11, 3-11 at last month’s Greater Zion Cup, but they flipped the script in the Georgia capital.

Shimabukuro, the 15-year-old who had taken out No. 2 seed Federico Staksrud in men’s singles earlier in the day, credited Funemizu for keeping his energy up in the match’s biggest moments.

“Yuta was just giving me energy all day,” he told Pickleballtv’s Kamryn Blackwood and Matt Manasse. “On this team, he’s the Energizer Bunny, and I’m just making balls. This guy does some crazy stuff. His counters are insane, and it’s just been a great day.”

This is the seventh tournament that the two have played together, and Funemizu says that the time on court has helped them raise their collective level.

“We’ve been practicing a lot, and we have great chemistry,” the former soft tennis world champion shared. “We have played many tournaments this year, so we have to stay focused for the weekend.”

Shimabukuro/Funemizu will face No. 9 seeds Armaan Bhatia/Riley Newman in the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere, No. 13 seeds Connor Garnett/Roscoe Bellamy defeated defending Atlanta champions and No. 3 seeds JW Johnson/CJ Klinger by a 4-11, 12-10, 11-4 score line.

The first-time partners trailed 1-5 in Game 2 after dropping the first, but they came back to win the second before comfortably taking the decider to further open up the bottom half of the men’s doubles draw.

No. 12 seeds Jack Sock/Blaine Hovenier await on Friday.