Sock has announced his mixed doubles partner for 2024 will be Catherine Parenteau. He will start off with Collin Shick for men’s doubles. The Parenteau partnership looks to be a good fit. CP has not had a steady, top-end mixed partner. Thus, she has not enjoyed the same success in mixed that she has had in women’s doubles. Sock is a natural left side power player, so he should be successful in mixed doubles. Indeed, in his brief forays to date in the pickleball tournament world, he has had more success in mixed than in gender doubles.

 

 

The pairing with Shick is more debatable. Shick burst on to the pickleball scene with success in singles. He was a #55 seed at the PPA Florida Open back in early 2023. He had a great run, making it all the way to the gold medal match, where he lost to Ben Johns in three games.

 

Shick was neither the first or last tennis player to burst on to the pickleball scene with success in singles. The difficulty is the transition to doubles success. Some are able to make that transition, others not so much. Doubles is obviously a different game, with much more emphasis on dinking, speedups, and counters, and less emphasis on ground strokes.

 

Shick has not done very well on the transition to doubles. We can see that in his #13 ranking in singles, but his #55 ranking in doubles. Shick has had trouble with the soft game, with consistent third shot drops, long dink rallies and other key aspects of the doubles game. Accordingly, Sock pairing with Shick is a questionable decision.

 

There are also issues with who will play right/left side. As a good singles player, Shick’s skills translate more easily to playing a power left side game, rather than a defensive right side game. Unfortunately, the same is true of Sock. A Sock/Shick pairing is not one likely to lead to much success.

 

 

The natural follow up question is who should Sock play men’s doubles with? His game most naturally matches with a defensive, right side player. A veteran pickleball player as a partner would also make sense, someone who has detailed experience playing with the other pros, to make up for Sock’s relative inexperience. Finally, they need to be available, not locked into a permanent partnership.

 

Some names Sock could look at would include Matt Wright, Christian Alshon, and Dekel Bar. Wright makes the most sense, unless he is tying himself to James Ignatowich for 2024. Wright, if he accepts the role, can play a very effective defensive right side, and he needs to play with a very athletic left side player. Sock would be an excellent fit. Alshon and Bar do not have regular partners, and while both can play an effective left side, they have also shown the ability to play good right side defense. Wright, Alshon, and Bar have also played the PPA Tour long enough to know the opponents so they could help school Sock on opponents’ tendencies.

 

Whatever Jack Sock decides regarding partners, the pickleball world will be interested in watching what develops. Breaking in can be difficult because new players typically get stuck with low seedings, leading to difficult early round matches. Playing with Parenteau will help the seeding process; playing with Shick will not. No matter what, I for one will be watching his debut matches. Hopefully, he will be on center court and TV from the get go.

 

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