Ep. 12: Australian Open Mid-Tournament Review

Alvin Owusu (00:04.309)
Just get rolling. Just get rolling here.

Torrey Hawkins (00:04.812)
Is that the mid-tournament stretch right there?

Alvin Owusu (00:09.654)
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the best of three podcast. I am joined once again by my main man, Tory Hawkins. Tory, how we doing tonight?

Torrey Hawkins (00:35.306)
We're doing great, man. We're doing great. Just watch the, to be honest, a bit of a mediocre match between Sabalenka and Andreva. But other than that, it's been a wild week, bro. I mean, I can't, my mind is blown with what's going on. I know you're going to get into it and we're going to try to keep ourselves to a time limit here tonight. But wow. The task to me is to digest this quickly.

Alvin Owusu (00:47.248)
It has been.

Alvin Owusu (00:59.194)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02.908)
and to still do justice by what we've seen.

Alvin Owusu (01:06.222)
Absolutely, absolutely. we're coming to you guys. It's Saturday night. think we are through the round of 16. So all of our entrants are trying to make their way into the quarterfinals right now. We did just have Arena Sabalinka kind of have a pretty standard victory over Miria Andreeva. So I think that's a good place for us to start. Before we got going, I mentioned that

Arena just looks like complete right now. She's taking care of business. She had a couple of decent matches to get herself into form. Got to see some good balls, especially against Claire Towson, and then really just put it all on display in a match that wasn't, know, Mira's tough, she's crafty, but Arena can definitely take the racket out of her hands. What were your thoughts on that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42.432)
Yep, yep, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:58.217)
on hardcore, especially, right? And I don't want to cut you off, forgive me. I felt like in the Towson match, it was a different matchup. Let's be honest, Mira is a younger, lesser at this point in her career and her age arena, right? And so when you do, as I like to say, rock, paper, scissors, you have rock won against smaller rock in this situation and they just play too much alike. Mira, I would have loved to see Mira showcase some of her B game.

Alvin Owusu (02:02.8)
Nope.

Torrey Hawkins (02:26.952)
and really try to counter her a little differently. I felt like she tried to hang with and out hit at certain times. then unfortunately, Arena, no one hits the ball as big as Arena. And so when you're in that situation, you're playing against a player who hits the ball that big, coming off of a couple of tough matches, I feel like, you know, this match here was a little bit of a walkthrough. And my only disappointment with Mira was I didn't see a second style. Would have loved to have seen an adjustment in the second set.

I felt like she was still trying to take form from what she missed in the first. And unfortunately, Arena was just, she had a foot in the gas the whole time and Mira was just there. The other thing that I think that really needs to be spoken to in this top half of the draw is how so many matches were contested, lot of six, four, seven, five, seven, sixes. And ironically, this was one of the first.

really routine matches we've seen, it was to go to the quarters against two pretty good players. Even Mira had a tough couple of first rounds. So that's what I thought was interesting, as many of the first rounds were. Very, very close, guys and girls.

Alvin Owusu (03:25.966)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (03:41.553)
Yeah, that match up with those two, I know you mentioned that you feel like Meera's a bit of a lesser version of Irina. I think I'm gonna even go a little throwback here with the way that she moves and the way that she likes to use her hands. She's almost like a new version of Martina Hingis maybe. And I feel like, that's kind of the, a stronger version, yeah, but not quite strong enough quite yet because that's not gonna necessarily work.

Torrey Hawkins (03:59.601)
Sure, A stronger version, if I will.

Yeah.

Right.

Alvin Owusu (04:10.096)
taking consideration how long Hingis's, you know, the top end of her career actually lasted. Like once big babe tennis came in, right, that was kind of the end of that for her. you know, I hate to, you know, assume that the best things, the best things are definitely ahead for Miria Andreeva. And this is just another learning opportunity. And as she grows, she's still, yeah, she's extremely young, extremely young.

Torrey Hawkins (04:28.07)
Oh, 100%, 17 years old. You know what I mean? You're impressed with what she's been able to accomplish up to this point. My only concern with her tonight was not being able to play a B game and show another side of what she can do versus trying really hard to. I think beating her in the French may have been one of a, almost a match to help her believe that she could out hit her and not that she can't on a given day on a given surface, but do you need to?

You know, is that something that you are really going to win seven times out of 10? Is that your best suit? And in my opinion, that wasn't her best suit. She played better defense Alvin in the first round. You know, she played better. She played better tennis, in my opinion, better complete tennis and some of her first rounds. You know, she played. I'm looking at your screen here and I'm trying to remember the lady, young lady's name. She Busquett, right?

Alvin Owusu (05:18.256)
She played Buscova in the first round. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (05:21.669)
And in my opinion, showed better patience, showed better defense, showed better counterpunish, especially to close out that second set that she showed at all in both sets today.

Alvin Owusu (05:31.022)
Yeah. Yeah. And I thought Booscoop was actually going to beat her. And so when we watched that match, was, was, I was very impressed. I was like, wow. Mira made the jump. Like she put the work in, over the off season, the short off season and actually like took advantage of a match that she was on paper supposed to win, but was also not very straightforward. She made it look very straightforward. well, we'll, bounce down to the bottom half of that quarter, which should have been a Zheng Chun wins. you know,

Torrey Hawkins (05:34.436)
100 %

Torrey Hawkins (05:50.308)
100%, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (05:58.129)
kind of space to take up and meet Arena in the quarterfinals, but that didn't happen. She got Siegmund in the second round.

Torrey Hawkins (06:04.995)
Siegman came in with the work on the second round. She had a good, tough first round, let's be honest. I wasn't, I had a walk over, I say a walk over, had a bit of a routine second set, but that first set was every bit of fireworks you can expect playing a top seed. And the remaining girl really gave her a tough shot. I think, I thought Siegman kind of stunned her a little bit. And I was a little disappointed in saying not really coming back.

Alvin Owusu (06:10.276)
She did.

Torrey Hawkins (06:31.491)
in that second to really battle the way I thought she could. She's very consistent when she wants to be. She's extremely. I almost felt like she relied on her A game again. Relyed on her A game a little bit too much realizing that she wasn't really on. I thought the match before she played a little bit better to be honest, which happens in a Grand Slam. And this is just a thought for your listeners and I got to say this.

I have coached for 30 years. Never have I seen a player from some of the best I've coached that have been 30 and 50 in the world, WTA and ATP. Never have I seen a player play great 10 matches, seven matches, six matches in a row ever. So you have a two week long tournament, right? Seven matches, okay? You're not gonna play great every match. What you're gonna do is you're gonna have

Take the days of the week as a very simple understanding of, you know, one day to the next. If you have seven, just using the number of the days of the week, as your best, and one as you look like you just picked up a racket last week, you're rarely gonna play seven and you're rarely gonna play one, right? That's just what it is. Sixes and twos though happen probably once every two or three weeks. You can play phenomenal. You can play bad, right?

Not as often as the normal, but it's going to happen. There's always going to be one bad match in the course of a couple of weeks, sometimes within three weeks. If you're not playing as well, sometimes once a week, depending on how you are. The threes, fours and fives, that's really where your game is. So in my opinion, you are a four with the ability to play high and the ability to play not as high. The sixes and twos happen what they are. Forget the numbers, just understand there's the range, right?

No one plays sixes all seven days. That's the point I want to make sure the viewers take home. So you have a seven match two week tournament. First draw takes three days to get through, right? The second round takes two to three days to get through. And before you start getting it, and then sometimes you play, go from one match every three days to a third day, then boom, you're back into playing back to back tennis, right? And so now you've got to kind of navigate the tournament.

Torrey Hawkins (08:53.118)
And when you start hearing people talk about playing themselves into the event, that's really what it means. They've started to play themselves into the event, playing a little better. And you hope, you really hope that you're at your three, four level of tennis playing into it to get to five, six. Not coming in at a six and then second round, third round playing a four or even a three, which is what I felt like Mira did today. Now with that said, she's not gonna play as low as a three again.

Alvin Owusu (09:08.548)
Yep. Right. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (09:20.287)
Unfortunately, she met Sabalink in the day when Sabalink was probably playing her five day today, maybe even a six. So it's one of the things you don't know, right? But I say that to say it's difficult to play that high level of tennis every day of the week. And so what we saw in the first one, I felt many of the first round players, especially some of the qualifiers that what I'm going to call the quote unquote no names that aren't seated, they pushed a lot of the seats, guys and girls to the limit. Tons of upsets as it always is in Australia.

And many of the, especially ones that came through Qualies, they played phenomenal. lot of five sets, a lot of tough sets. And so, but again, they're playing close to their five, six, maybe even a seven day against some players that had never seen them before. Against the people that you don't really have a lot of scouting report on these players. They're new, right? So it was a different situation. So I just wanted to kind of make sure the viewers understand that, you know, you're a player that kind of two or three years now, you know, you're scared, you're playing Australian.

You're playing so-and-so, okay, I know her, got it. I played her before, I played her three times last year. I got scouting report. And then you play so-and-so. You have no idea who so-and-so is. You don't know how she's playing and so-and-so's playing ball. And sometimes the only thing that hurts so-and-so is a little bit of fatigue, a little bit of the moment, maybe a little too big for her at that time. And of course next year will be when you find out really how so-and-so is, AKA Jasmine Paolini last year. I thought had that kind of a year.

And so you start really kind of understanding and sometimes the sophomore slump isn't so much that they're not as good. People know who they are now. They know how to play them now. They're a little bit more, they're a little more, I'm gonna say known. So the scouting reports there, but also they're not, they're playing longer tournaments and you kind of know, you know, it's hard to play that sixth level tennis that often, going into, especially going to a two week long event. So that's just something I wanted to pass on to the viewers.

Alvin Owusu (11:13.326)
Yeah, and speaking of sophomores, you know, getting in, don't want to get out of this quarter without giving some love to the match that thus far, I think has been one of the top matches I've seen on the women's side. Dina Schneider against Donna Vekic. That was a balls to the wall, great match. And Schneider, this is her second full season on tour. You know, she's obviously seeded 12. She had a great first year on the lady side. And so,

Torrey Hawkins (11:27.334)
Right. Yeah. Great match. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (11:40.355)
That match was a, you it got down to winning time. And I think Dina was, she was actually serving for it at five, four, I believe in the third set and just started to throw in some errors. Feet got a little, feet got a little slow arm got a little slow. and Donna was, Donna was right there and shouts to, shouts to Donna Vekich and, and, and her team. think, Sasha Bayan is now, on her, on her team with,

Torrey Hawkins (11:50.393)
Okay? Okay?

Torrey Hawkins (11:54.747)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yup. Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (12:09.115)
Coach. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (12:10.296)
along with Pam Schneider. yeah, that's gonna be an interesting path. Donna had a great year last year and really, you know, seems like her game is really in a good place right now. So she's gonna be working to meet Arena in the quarters.

Torrey Hawkins (12:24.229)
Yep, yep, and of course, what's your take on that one with Poblub? I always butcher her name. Poblub?

Alvin Owusu (12:32.888)
Pavlochenkova. I think, know, Donna had a great year last year and she's right back in form right now. I think I'm done betting against her. I think that's Donna's match to take and I expect her to win that one, to meet up with Irina in the quarters there. So we'll keep cracking. Top half of Coco's.

Torrey Hawkins (12:46.296)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (12:56.718)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (13:01.243)
top half of Coco's quarter here. Coco comes out and she's playing Belinda Bincic. They're actually playing right now. They just got started second game of the match. How about Belinda Bincic having a baby eight months ago and just deciding that she's back now? Like just.

Torrey Hawkins (13:17.203)
and playing ball. I saw her first round match, Alvin. I was so impressed with how she played. I saw it Pink. You heard it right here, Pink will look like she's the who had a child, you know, about eight months ago. Just gonna put that out there. But I'll say it to say, Bencic was in shape, she looked sharp. And I just have to say, I've seen Alsta Pink look a lot better in years past before she won the French, but she did not look like herself. And...

Alvin Owusu (13:22.5)
Yeah, she took out Panko ahead, I did not see that coming.

Alvin Owusu (13:29.72)
Okay. okay. Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (13:44.971)
It was a blustery, windy day. could tell with the match, but I'm going to tell you, Belinda looked great. She looked like she was committed. She was serious. She was recommitted back to her form. I was really big in the tour when I was at some players out there in the early 2000s to mid 2000s. And I saw Kleister's come back from a similar situation and she played like Kim did coming back. Like, buddy, I'm not taking anything for granted. I'm hungry. I'm working.

Alvin Owusu (14:04.718)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (14:12.212)
And dare I say, it was actually a little hungrier post-child. And I thought that was a great thing I've seen. I saw the same thing in Azarenka late after she had her little one. And it's great to see these moms come back out and realize, hey, don't take this for granted. At any moment, it can be taken away from you. And I really thought Belinda did a great job. And know, Austin will be back. She's had a bad match. I was really, to me, was really a good sign to see Bencic, who's been a top player.

Alvin Owusu (14:25.209)
Yeah.

love it. I love it.

Torrey Hawkins (14:40.76)
you know, a former top 10 player to really come back to form playing a top, a form, another top form top player, you know, at this point in her career. And I thought it was a great testament to her work ethic and her comeback. So hats off to her team for what she's done. Um, you know, coming, coming in this match now, my, my match I was going to speak to was how much, how routine the Layla Fernandez match was for Coco. That to me was Coco showed that she had shifted to fifth gear.

Alvin Owusu (14:53.956)
But yeah, think the, but I think in that section, they're like.

Torrey Hawkins (15:10.197)
And it showed that, you know, I hate to say it, the Layla and Emma match from three years ago, US Open really seemed like more of an outlier than like these were two players that are going to be around for a long time.

Alvin Owusu (15:16.801)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (15:24.25)
You know, we'll get to the end of it and I think it's probably, Leila Fernandez I think the worst thing, not the worst thing that ever happened to her, the only reason that we're actually talking about her is because she had a good two weeks that one time, right? So she is the player right now that she was before making the finals to the US Open and I think if you, if you gotta take a, if you wanna look at her, her worst losses, you have to also take her best wins and kind of like look at what the norm is and the norm is she's about.

Torrey Hawkins (15:42.038)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (15:52.081)
She's about the 30th best player in the world. That's what she is and I think, exactly, exactly. in this particular quarter, the top half of this quarter, I can't let us move forward without talking about Naomi Osaka. So Naomi is like, she's got this list of everyone who beat me last year when I was trying to make my return, I'm just going through it. She lost to Caroline Garcia in the first round of the Australian Open last year, got her.

Torrey Hawkins (15:54.464)
But she played to her seat, didn't she? Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (16:19.017)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (16:21.892)
She lost to Mojova, I believe at the US Open. Got her. She played a really tough match against Carolina and I saw the Naomi that we missed and I think I speak for all tennis fans. If she's back, if this is the tennis that she's able to produce consistently and she seems like she's happy and she's excited to be back playing tennis, we're better for it. She can still make magic.

Torrey Hawkins (16:26.153)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (16:50.809)
off the baseline and it was unfortunate that she had to pull out against Belinda but I did hear that she said she's good for like one abstrain a year, right? So it's something that she's had before. She's something she knows how to manage so this shouldn't be an issue for her but you know, is where she should be.

Torrey Hawkins (17:10.676)
Coco is Naomi is a former number one. I'm going to be on the other side of this one because I feel like I'm not part of her team, not her coach. I'm just a spectator and a fan. I feel like Naomi and I watched this young lady back in 2017. Alvin give or take when she was in the qualities. I was having to be part of the coaches that were part of the regional training center. I was with the training center here in Atlanta. We were part of the USDA. They brought us all up and they want us to go out and watch matches.

Alvin Owusu (17:22.564)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (17:40.541)
There was a, you know, I was part of the group that was sent to her court to watch our young American charge. And I remember telling the coach at the time with USDA, we really need to be getting stats on the girl across the net. said, she's got this Japanese flag and a Jamaican flag in the corner. Not quite sure who this lady is. I said, but this girl is going to be good one day. I've seen her at her youngest quote unquote, you know, start.

I've seen her when I saw when she beat Serena and bowed down and in deference. And I've seen her in the mental, you know, health issues and crisis. I've seen her take two years off of tennis, maybe 18 months, however long it was. I just feel like we have not seen that level of consistent tennis from Naomi since then. Now, to your point, one abscreen a year, fair enough. She played some good tennis up to this point.

It's the third round, Alvin. It's the third round. It's not day six. It's not the semis. This is the first Grand Slam of the year. She hasn't been playing eight weeks, nine weeks, 15 weeks in a row. She's not post pregnancy and postpartum. The little one's gotta be a couple years old by now. I'm just saying, you've got other moms, including, know, Vincic, right? Who she played, right? In my, that.

Alvin Owusu (19:05.946)
Pinch it. Yeah. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (19:09.039)
that have done the same. so to my, and perhaps younger and more recent, my only challenge to Naomi is to truly commit back to being a tennis player. There for a while she was, had her own management group. And I feel like in her mind, she felt like she arrived and had won because she beat Serena, albeit an Asian Serena. And my only problem with her getting to that level

I felt like she felt because she beat Serena, she had encompassed all that Serena was. But Serena carried the WTA on her back for the better part of 15 years. And I'm not talking the five years while she was becoming Serena. I'm talking about the 15 years when she was the one seed and she was handling the ups and downs of the tour. She too decided to retire, semi-retire and get into acting and other things.

Alvin Owusu (20:06.416)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (20:06.989)
was getting to making purses and jewelry and such before they came back. I get it. They were on Fresh Prince of Bel Air and she was in movies and such. get it. And then she came back, a la Michael Jordan after baseball and said, you know what, let me recommit back to my sport and did so for the next eight to almost 10 years and tennis was better for it. I'm looking forward to that return, that true return from Naomi. We all know the tennis she's capable of. We all know that in my opinion, we talk about Coco.

There is a, Osaka has better skills. I hate to say this. Than Coco, if she's in top form. Unfortunately, we haven't seen it since. And that's my problem with young Naomi right now is I feel like she feels like she's tennis royalty. And while she's certainly Grand Slam champion material, we've not seen that level of tennis for a while. I'll get off the soapbox.

Alvin Owusu (21:02.385)
Well, think that's less of a Naomi thing though, and I think it's more of a, you know, we talk about Serena a lot, but I'm not gonna go down that path, but I think Serena is the outlier. think Naomi is probably more typical of what we see of our Grand Slam champions in that she won all four of her Grand Slams, I think, within two years. I think she went US Open against Serena, won the Australia Open the following year, and then maybe the same pattern, US Open, and then Australia Open again.

But it's still kinda early days for her. Let's see, we'll see how it goes. She's with Moore Torblu now. Yeah, Jerry's still out and I'm looking forward to, I just feel like if she's on tour and she's playing and she's competing, she's another person that is to be dealt with. I'd like to see her, right, exactly. And this is one of those things where she can string together a couple of.

Torrey Hawkins (21:41.742)
The jury's still out, I think is all I'm getting at. And I'll leave it there.

Torrey Hawkins (21:54.027)
Nobody's good match.

Alvin Owusu (22:00.473)
It's great that she got out of the first two rounds. I think that's the really big one because now she's cracking into the top 50, she's making her way towards the top 30, and she's not going to be a floater in the draw, maybe come next Grand Slam. And I think that's some of the things that we're starting to, those things are popping up right now.

Torrey Hawkins (22:13.165)
Sure. With this being her tournament album, the only reason I want to stay on it for 30 more seconds is the fact that she has won this before. The tournament suits her. Right? And here's my thing. Call it an old school saying to be the man, you have to beat the man. Right? Coco Golf is worse for Naomi not being top of her game. She is more tested.

Alvin Owusu (22:24.27)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (22:42.834)
more ready to beat an arena having gone through a well-precision and fine-tuned Naomi. The tour is better off as a result of it. And I feel like no offense, I'm sure she had an aftershave. I'm sure there's things she was dealing with. I totally get that. She's a professional. I just feel like you don't give that next player the ability to truly fine-tune themselves when you pull out

aren't available, aren't playing your best tennis. And so now the rest of us are left with, let's face it, the best of the rest. And that's all. And that's not her burden, but yet, at the top player, it is.

Alvin Owusu (23:18.104)
And you know, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (23:23.613)
That's why we play the matches, right? So yeah, that's how their Grand Slam unfold.

Torrey Hawkins (23:25.483)
I look forward to her. I look forward to the rest of year to see what she does. Like I said, I think it would have been a great match against her adventures as well. again, I think let down is my quote unquote term for that match and that side of the draw.

Alvin Owusu (23:44.209)
Fair enough, fair enough. Kind of trekking forward here. We've got Paola Badosa popping up in the round of 16. This would have been on paper, I think, to meet Jessie Bagula, but Jessica Bagula wasn't able to meet us here. That's fine. I made a bold call in our preview episode, said Peyton Stearns was gonna take JPEG out in the first round. No wait, no, that was Navarro, sorry.

Torrey Hawkins (23:50.687)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (23:58.463)
Yes.

Same thing.

Ha ha ha ha.

Torrey Hawkins (24:12.938)
No, Ember Navarro. Ember Navarro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you, Shinetto.

Alvin Owusu (24:14.06)
Apologies, apologies. I had Mertens taking out JPEG. That didn't happen. I was only off by a round.

Torrey Hawkins (24:18.697)
Right.

and hey, and Merton still played, it was a strong match. The match was much closer than the scores, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (24:25.36)
She played great. Jesse played her tail off. Jesse played her tail off, man. I was watching that and I was like, wow, okay, I got nothing to say. And neither did Elise, because Jesse was painting corners, dominating the middle of the court, and then got derailed by, you know, some weird things happened in that match against Danilovic, in which, you know, when it gets a little cold in Melbourne, like the court's conditions start to change. People don't understand that.

Torrey Hawkins (24:38.505)
100%.

Torrey Hawkins (24:44.701)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (24:50.473)
or slow down that plexi-pave surface that plexi-pave surface they play on I think it's still plexi-pave they used to have rebound days it's a it's a it's it when it heats up it's faster when it slows down it's slower it's throwing a clay court the players that they complain about the balls you know they as you mentioned in a previous episode I believe maybe Peter Lebedev mentioned Lebedev's mentioned in a match about the balls a bit different that Dunlop ball

right is just sitting up that it feels heavy. It's a little different and I felt like back to my weak scale. I thought Jessica played close to a six in that match when she needed to and against against Elise and I felt like she played close to a three in that match and in the third round match. So I just is one of those matches where I hated it for because again has she gotten through that?

I thought that would have a great match with her and Padoza. thought that was gonna be great match for her but unfortunately she didn't get there. So we'll see. We'll see what Davidovic does.

Alvin Owusu (25:43.395)
Yeah, if-

Alvin Owusu (25:49.103)
And but also, but also on the on bit of a comeback herself, you know, she was injured for a good part of 2023 and beginning 2024 and she's she's back in the form and she's former number two in the world. And she's starting to, you know, get that back together and getting through that that match against Marta Kostiak was was a big one for her because I feel like last year she lost a very similar match to Emma Navarro at the US Open where she was up and could not close it out and.

Torrey Hawkins (26:05.928)
All right.

Torrey Hawkins (26:10.034)
Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (26:13.308)
Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (26:16.96)
She kind of had the same thing here, a little wiggle in the second set, but then was able to pick herself back up and really put it together there in the third set. So, you know, there's a little, you know, I like the, I like the intersection of the on court, off court stuff. Like if she can get through this, like you got a little teaming potential matchup in the semi finals, couple rounds ahead against her, best friend, Arena Sabalenka. And Arena kind of owns that matchup, but I'm going to.

Torrey Hawkins (26:40.101)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (26:44.081)
I'm just gonna keep my eye on it. I love watching both of those two ladies play tennis and I think it's, again, it's good to have the best players in the world competing at the highest level. And whenever someone gets hurt or is missing, we're all worse for it. So if Paola Badosa is playing exactly, and if Paola's playing and she's playing well and she's healthy, we all win. And I keep moving down here a little bit and speaking of playing well and being healthy.

Torrey Hawkins (26:55.589)
Great.

Torrey Hawkins (27:00.218)
100%. They, us, tour, all of us.

Alvin Owusu (27:13.996)
Elena or Bacchina, don't mess around. She don't mess around at all.

Torrey Hawkins (27:18.136)
Yep. Playing some good tennis. We're really proud of the way she's playing. I saw two of her matches of this one here, pretty much straight through her first round. obviously the, I still struggle. Yeah, Shremskev, what's the young lady's name? You're right. Always a tough, tough match. I that was a good match. I'm going to skip right down to Madison Keys and Danielle Collins. That was a great match. mean, just I watched it. Madison played as good as I've seen her play.

Alvin Owusu (27:30.596)
Yeah, Diana, you're so she's always a tough out and I think you know

Alvin Owusu (27:39.748)
I didn't watch that one man. I didn't watch that match. kind of for self preservation.

Torrey Hawkins (27:47.031)
It wasn't the best match from Danielle, but to me, Madison showed signs of her. Did she get to the finals? Was it against Sloan? What was that matchup about?

Alvin Owusu (27:55.171)
Madison yeah, she lost the Sloan in the finals of the US Open some years ago, but she also made another another final or semi-final She semi-finaled she lost to Coco. I believe last year at the US Open

Torrey Hawkins (27:58.7)
So it looked like.

Torrey Hawkins (28:03.461)
Right.

Madison looked as good as I've seen her look into it and within the last, again, not in the last year notwithstanding, within the last three or four years. Looked solid, looked sharp, taken balls early, looked fit. She just, and I feel like, and Alvin, I've said this before to you, I'll say it again. I feel like some of these up and comers post COVID, some of these American players have not truly been what they should have been. They took advantage of some vacancies.

They took advantage of some spots in the draw that others weren't playing. They kind of shot up in the rankings a little bit. No disrespect. They're good players, but they were the best of the rest. And I feel like this match did a lot for me to help show that Madison showed when I'm ready to play good ball, I'll let you know. And she's playing some good tennis. I think she recently got married though in the off season. She's doing great. She seems happy. She seems

She seems competitive again her hair her head seemed clear. She didn't seem She didn't seem saddled with expectations. She seemed happy to be on the court competing again and I was so proud to see her win this match Much like I don't want to get to it too early much like I've been watching a nice Renaissance Swan song from one Gail Monfils. It just seemed like the older veteran is starting sure but but but it's

Alvin Owusu (29:14.096)
She's a pro.

Alvin Owusu (29:28.56)
Yeah, let's not not to get in the gale right now because I I got a I'm gonna lay out I'm gonna lay out on Monfils later

Torrey Hawkins (29:32.802)
Sure, sure, I mentioned it because the elder statesmen in these match showed their tools. They showed their savvy and that's what I mentioned. The only reason I mentioned Gale early is that reason is that I thought Madison showed the steely nerve that she's accrued over the last 10 to 15 years on the tour and it showed against Collins. And I really think she's got, think she's got a good chance against. I gotta say it.

Alvin Owusu (29:55.579)
Let's not, no, no, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, because I told you in the preview, if we get to this match, I'm worried for me and we're at this match now, and now I'm worried for me. So I'm just gonna pretend like it doesn't exist.

Torrey Hawkins (30:07.898)
What you've got in your favor is if she's played her best tennis in my one to seven, you know, call it my own range of a player, seven being your highest, one being your lowest. You're hoping that she played her sixth match against Danielle. I think it was about a four or five. That was her standard and she's getting informed. If she's getting informed and can play a five again, which is likely, and maybe even touch on a six,

Rebecca's in trouble. You heard it right here.

Alvin Owusu (30:39.249)
Okay, I'm let you say it, I'm not gonna say it. This is where I get with every tournament where Madison pops up in the second week, like, you know, this could be the one, I don't wanna talk about it. So we're gonna keep popping along here. Yeah, we're in the section that formerly belonged to Jasmine Paolini and her and Svit had a...

Torrey Hawkins (30:44.001)
You know what jinxed her.

Yeah.

Yeah. Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (31:01.471)
Yeah, tough before.

Alvin Owusu (31:05.422)
had a hell of a match. I did not watch the third set of that match. I saw the numbers, I did look at the stats and I saw that Jasmine was making a lot of first serves but was not winning a lot of points on those first serves. And that kinda seemed like like that seemed like, I think she won like one, maybe a 10 % of her first, she won 10 % of points where she made her first serve. And I'm like that's, she must have just lost her legs or something.

Torrey Hawkins (31:17.493)
Correct. Correct.

Torrey Hawkins (31:31.552)
I know what it was and I don't know again, like you, I only saw parts of that match. I don't know if she got hurt, injured, fatigued, but it just seemed like midway through, midway through that second, it just didn't seem like she was winning the quicker points as well. She's got a nice serve, not a huge serve, but a good serve. And it just didn't seem like she had the gas left. And that third set was a bit, was, know, was, was surprising. I'm not saying that she ran a gas and got hurt because I don't want to take anything away.

from our opponent but it just didn't seem like herself and if I'm not mistaken she looked a little tweaked a little dinged something. You call it an abs strain Naomi you call it fatigue call it whatever you want but that the end of the middle of the second toward the third she did not look like herself in that match and so you know good for good unfortunate for her unfortunate for the draw but now the draw is wide open you know so we'll see

Alvin Owusu (32:27.62)
Yep, we'll keep popping here. Your girl, Emma Navarro. I can't say anything. yeah, yeah. I didn't get the result right, if anything, if I can do anything, is just let the people know that Peyton Stearns is for real and she's not messing around. She had Emma dead to rights for about an hour and half and could not.

Torrey Hawkins (32:32.733)
Great match with Peyton Stearns. That was that to me was one of the matches of the first draw. mean, I did not think.

Torrey Hawkins (32:48.254)
Play great. That's right.

Alvin Owusu (32:52.856)
She showed why she's 40 something in the world and why Emma is a top 10 player because you gotta close the door. Right, exactly, exactly, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (32:56.62)
Did not blink until 5-1 in the third. You heard it right here. Did not blink. You know, did not blink and had an unfortunate start of that game. 5-1. I'm telling you, Alvin, that was to me, that was the match of the first round to me.

Alvin Owusu (33:09.048)
yeah, yeah, that was a fantastic match. then Emma, like Emma is just like, she's not playing her best tennis or what you mentioned before. Maybe people are starting to figure her out, tough third round against Anne Chabour. And Peyton's gone three sets every match so far and she's won every damn one of them. like she's.

Torrey Hawkins (33:18.557)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (33:24.509)
But let me say this, this is what I'm getting at Alvin. Go back to my scale. You can play a five one day, you can get by playing a four, you come back, you bounce back maybe to a five. I don't think she's played her six or seven day yet. And beating Anz, Anz is nobody's picnic with all her different styles and games and feel and touch. There is, to me, you're talking about a number, what's Anz? Two in the world last year or two years ago?

Alvin Owusu (33:28.292)
she's on her way up. Yeah, okay.

Torrey Hawkins (33:53.754)
year and half ago. So that to me showed me that Emma Navarro coming off of a good year, we're talking about Jazz and Paul Leany who had a great year last year, who unfortunately stubbed her toe. You got a young lady who played a great last year, who's now battled through and now gotten her way into the fourth round with a chance to get to the quarters. I'm telling you, Alvin, I'm looking forward to seeing Emma Navarro shift gears here. It really seemed like she has weathered the storm and can play good on the bad day.

Alvin Owusu (33:53.84)
Cheers guys.

Torrey Hawkins (34:22.659)
And any top coach or top player knows how important that is. Playing good or winning on a bad day to get through to the next day where you play a little better, that's big time. And I thought she showed that so far.

Alvin Owusu (34:22.852)
And if you can...

Alvin Owusu (34:32.024)
I think she can get grooved in this match against Kazukina. Grooved is a weird term to use here now that we're in the fourth round of a Grand Slam. But Kazukina, she can be crafty, but then also hits a ball that's very hittable. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And not that that's gonna help her much because I think she'd have a date with Iga in the next round. So, that's not really gonna help.

Torrey Hawkins (34:46.902)
user-friendly.

Alvin Owusu (34:58.033)
But I think if she's ready to go like gets through that match pretty clean I want to I want to see like a something like a like a 3m3 against Kazakina like something pretty straightforward Then you know at that point you're you know We don't need to talk about ego much here because she's got a fourth round match against a lucky loser who's balling right now actually this is nothing actually yeah, no no give her some space go ahead and go ahead and give least some space because she is a She's the she's the young lady who found out ten minutes before her first match that she was gonna be

Torrey Hawkins (35:06.181)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (35:15.887)
Who's ballin'? I wanna point out, go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (35:27.596)
in the main draw. And then she has made every good bit of use of that lucky loser opportunity and has found herself like, you know, she's in the.

Torrey Hawkins (35:28.859)
Good for her.

Torrey Hawkins (35:37.508)
with a great payday and a great two weeks, a great boost to her career and what she's doing. I want to point out the match between Iga and Emma Rodicondo. I mentioned the other part of that US Open matchup with Leila Fernandez, but dude, I'm telling you, she routine Emma like it was a part-time job. mean, that match to me showed me that Iga

I was always worried about Ega against players that don't have a lot of power because I felt like that's a tendency for her to over hit a little bit. I mentioned to you in that map episode about the whole Melanie Udan and Caroline Wozniacki type matchup, right? How do they do when they don't have a big hitter they can out counter? She routine attacked, served and did everything she's supposed to do. And I'm not saying that Emiratikhan right now is playing top 10 ball.

Alvin Owusu (36:14.096)
Yeah, yeah, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (36:33.709)
But I'm saying that with a player that match up to me, it can be troubling for Ega because she can go for too much. She plays balls on the rise. And when the ball's a little slower, that can pose a threat a little bit for players like that. She's not a simple link-at-time player that just takes it big through you, right? She uses your pace. She's a little pace dependent from time to time. She struck the ball as clean as I've seen her do it. Looked good in the process. And I'm telling you, it wasn't it. What 1-0 is not close.

It wasn't that close. dude. It was embarrassing. I felt bad for him. 100%. And didn't do it right. And didn't do it, Alvin, like it was anything special. Just routine or like next.

Alvin Owusu (37:04.46)
She beat her like she was a junior it was it was Ega Egas right now Ega is in like full flight right now Like the the old Egas bakery is open again

Alvin Owusu (37:21.744)
Well, the match prior to that, she ran through Sramkova, Sramkova is one of those players, she pops up every once in a while, she's a little bit older, 28, 29, 30, had a great run at Davis Cup, I thought coming into this year, I thought coming into this match that she would put up more resistance and Ega just foot on throat. So coming out of that match, I thought Emma would be in some trouble because you know.

Torrey Hawkins (37:43.032)
Bye.

Alvin Owusu (37:51.163)
There is the, there is, we talked about this, like the player profile that that Ega struggles with is the only leaves room for, you know, maybe two players in the world. And I'm sorry, and, and Morata Kanu is not in that profile. Like she, she couldn't, she can't hurt her. She couldn't even touch her. Like it was, it was, was something special. But you know, I think so kind of as we look forward, you know, getting into the, getting into the business end of this tournament, right? We should have our quarterfinalists.

Torrey Hawkins (37:52.344)
No.

Torrey Hawkins (38:07.565)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (38:18.551)
Yes.

Alvin Owusu (38:21.166)
You know, they're playing the top half today, so they'll play the bottom half tomorrow. What are you looking forward to as we start to get to the business end of this event?

Torrey Hawkins (38:31.478)
Obviously I would look forward to a Navarro Eager match. Emma's got some cool, she's got some craftiness. I look forward to that. Is that gonna be your quarter or semi? I'm not sure. Looking forward to that match up there for sure. Obviously Arena looks like it's her turn to lose. I she looked about as good as I've seen her look. When you beat Andreeva, when you beat Mira as handily as she did tonight, she just showed that she's playing at a different level.

Alvin Owusu (38:35.119)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (38:41.252)
That would be your quarter. If they can get it done, that'd be their quarter.

Torrey Hawkins (38:59.944)
She's the true defending champ, right? And so I'm not sure, you know, I'm not sure you've got some other good players, you know, in the, in the draw for sure, but it's now devoid of a lot of the top seeds. So it's going to be interesting to see, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see who can pose her threat. And in my opinion, especially toward the end of this, the matches being what they are, if she doesn't have a longer match to test her, sap her strength, or to detain her in the process,

She's gonna walk into this, to the semi and final a little bit more unfazed. And that is dangerous for Arena to go in there. Unhealthy, sharp, confident and fresh. And that to me shows a tough matchup for, that's a matchup for anybody. I mean, she's a bad day for the, she's the number one player in the world. So to have her go in fresh without a lot of tests and not a lot of two or three setters, and she knows the field, not a lot of un.

Alvin Owusu (39:42.468)
Yeah, I think...

Alvin Owusu (39:47.257)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (39:57.46)
unpredictability. I know you're a lucky loser may have a chance, but I think this may be where her where she gets off the bus. I really feel like Eega unfortunately has more of a chance to be tested and to be pushed and going now might as she's fit as anybody, but I feel like that only hurt that only helps arena, you know, as she

Alvin Owusu (40:19.84)
Yeah, I think, I do think that, you mentioned that you think Ega's the best player in the world, I'm gonna push back and say I think Arena actually is, but let's put that to the side. I think what you're seeing now is my, like forget what the seeds say, I think the top four players in the world are in some order, Arena, Ega, Coco, and Elena Rebacchina, and I think they're, and they're all still here, right? Jasmine Paolini fell out, Junction Wind fell out.

Torrey Hawkins (40:41.528)
Yeah and also I want to say it I want to say it on right. Irina is best player in the world. Iga to me could play spoiler on any on any given day and on clay court Iga is the best player in the world. On a hard court there isn't a better player than Irina Saba Lanka. She is the complete version of Serena Williams 1000%. I told you earlier in a

in an earlier message, she is the Ivan Durago, old school Rocky, shout out. She is the better cleaner, bigger, better, faster Kanye West version of Serena in this time. She's 5'11", darn it, darn it, six feet. She hits that big, period. Thank you, and she will take your lunch money. Now, Eega on clay, because of the surface, because of what it is and what it isn't, she has a chance, but on hardcore, there's not a better ball striker player.

Alvin Owusu (41:20.132)
I just.

Torrey Hawkins (41:37.483)
and defending champ I might add than a Reynsa Obelika. Now does that mean that she can't play a bad match? 100 % she could. Is it her tournament to lose? Yes.

Alvin Owusu (41:40.794)
I just want to see them.

Alvin Owusu (41:49.637)
I think we're looking for an opportunity here to see them actually match up in a final. We get them bouncing around each other in semis of, I mean we've seen them in finals, like actual finals, but like in the finals of a Grand Slam, like we've got a really good chance here. Cocoa's up top, so she'd be arenas in the semis and I don't know, take a peek here at who is on the bottom. You could get, you could get.

Torrey Hawkins (41:54.097)
Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (41:59.195)
Sure. Cocoa would meet her in what, in the semis?

Torrey Hawkins (42:06.395)
Simi. Simi-final. Right. And Kazukena would...

Alvin Owusu (42:14.009)
You could get Rebecca and you get Rebecca and I Eka and that's Rebecca usually beats her that's the thing so you know we got some we got some good matches to look forward to and I

Torrey Hawkins (42:16.901)
back and right.

Torrey Hawkins (42:21.201)
I would love to see the Rebecca and the Madison Keys match if that matches up because you'd like to see, you know, let's face it, Madison plays very similar to Arena, right? And so you'd like to see, you'd like to see how she would match up and show some things. And I think it would actually help the Sabolica camp to see how a very recommitted, you know, Madison would play a very similar big serve, know, similar stature.

Alvin Owusu (42:33.698)
sure.

Torrey Hawkins (42:49.72)
not quite as big off the ground, but equally as big as I actually think that Madison May Serb has her targets a little better than Sabalinka, in my opinion, not overall power on both sides. It's hard to be more powerful in the arena. There's not a player in the world that can hit as big as she can. The one that could 10, 15 years ago is now retired with two kids. So it's one those things where I really would look forward to seeing how Madison would.

really match up against Ega if it gets that far. And again, that Rebecca match up, I look forward to that one. That bottom half is going to have a little more fireworks to me. And again, the Coco match, assuming everything that shows the form. look forward to Navarro playing Ega with the craftiness coming out to full bear. I look forward to Coco playing, of course, playing arena if it shoots out that far. And I feel to your point, one through four, we're getting to a point where we're starting to get some

Alvin Owusu (43:26.768)
Probably so.

Torrey Hawkins (43:47.227)
similar names to reach the finals and semis of these week in week out of the slams. And that's good for tennis because now they're starting to be the players that you're shooting for. They're being the true seeds that are holding up the draw. And now you have some marquee matchups, right? There's nothing better than that to me. Great.

Alvin Owusu (44:02.191)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (44:07.024)
It's good for business, it's good for fans, it's good for business. So we will, let's take a little break and then we will come back in part two and we will attack the men's bracket.

And we are back, part two. All right, in part one, went through the women's draw up to the fourth round, and now we're gonna do the same thing on the men's side. I'm gonna start off, know, Jannik Sinner, he is...

Torrey Hawkins (44:47.373)
This good matches on the men's side. Dude, some great matches on men's side.

Fuck you.

Alvin Owusu (45:10.832)
He's the metronome. I've said that before. He is the metronome. He's doing what you expect for him to do, kinda making light work of his time on court, which is what he should be doing. But holy Holgeruna, he's doing it the hard way, but he's holding up his seat. I guess that's all I can say.

Torrey Hawkins (45:13.674)
Hahaha

Torrey Hawkins (45:32.001)
But has he had a fifth set every round?

Alvin Owusu (45:36.08)
I think he went for a baratini, but it's been I think it's been it's been five Is that right it's been five every other match? geez

Torrey Hawkins (45:43.393)
I I feel like every match he's been on the brink of being knocked out. I mean, and I don't think if I'm looking at the scores correctly, maybe only one round for Yannick that went four sets. I mean, dude.

Alvin Owusu (45:56.996)
Yeah, he dropped the set against Skullgate, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (46:00.011)
Dude, I'm just telling you, dude. I'm just telling you, again, and Ruin is in good shape, don't get me wrong, but you heard it right here. You heard it right here. That darn Holger is, I'm not sure how he's even still standing. mean, has, the firing squad has shot him. He's stood and has not fledged in three matches. I mean, he should be done.

And somehow I thought Casper would have gotten farther than Holger. And here he is now in the fourth round against Yannick. I think Yannick has the goods to beat him and still he stands. one of my, the first round of this whole tournament looked great. Nick O'Jerry played him great in the first round. Loved some of the matches that I saw. School Kate, I called her my school, Kate. He was played a very solid, thought probably the best match I've seen him play at this point.

Alvin Owusu (46:35.618)
And still he stands.

Torrey Hawkins (46:54.347)
Your boy Jerome played him solid. I mean, he didn't, he wasn't terrible. Had a good tournament, but I'm gonna tell you right now, Yannick's center, and it was to me the third set of Yannick's match against Jerry, which was a pretty good match. Jerry didn't play bad at all, Jerry picked good tennis. That third set to me showed me that Yannick can shift years. And once he's got the ball he's looking for, the rhythm and the ball, he's not an attacker.

Alvin Owusu (47:09.294)
Yeah, yeah, he played a match.

Torrey Hawkins (47:22.707)
So when a counterpunisher, right, I've used that term before, a player that allows you to take first strike, counters you, gets good at the counter and then knows how to counter and then punishes you when you go for your big shot, when he starts to catch groove and he's doing an off your ball, that's trouble because he's not going off of his own big serve and his own, although he has a good one, he is doing it when he has now found your weapon and has countered it.

You heard it right here. I think this match in my opinion against Holger is going to be pretty much a routine. Holger doesn't have a lot to hurt him with and know the between the two of them Holger Yanis with the bigger serve he's got better returns he's got he's been off the ground he comes forward. There's not much besides grit that I give the edge to Holger in this match to me looks to be fairly routine and the top half to me should stay pretty much in form.

Alvin Owusu (48:17.136)
Well let's take a look at the bottom half of that quarter and I think there's a, yeah, so Alex D'Amnore, I like that he's become so consistent, right, in the last, I would say 18 months, short of that little, know, he got injured right before the match against Novak and Wimbledon, so he wasn't able to compete in that one, but every other Grand Slam, every other big tournament, he's right there, he's right there. He is like a true number eight in the world.

Torrey Hawkins (48:28.168)
100%.

Alvin Owusu (48:46.401)
And he shows it, he shows it tournament in, tournament out. He's coming up against Alex Mickelson, who is Alex Young American. I love the way Alex is. He is big, big game, but his big game also feels extremely safe. And he carries himself like he expects this. Like he's like, the way he stared down, sits the pass in the first round and we called it, right? Like.

Torrey Hawkins (48:46.6)
100%.

Torrey Hawkins (48:53.106)
Yup, playing some ball right now.

Torrey Hawkins (48:59.336)
All right now.

Alvin Owusu (49:14.416)
He beat, played sets of pass like I expect to win this match. And then he did the same thing against Hatchinoff in the third round. Like he's walking around like, no, no, no, no, I got this. I've got this. And shouts to our boy, Robbie Jenepre. He's on Alex's bag right now doing the Lord's work. And yeah, what are your thoughts on Alex?

Torrey Hawkins (49:25.159)
Yep. Naps. 100%. 100%. Naps. Naps is doing some great stuff with them, helping to help Alex stay calm and realize the moment. Demonor is the best chance of the Australian contingency to get to the deep around the tournament. So he's going to have all of Australia turning out for him. To be honest,

And again, I saw the Van de Zandschulp match. I saw the Boyer match. I didn't catch his third round. You heard it right here. He's had a pretty easy time of it. No offense to Van de Zandschulp and no offense to Boyer. Boyer should have been the first round match and Van de Zandschulp should have been the second in my opinion. Right. But looking at what it is, he really hasn't been tested. And in my opinion, this is going to be the match where both players are going to be able to truly see where they're at.

Alvin Owusu (50:08.62)
Yeah!

Torrey Hawkins (50:21.816)
I'm hoping and 'Neps we'll get Alex ready. The problem I see in this match is you never can really count on the crowds effect. And we've seen several matches Alex, where the crowd has come in and been a huge factor in the match. You never know how that's going to affect you in the moment. And he is Australian. So we have to appreciate that going into that match, he's going to have his hands full. And I feel Demon R has a little bit of a mission.

Alvin Owusu (50:42.926)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (50:50.852)
You know, like, hey, this is my time. You know, you heard it right here. Should he get past Alex? Yannick will have a tough time with the crowd and Alex DeMannor should that match come to fruition. So that's what I'm saying. But to your point, Alex, if anybody can beat him, it's Alex, it's Alex Memphis.

Alvin Owusu (51:02.712)
May I think?

Alvin Owusu (51:09.576)
I think you mentioned something earlier about the conditions in Australia. And I think it's probably less the courts and more the way that the conditions, day versus night, kind of change the terms of engagement there. And during the daytime, it's very, very hot, right? It can touch 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That's off court, right? First time I went to that show, I decided to wear a pair of pants.

Torrey Hawkins (51:26.499)
on the game. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (51:38.705)
a pair of navy blue pants, watching Federer on a second quarter, whatever it was, my pants were red by the time I left that match. It was an ugly situation. But if that match is played at night, it's a different match than during the day, right? Because Mikkelsen can really dial it up, and I think that's gonna allow him to dictate a little bit more. If it's at night...

Torrey Hawkins (51:53.175)
Different match.

100%.

Yep. Let's close it down a little bit. Let's dictate.

Alvin Owusu (52:03.813)
which I think it probably will be, quite honestly, for the prime time for the local crowd. If that's the case, it could be tough sledding for Mickelson there. Crowd, conditions, Alex has been here before, Alex Deem, or what I'm saying. But that's one that, I'm gonna circle that one, that's gonna be a fun one to watch. Let's bounce down here to the Fritz quarter, the quarter that was.

Torrey Hawkins (52:05.911)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (52:13.997)
Sir, sir.

Torrey Hawkins (52:20.951)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (52:24.727)
Great one to watch.

Alvin Owusu (52:32.24)
formerly known as the artist Taylor Fritz. I'm gonna, my first, hold on, hold on, hold on, my first trip to the Australian Open was 2015. And I pull into Hisense Arena, Twilight Session, and I'm watching, I walk in on Gale Monfise playing, I think it's Jersey Janowitz, right? And that was a, man, that was a vibe. He ended up losing that match, Monfise did, but he's, Gale Monfise has always held a special place in my heart.

Torrey Hawkins (52:36.503)
What happened? What happened?

Torrey Hawkins (52:43.436)
Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (52:53.355)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (53:02.384)
special place in your heart. He competed at the same time that you were on the tour with with Skow and whatnot. Gale's having a hell of a run, right? 38 years old, I believe, and he won his warmup event before the Australian Open. Come in here, he's got three matches in a row on the trot here. And the match against Taylor, I watched this match, I watched every point of this match.

Torrey Hawkins (53:02.431)
percent.

Alvin Owusu (53:31.532)
It's just like, there's a certain thing that these older guys can do. And Gale does it as well as anyone else. He was able to identify the terms of engagement of this match pretty early on. And once he got past that first set, he was like, Taylor, you're gonna have to step in and really start finishing points. Because no one can defend the baseline, behind the baseline like Gale Monfils. And if Taylor...

Torrey Hawkins (53:37.59)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (53:57.119)
like the yellow monkeys. Eight feet behind the baseline, if it's fair.

Alvin Owusu (54:01.329)
Eight feet behind the base, it was almost like it was a match made in either hell or heaven, depending on which perspective you want to take here. Exactly, but like Gale was playing pong out there. It's like Taylor couldn't punch his way out of the bag. yeah, was almost a microcosm of what you see for these players in that 26, 27, 28 age range. Like that particular group of the Fritz's and the Medvedev.

Torrey Hawkins (54:06.689)
Which coaching corner you're in.

Torrey Hawkins (54:28.577)
He just happens to be 38. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (54:30.8)
Well, yeah, well, the Fritz's and the Mevitev's and the Sysipass's, right, they're all kind of running into the same stuff. Running into the same stuff.

Torrey Hawkins (54:38.016)
So let me say, let me go add a little bit more historical context for you. You're right, I was coaching Scho at that time. This is Scho's first Junior Grand Slam in 04. Scho gets to the quarters and plays Gale Monfils. He gets to the semis of doubles with one Novak Djokovic and they play who? Gale Monfils and Jocelyn Juana. So I saw Gale back to back matches.

We will go on to see Gale numerous times that year and we'll get to go back on and we'll get his take on those matches. What I saw going into that tournament, just for a short time, and I'll keep it brief, Gale had never beaten Jocelyn. And I was right outside the physios office in Australia in 04 and I'm next to the French Federation coach. And Gale was this close to being sent home.

People don't realize this. He had been out there for two years. The French had funded him, sent him, believed in him, and he just continued to just, in their opinion, flop or underperform. And the guy told me, literally, as I'm standing next to the guy, if Gale didn't have a good tournament, we gotta send him home. He's done. Gale had won or was in the draw at the...

previous ITF wherever it was Adelaide or New Zealand wherever it was before this is 2004 Gale wins this tournaments two days later Gale wins the tournament he comes into Australia as the two-seed ironically So now he's on the other side of the draw from from Juana Gale would go on to win the Australian Open jr. Finally beats Jocelyn who was their heir apparent of the next and if for context Alvin

Imagine Impesci Para card at 6-5 and not 6-8. That is Jocelyn Juana.

Alvin Owusu (56:38.266)
Right, yeah.

No, I remember you telling me, we talked about this once, in that 2004, 2005 timeframe, you told me it's like watching Dwayne Wade play tennis. I remember exactly where we were standing when you told me this, actually, we were at RCS.

Torrey Hawkins (56:50.76)
this guy was unreal. Unreal. The guy was, I'm 6'6". I swear to God, Jocelyn was almost as tall as I was, as fit as I was. I'm watching at 30 years old, I'm watching an 18 year old version of me at my most unbelievable best with the big serve, big forehand, soft touch of the net, beautiful one-hander. Forehand was a little bit more Western than mine, but overall beautiful game.

And I'm watching this player play Gale, who at this point is just a, you know, I coined the term with Gale at the time, the Washington for, I don't know, 20 matches that year, that he was a morph. And what I mean by morph, you had your counter puncher and he reached over here and grabbed aggressive baseliner and those two almost never merge, right? Your counter puncher never has power.

And your aggressive baseline never has patience. And Gale has both, and he has speed and a serve. And I said, he's found a way to morph both of these two styles. He's a pusher that's six foot five that has crazy speed and gets with 135 mile an hour serve. So I bring it fast forward now almost 20 years, right? Or 20 years. I mean, I'm gonna say almost. It is now 2025.

Right? That was 2004. 21 years later, Gail Monfies is the veteran. He's the oldest player on the tour right now. And I'm so happy to see him still playing. I feel he showed in Pesci Paracard, the veteran that he was. And buddy, you got to have more than a serve to beat me. I felt like he went on to do the same thing in his second match, he told me, I think he showed Taylor Fritz. Buddy, I had beaten the likes of you for 10 years.

and you had better show me something more than what you're showing me right now because if that's all you got is a serve and a slap forehand it's gonna be a long day for you and I feel like what's that?

Alvin Owusu (58:46.116)
Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (58:55.448)
Is he going past Ben? Is he going past Ben? Is he getting past Ben?

Torrey Hawkins (59:01.088)
I'm going to tell you right now, if Ben shows him the same thing that Fritz and Pesci Perecard, Ben's going down to Monfils. You heard it right here. If Ben shows him some savvy, some slice, some come to net, some break, I've watched Ben play three matches now and I've seen a little bit more patience and a lot better serve management.

Alvin Owusu (59:12.356)
Yeah, I feel like.

Torrey Hawkins (59:28.067)
But I have not seen B game. told you that in the end when we first talked about this. I've not seen B game from Ben Shelton. And if he thinks he's going to out serve Monfils and get through Monfils relish his long matches.

Alvin Owusu (59:43.153)
You know, I was going to stick with you on that one, but I'm gonna actually, now that I'm thinking about it, as I've questioned Ben up to this point, and in the last week, he's done nothing but prove that he's making the improvements. Like getting through Musetti was a big one for him. Handling, handling, handling, handling, he was down like five, two in the first set against Brandon Nakashima, and then turned that one around and won it in straights.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:01.592)
That was a big one, big one for sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:10.712)
Sure, but he struggled with that one. He struggled with that one. He played sloppy with that one and played, and in my opinion, the third set to me, he played as clean as he's played, but he knows Brandon. I don't know if he knows. I don't know if he knows Dale as well. And I want to say this, I love Ben. I'm just worried that Ben's gonna come out there and try the same tactics that Fritz and then Pesci Perricard have both tried and failed.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:12.378)
took care of creative bust. Sure. Yeah. And I.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:21.818)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:25.998)
I think, I just think.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:39.946)
already. That's my concern.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:40.942)
Yeah, think he has the one advantage he does have, like if you want to compare him to Taylor, is that being left handed, being able to take that serve into Gale's weaker return, which is the backhand side, which he has said as much, I just, that feels like Shelton in four actually. But anyways, we'll keep trackin' and I think that's a good one. Yeah, that'll be a good one.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:02.862)
We'll look forward to it. You owe me a six pack of Pogs. You owe me a six pack of scofflaws. And I will reciprocate to you if Monfee's wins that match. And I don't have a loser in that. I love both of them. Tennis is better to have both of them in there. And you heard it right here. If Ben beats him, he's the better person for having gone through that kind of a match. And if he doesn't, and if he doesn't, he needs to find a way to beat him to

Alvin Owusu (01:01:07.565)
Eh.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:13.338)
Fair.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:25.455)
Absolutely.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:31.367)
in my opinion, to truly become a true top five, top 10 player perennially, not here and there with some good results and some good rankings and the points race to truly be a perennial top five.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:43.561)
Not to look too far ahead though, that's a fourth round matchup and on the other side of that, the winner will play the winner of Sanago and Lerner TN. And I think now we're talking about, between those four players, one of them's gonna end up in the semifinals. that's, know, Ben's been there before. Ben has made the semifinals of a Grand Slam. So, exactly, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:51.729)
and learn.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:05.973)
Here in Australia in particular. And this little third quarter here is wide open. We talked about before, Granto Bust is gone. You know, got your, you know, got Teofo's gone. You know, there's so many players that are no longer really in this situation. And I think that's going to be a great matchup. Medvedev is gone. know, this whole draw to me is wide open. And I had Danielle getting at least this far. And this whole draw is wide open right now. So good job for Lerner getting this.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:36.112)
Yeah, mean he's showing the world, like kinda what it looks like. You this is the thing about tennis. When you turn the TV on and it's Grand Slam time, you see a qualifier, a young American, you're like, oh, where'd he come from? He just burst on the scene. But, but, Lerner Tien also was in the next-gen championships at the end of the year, right? Lerner Tien was in 2023, like our top-ranked junior coming out, right? Went to stay at.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:40.629)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:56.821)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:04.586)
I think he was gonna go to Stanford or maybe went to Stanford for a year, a semester. He also torched the Challenger Circuit last year.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:06.589)
Yep.

Can you imagine Basso Boretti and Lerner on the same Stanford team?

Alvin Owusu (01:03:13.956)
Seriously, they can't, I don't know what kind of scholarship situation they got going on there, but that's a, So, but last year, think, I can't remember how many matches or tournaments he won, but he won like seven, maybe seven events. Like he torched the challenger circuit, like really cut his teeth. Like we talked about this before, like what's the one thing that players don't get enough of, and it's matches. And he got matches, and he learned how to, he got comfortable winning.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:17.619)
NIL baby.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:32.615)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:42.704)
on the pro level. And so while it looks like this qualifier is making a run, like for those that have been paying attention, like he's right on time. He'll be a qualifier no more. Same with Fonseca on the top half there. But.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:43.111)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:52.548)
Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll play great. I have to put out one plug for one player. I'm gonna take 10 seconds. Condor at Summeridge. Condor at Summeridge is the absolute truth. That was Mevedeh's first round match, a from Thailand. Unreal. I love the kid, love his game. He's gonna be around for a while. There were two sets and a half before he ran out gas.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:01.723)
Please do, please do. Is it Mitchell Krueger?

yeah!

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:19.43)
that kind of that met if the first round happened to be changed the rules and we're gonna go two out of three Condor it would have beaten Danielle straight in and straight sets you know slash two out of three in that match and I look forward to him another good player on the rise who's you know we haven't had a top-tied player since Peridot Shickapan you know back in the day so one

Alvin Owusu (01:04:42.48)
Well, let's pump the brakes for a second though because this is the tricky part about the wild car system here, right? He wins the qualifier to get in, the big international qualifier to get into this event, to get the wild car, which is great. Puts on a show against Medvedev and really shows people, I can play some ball, but my man is also ranked 400 and...

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:50.875)
Well.

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:57.329)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:08.016)
18 in the world so ain't gonna be enough points to you know he's gonna have to do some teeth cutting. That's okay that's okay that's okay he's gonna do he's gonna have to do it the same way everyone else does it which is get the matches cut the teeth in the challenger bump that ranking up and we hope to see him we hope to see him back in the draw again next year right that's that's what we want from him.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:11.153)
But he's from Thailand. I mean, how many matches has he played?

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:22.831)
No question.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:27.109)
You've not seen a player 400 in the world beat down number former two at number one in the world, let alone perennial top two in straights. We've never seen that from 400 in the world. Just saying.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:37.872)
Hey, hey, hey, Danil, Danil finaled the Australian Open last year. you, you need, I, I, I see you, I see you. did, hey, hey, he did it, but he didn't win the match. He did, it's best of five. It's a, it's a, know, as, as Nobeka showed us over the years, right? Best of five is a skill in its own, right? You need to be mind, mind and body.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:43.818)
To my point. To my point.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:55.503)
Hey, you ain't got to tell me. I remember the match when he was French. When he was up, when Joe Willey was up two sets to one against Novak up in the third and the match got called for darkness. And Novak find a way to slime it out in the fourth and beat Joe Willey six, one of the fifth. Make no mistake. There isn't a better death trap match up in the world than Novak Djokovic. I'm just saying. Hats off to Condor at Sunbridge.

Keep going.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:25.872)
And, and speaking of Novak Djokovic, right? my man is, you know, our boy boss already did get a set, right? Showed, showed, showed his showed some might and then, and then Djokovic showed him rolled up the sleeves. Yeah. And, Djokovic he's had, he's had, know, he's getting better. He's like, you mentioned he's playing his way into form. he kinda, he kinda gave Thomas Mahatch the, Matt, Matt, you know, Mahatch you want more from him. You can tell he's got the game.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:28.943)
Yep. No one else has done it. Yep. Ugh.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:45.506)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:54.576)
but he tends to do this in big matches where he just does not bring, he does not bring what we assume to be top 15 talent and maybe, you know, he is who he is.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:06.774)
Hatch is the new Andre Rublev. I hate to coin that to him. I hate to curse him like that, but he just has that level of game and that level of pace. He's going to bring it rain hail or high water. And that's the problem is that he doesn't have a big game to speak up. But hey, when the A game like that, I mean, I'm with you and he's a short little guy and he's the ball big. Alvin, I'm telling you right now. I hate to say this early this early in the match, but

Alvin Owusu (01:07:12.717)
I...

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:36.205)
I feel like Novak could end up playing Jannik in the final. I mean, there's just what Daniel Gahn, you heard it right here. I feel like Novak. I feel I have to put it out there. I'm going I'm going that deep. and with time with health being what it is, if the conditions are little cooler, the place of night matches, he doesn't get the wear and tear. Number 25 could be right there on the racket and

Alvin Owusu (01:07:47.236)
Wow, wow, we're jumping to that, huh?

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:04.768)
buddy that would be an epic match. I gotta say it.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:04.844)
Wow, wow. Okay. Apologies to Yuri Lahechka because I'm not even gonna talk about him. We're not gonna talk about this right now. You said a thing, you said it out loud, and now I need to move forward and we need to talk about what King Carlos is doing out here, right? Okay, Carlos likes to show up and show everyone the work he's been putting in the off season. My man is jacked, got the serve dialed in, up double digit aces.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:17.693)
I did.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:27.308)
Yep. Sure looks good this round.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:34.776)
Draper, Drapers did that thing where he just messed around a little too much in week one. Playing 15 sets coming in to the fourth round is not a good look, especially the way that Carlos is playing right now. But he did give us some great matches to make week one fun. He had a tough draw like, know, Navone and then Kokonakis and then Vukic. That's work. He put in that work. But...

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:46.486)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:50.603)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:59.094)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:01.708)
Now you got me all flustered because you already called Novak running through the rest of this draw. I feel like Carlos' potential matchup with Novak next round, that is your popcorn match, right? That's gonna be the one, obviously that's the one. You think that's the final.

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:19.116)
Yep, but that to me is the final. That's the final. There'll be two finals, usually we say that's the final, there'll be two finals.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:28.952)
Look, I firmly, this is how I feel. You feel like Novak is coming for 25. I feel like Carlos has had enough of this Jannik Sinner nonsense. This is my narrative, this could be just in my head. He's a very gregarious young fella. He smiles, he glows, the people love him, right? But all this, I love him, I stop doing things when he's playing tennis, right? But all this love that Jannik Sinner is getting,

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:49.735)
I love it.

Yeah, sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:58.617)
I can tell is just pissing Carlos off. And Carlos, Carlos beat him three times last year. Every time they met, he beat him. So he's like, what are you talking about? I won two Grand Slams and I had three and against them last year. What are we, what are we actually talking about? And I think it's, I think it's fueling him right now. I think it's fueling him.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:00.82)
pissing them off for sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:05.46)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:13.406)
Yeah, yeah. Not to mention the unsettled issue. Let's not dance around it.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:21.872)
What the? He's in the draw, whatever, and they're friends. They're friends. I get it.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:25.034)
But this is all players. Trust me. And you heard it right here. It's the caught and the uncaught. You heard it right here. I put it out there. all I'm saying is that, and I'm not saying that Novak will beat Carlos. What I'm saying is, is that Novak's playing himself in the tournament. He's playing better every round. And if Novak, fresh, has first slam of the year, if there's a chance,

I felt Wimby, he was dinged up, slow, and he didn't look like himself. He is playing better every match. And I just will say, when I saw that Wimby match with Carlos and Novak, looked like Novak looked like I feel from time to time. Slow, knees hurt, you know, like he's got some liniment in the corner and had some old Vicks vapor rub on his back and, you know, trying to get some.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:12.164)
Right. Well, yeah, coming off that surgery, like.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:19.993)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:21.542)
some horse liniment on his joints. This match here looks like Novak of old. And when we watch that match, that'll be a heck of a match. And you heard it right here. Whoever comes out of this bottom half will be tested. And I'm with you, Alvin. If Novak doesn't, I think Al Kharaz beats him in this match for the simple fact that he's gone through Novak and has been tested and now believes. No different than that.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:47.502)
No, Alca- Alca- Alca- I feel like he's going to win this tournament and when he does, my man's got the career slam before age 21. Like that's what we're, that's what we got on the line here. Like, I think he has the target.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:52.673)
100%. If he gets through Novak, I think he wins this tournament. 100%, 100%. Right, and, but Novak is playing well, playing into the tournament, hasn't been tested to the degree that he probably should have, and is still fresh. And unfortunately for Carlos, that doesn't, that's a tough match for him. And I'm just saying, whoever comes out of this bottom half to me has a real,

in my opinion 70 % chance of winning the final. That's just how I see it. At this point in the draw from what I've seen so far.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:25.134)
Okay. All right.

Let's keep, let's keep, let's keep tracking. I feel like we're gonna, if we get ourselves, maybe we'll do this. Maybe when we get to the, when the semifinals are set, right, we'll go two more rounds. And I know we'll do a recap when the tournament's over. But maybe if the semifinals get, when the semis get set, we'll come back and we'll break down those two matches and hopefully we'll, maybe we'll be talking about what happened in Djokovic versus Alcáez. Wouldn't that be sweet?

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:31.622)
Yup, yup.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:45.51)
Loved.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:50.118)
Yep, Love to have that conversation. Davidovic, Kofina, Fekina and Felix. felt like Felix has wet the bed once again. I feel like he is the lesser Zverev in this situation. He's starting to pull away. I have not seen him truly get deep into a slam yet, which makes me doubt that he ever will. And that's no disrespect on him. He's a great player.

I just don't feel like he's truly got the.

I'm not gonna say it. I'm just gonna say up to this point, he's yet to prove that he is quarters, semis better at a grand slam level, which to me, Major truly top four. I just put it like that. He's a great player. Tommy Paul once again is in the conversation and this Davidovic for kingdom match will be good for him to see if he could get back there again. I felt like this whole half of show we talked about before, you had Nishikori had a tough first round, barely got through that match in five. I saw that match.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:32.056)
Right. And yeah, that's.

Torrey Hawkins (01:13:53.125)
was a great match. Happy he got through. You got some elder statesman in this match here. He obviously beat, know, then he feeds into Tommy Paul, who's just a younger, better version of himself. Right. I just feel like a boost up good match. That's a good match up for Tommy Paul. I feel like Tommy's playing great ball in the hard court. He's got great returns. Got a good backhand. If for all intents and purposes, Tommy Paul is the American Novak. Let's, let's just be honest here. And to my problem with that is, is that this whole

bottom half of the draw. He's the top half of the bottom quarter. I just feel like he will play spoiler. I'm not going to say he's the favorite by any means, but he will play spoiler against anybody in that situation. I don't want to get too too far ahead, but let's just face it. He to me is favorite against David H. Fakina and he to me will get that quarter. And now we're going to see if Umber

has the goods and that lefty serve bringing it, he can truly be on. Because Umber is another one. He's another one that has had, Umber is a lefty Jeremy Charney. He has had the ability to be big at times and awful at times. He's up and down, he's up and down and when he's playing well, is big. But he's rarely that big for that long. And especially in grand sum, he's a six on one day, a three on another day.

You know, you just don't know which ugo you're going to get from time to time. I won't get to him yet, but I just said to say, I really feel like he, Tommy Paul has played himself into the tournament. He's taken advantage of his draw. He's done everything he's supposed to do. And you heard it right here. He might, he might just find himself in this, you know, in this draw. He might just find himself against, you know, cause he's, he's going to run to Carlos right in the quarters.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:51.5)
He you guys got no he goes got Yeah, that's right. No Tommy Paul. It'd be Tommy Paul Tommy Paul and Hugo it would be the suit

Torrey Hawkins (01:15:56.333)
Carlos, right, it'd time for him to quarter. So Hugo's playing, is playing Carlos next, right, if I'm mistaken.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:02.455)
No, no, Hugo's got, Zverev next. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:04.899)
Oh, Zverev, Zverev, sorry, I forgot about Zverev. Zverev too? Good God. be a tough one.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:08.4)
Yeah, man. That's the, this is the thing that Carlos, when Carlos was messing around last year, like he gets us in the situation where the draws get a little wonky and then also with Djokovic like not playing a full schedule, he ends up floating around somewhere as like a six through 10 seed.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:13.516)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:20.447)
Right. Right. So sorry, you're absolutely right. So it's you go and Alex, and then you've got, so that's gonna be Paul and Carlos slash Novak, yes? Carlos Novak in the quarters.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:26.768)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:35.864)
Nope, So, Carlos Nugent back in the quarters. That's what we'd be looking at. then potentially Paul versus, let's say Zverev in the other quarter. Yeah, you know, before we get out of that, yeah, before we get out of that section, right, I do want to put some light on Jakub Mincek, right? Jakub's the truth. Like, he's the truth. And he ran out of gas against David Afencha-Keena. But I think he showed the world along with

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:45.685)
right.

That would be, that's the popcorn.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:55.646)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:05.816)
Yal Fonseca along with Leonard Tien, right? Like these young fellows are here to, they're ready to, we're not gonna go eight years between champion, like champion generations. Like we've got another crew that are four years behind Sinner and Alcaraz who are ready to like, they're ready to go now. And I.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17:07.774)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17:15.808)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17:25.024)
Jakub, I'll add one thing to that. Jakub Mensik took out your boy Kasper. I'm telling you right now, Kasper has been an off and on top 10 player in the world for the last five, six years. I was shocked, not as shocked as I was with, well, no, I wasn't shocked with Titsipas, but I was shocked that Jakub beat, handled Kasper so handily. And you heard it right here, Munar played a great match with him first round. That was a great match. Munar just ran out gas.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:50.212)
Yeah, yeah, Jamie's tough.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17:53.789)
But you heard right here, I would have thought that with years on the tour, better conditioning, being a savvy veteran of the tour, then he would have gone deeper. And I'll be honest, like Felix, I feel like Casper has yet to reach a semi or better of another match. And I feel like both these kinds of players are just kind of, the more, the less you get deep into a round of a grand slam, the less of a serious threat you show yourself to be amongst this elite group.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:21.292)
Yeah, wait, I'll push back on that though. I'll push back on that because I do, I'm with you on Felix. I had the highest hopes for Felix and to this point it's been, he kinda hit the scene in 2019 kind of like as a stalwart on the tour and we've been six years and we've gotten I think one semi-final and a Grand Slam and a bunch of disappointments, right? But Casper on the other hand, Casper's a true professional. Casper has made four Grand Slam finals.

Torrey Hawkins (01:18:23.283)
Please.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:51.076)
I think Casper is just hitting the upper limits of his skill set, of his abilities, right? Like for him to be top 10 for last five years, right? That's real deal, that's a real deal. But he's, that's about as, he and Rublev are, that's about where they land, right? That's, you can't create more stuff. Sure. Hence the final, hence the Grand Slam finals that he's made. Like he is,

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:11.589)
Kasper is a much more solid player than Rublev and Rublev is one of my favorites. I'm just saying 100 % but I'm worried that a guy with those kind of goods right I'm just saying to go out in the second round I'm just saying

Alvin Owusu (01:19:20.719)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:27.758)
Yeah, I think it's more, I think it's more mensic than it is rude though. Like he's, he's that good.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:30.397)
And I will give you that. Hey, Touche, I'm just saying. I'm just saying it. And you know what it does, Alvin? It makes that player work that much harder the next slam to go deep into the draw to defend how good he is with that top 10. You can afford one bad grand slam a year if you're top 10. You can afford one grand slam, one bad grand if you're top five. You know I'm saying? mean, you better win one.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:34.352)
We and we shall see and we shall see

Alvin Owusu (01:19:53.913)
Right, right. And Casper usually banks on doing well in clay court season, doing well at the French Open and letting it all balance out. if he just has a, what if he gets a bad draw at the French, right? Then that turns into two and then now you're looking at a, right, yeah, now you're talking about like, okay, how are we gonna make those points up? Like he's obviously not gonna do it at Wimbledon. And then he's, you know, he's final at the US Open, once or twice? I know he lost to Carlos one year, maybe when I made it again, but anyways.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:08.762)
which a second round loss will do for you.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:23.534)
Yeah, it's, know, you don't want to be taking that second round loss this early in the year at a Grand Slam.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:26.332)
Right? And you let your American counterpart in Tommy Paul, you know, out seed you and have those easier draws. It reminds me a lot of back in the day of Yarko Nemenen, right? Always hanging around the draw, always solid, always money and never a good match for you, but at the same time could be beaten. You know what I mean? If you play ball, rarely was, but could be, right? So anyway.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:35.96)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:53.724)
Sasha has been sleeping through this draw, quietly been going through his opponents. Hey, you know what saying? TCB strong and no fanfare, no nothing. And I got to give him a lot of credit. He's just continued to make his money. Umber, as I said, could be hot or cold depending on the day that lefty serve is there. No one has a better return. No one has a counter serve. He's truly a two seed in the matchup.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:53.881)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:58.01)
taking care of business, taking care of business.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:22.7)
I think is a generous seeding. mentioned that before, but I think he's certainly has earned it over time. I see him winning this match against Umber and hopefully he gets tested a little bit. Hopefully Umber doesn't just have a flash on the pan set like he's known to have and he can have a very good match because that's what he's going to need going against the winner of Carlos and Novak, assuming everybody plays true to form.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:47.311)
Yeah, think, you know, I'm not gonna go that far because I do feel like, I do feel like Sasha's gonna get through here. Umber, you know, has the ability to come forward. I just don't think he has the ability to do it over the course of what might take four hours. I just, know, Sasha is, you he is the number, he's the number two player in the world. Number two seed for a reason. and he gets to quarters of grand slaps. Like he's, very consistent in that way. But.

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:12.941)
Yep. R-r-routinely. Routinely.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:16.462)
But I will say Tommy Paul versus Alexander Zverev in a quarterfinal. mm, mm. That's, Tommy could get that. Tommy could get that, but you know, we'll see. I don't wanna jump ahead, but because David Ivichkina, you know, he's gonna, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:33.059)
Yeah. Could, yes, will, it'd be a stretch. And I feel like he, you mentioned Carlos feeling forgotten and getting salty. There is one Sasha Zverev that has been around that is like, don't forget about me. I'm still right here amongst that crowd. He has not forgotten how he stubbed his toe in that.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:53.4)
Yeah, let's...

Torrey Hawkins (01:23:01.708)
the US Open final against team, in my opinion. I think he's still looking for potential.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:04.976)
He also stubbed it against Carlos the Fringe-Upon final too, like until the very back end of that fifth set, like he just, it was there for the taking and Carlos woke up and decided to take it and Sasha did not. I'm gonna, here's the thing, we said that, we talked about this before. In the next eight Grand Slams, is it ridiculous to think that Alexander Zverev couldn't just take one of them?

Torrey Hawkins (01:23:10.305)
Right. Right.

Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:23:30.931)
And I think this, this one could be one of them simply because of all the question marks and the way the draw is shaken out. That's what I'm saying. Because Novak or Carlos will take out each other either way it goes. Just numerically how it works out. You're right. And if I had to pick between Tommy Paul, Novak or Carlos, and I pull the one arm bandit and I Tommy Paul, you're not saying that I don't say

Alvin Owusu (01:23:44.781)
Right, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:51.534)
I mean, Jesus.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:00.577)
Yes! You're not saying that I was... Yes!

Alvin Owusu (01:24:02.513)
I'm looking at Jannik Sinner and he's just got it made in the shade right now, man. He's got a, talk about a golden path. Talk about a golden path. Yeah, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:08.085)
Yeah, benefits of being the one seed. Yeah, the benefits of being the one seed. Look at my Chiefs. know, look at my Chiefs, playing the Texans. Do you think we really want to play the Ravens or the Bills? Come on, come on. You know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (01:24:20.556)
Right, right, exactly. Well, like I said, we're gonna come back once the semifinals get set. We'll do a little quick hitter. We'll try to keep it under 30 minutes for that one. We'll see, we'll see how it goes. And then kinda digest the round of 16 quarterfinals and then take a look at the semifinal matchups and then we'll let the games begin. But, Tori, that was fun.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:40.097)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:49.22)
We will talk again soon. Good people, we'll get at you.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:51.508)
Look forward to it.