Ep. 14: Australian Open Semi-Final Preview

Alvin Owusu (00:00:00)
And we're back, welcome to part two of our kind of Australian Open before the semi-finals preview, I guess, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (44:01.985)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (44:24.366)
In the last episode we went, we took an extended trip to Coach's Corner and T.H. talked to us about how a coach would kind of objectively look at a matchup and watch a match. So if you're starting here, shame on you, go back, listen to part one. But here in part two, we're going to continue that conversation and start looking at the bottom half semi-final between Novak and Sasha Svarev. T.H., what are you excited about? What are you thinking about when you look at a matchup?

Torrey Hawkins (44:30.252)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (44:53.996)
like this one.

Torrey Hawkins (44:56.625)
think that this matchup is going to be very, very key.

On the surface, you've got father time creeping in and on the other surface you've got father time creeping in. You've got one of the best of all time looking for 25 and you've got, I'm yet to win one of these and yet I'm one of the best players in the world. That is a very, very, that's a very strong undertow of this entire match. If there was ever a time for Sasha to.

play big tennis and get through one of his rivals who he's beaten multiple times before, it's now. And if there's never a slam and if there's ever a time for Novak to cash in on 25, it's right now. He has vested one of his rivals, early rivals and dispatched him. I want to say, especially with those three set wins in the second, third and fourth. And he's starting to play Novak-like tennis.

Alvin Owusu (45:36.386)
Never had a slam though, never had a slam. Never had a slam.

Torrey Hawkins (46:01.013)
I am in the preview and I'll go through my objective view on paper. I would tell you if I'm looking at there's three battles. There's the battle of court. There's the battle of time and there's the battle of options. If you look at the battle of court Novak wins this battle a lot. He's got the best returns in the game. He's got the best on the rise in the game.

Alvin Owusu (46:26.062)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (46:29.212)
He probably hugs the baseline a little better than Zverev. And as Zverev backs up to that Melbourne, those Melbourne letters of just a bit too much, which he will do and is known to do, Novak will take away court. Now look at the battle of time. Novak showed against Alcaraz that he can go, he can hit through you from time to time if need be. And I think Zverev has a huge serve and big shots, special off his backhand side. Novak's got one of the best backhands of all time.

Alvin Owusu (46:37.592)
which he will do.

Torrey Hawkins (46:58.064)
I just don't like if anything, it's a draw and the, and the tie, so to speak, they said the tie goes to the runner. The tie goes to the 24 times slam, slam champ. But I look at options. I don't see a lot of extra options coming from Sasha's Varev. He's got the big weapons. He's got the ability to pass. He's got a big frame and he moves incredibly well for his size. Novak can come forward. He could serve him volley. He can drop shot. He can run things down. The only thing that I feel in that realm.

Alvin Owusu (47:06.348)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (47:28.719)
that Zverev is just a tad more nimble and a tad bigger frame and younger. That's the only thing that I give Sasha in those those matchups in which case 2.5 of the three tilt just enough Novak's direction and we're in the slam. I would say that Novak in my opinion has the edge. I look at the serve return of serve

That's almost a counter to each other. Sasha to serve to Novak's return. Sasha's got great returns, don't get me wrong. But I think Novak does more, we made this point in previous episode of the serve plus one, better perhaps than Sasha does.

Alvin Owusu (48:12.566)
Right. Because he's willing to step up to the baseline and actually look for that forehand and dictate from there off the first ball.

Torrey Hawkins (48:16.902)
100 % and and here's the probably the key and Sasha won't change as much or at least he has it up to this point and so now you got Novak who will change whatever needs to be done and so I give that the adjustment nod to Novak but also in the fact that once Sasha shows him what he will do provided something weird like an injury or something else Novak will find that adjustment he'll find where to stand he'll find where to move up when to move back how to change up how to

Alvin Owusu (48:25.654)
Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (48:46.79)
how to bring heat, how to keep Sasha uncomfortable. And if Sasha to me has one good way to win, Novak's not gonna attack Zverev. He doesn't mind going the distance. And this match to me is gonna be a real test of what will Alexander do to change? And he has not done a great job of that in my opinion up to this point. And it will be very difficult for me to see him changing now at this late stage in the tournament.

Alvin Owusu (49:14.432)
Yeah, so you could almost look at that at both from both a macro view and a micro view, right? Like that's been kind of the knock on Sasha up to this point. Like ever since he hit the scene, he's kind of been the same player up until now. Like whenever it comes time to, you know, take control, he's more willing to rest behind the baseline, play a lot smaller than his size actually would allow him to play. Right. So coming into this season, come into this tournament, right? He's humming through this tournament. He's dropped maybe what two sets.

Torrey Hawkins (49:18.064)
Yep. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (49:42.415)
He stood up tall and played some big tennis, especially in his last match against Tommy. But now it's like, okay, now the ultimate pressure cooker of your new approach is against the Shaolin master here, right? Yeah, so has that macro change been made? And then when we get into this very close scenario of one match, can he make the micro changes? And that...

Torrey Hawkins (49:56.705)
All time. Yeah, to all then.

Alvin Owusu (50:09.73)
when you just kind of look at all the stuff you mentioned, Alex is younger and more durable and a little more nimble and all that kind of stuff, well, so was Carlos and we saw what happened. So when you start looking at all of the things, all of the different categories of things that we look at and judging the players against each other, it's like, just don't see how Alex actually wins this match. He may get a set, he might...

Torrey Hawkins (50:26.766)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (50:31.918)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (50:35.918)
He will be able to serve his way through if he can get a break early in a set and Novak plays a loose service game or something like that. I trusted him to do that. Do I trust in him to, when the chips are down and it's time to meet the moment and he gave him set five all in a breaker, something like that. That's where he is consistently against the top players underperformed. Gone into his shell a little bit and underperformed.

Torrey Hawkins (50:55.094)
performed. 100%. 100%. Perhaps even gone too small. Perhaps not gone big enough. Perhaps not trusted as forehand enough. Not trusted to serve enough. We saw that years, years ago against Team in the final of the US Open. obviously, what was the final last year? it...

Alvin Owusu (51:03.126)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (51:11.758)
Against Alex, I mean, against Carlos at French Open. Same thing, same thing, back into the fifth set, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (51:14.175)
And then the French, right? So same thing, same exact thing right there for him to win. He's going to have to win sets one and three or two of the first three sets. And I think that will help him to at least have some confidence. And then you can let father time and the injuries and the durability be on his side. If he drops two of the first two of the first three sets, Alvin, I don't know. I don't know if I could see that being a route. And if he would, if he was the first two man.

Alvin Owusu (51:38.701)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (51:43.905)
I mean, it could be a straight set affair and never really get out of the gate. I am more worried about Sasha Zverev and his long term after this one, because this to me would be a bit of a nail in the coffin for him in my opinion than it would be. Where I could see Novak having a bit of a bad day potentially and Sasha come out serving bombs. I could still see Novak being a threat for a few more tournaments this year.

Alvin Owusu (51:44.034)
Yeah, come on.

Torrey Hawkins (52:14.593)
This one here to me will, it could put the nail in the coffin for Sasha Everwood in a slam. And I hate to put it that way, because I've known Sasha since I was a young age. I know his brother Misha, who was one of Scho's early wins back in the day, at the Eddie Hur way back when he was a top five ITF player. know Misha was telling us all then how good Sasha was going to be one day and so on. So I've known about this kid since shoot since 04. You know what I mean? So you can appreciate how long it's been.

I will say that to you to say, this one has a lot of big stakes for both players on this one.

Alvin Owusu (52:51.49)
Yeah, and I'll save my funny Sasha's Vera that Eddie Hur story, because it's a good one. I'm gonna save it for another day. But I do think a lot of this is gonna come down to one, what time of day does this match get played? If this is the late night Australia match, then it's gonna be colder, right? Balls aren't gonna pop as big, and I think that's obviously gonna favor Novak. I think another thing that, know, Novak is a lot like.

Torrey Hawkins (52:57.757)
Yeah, all good.

Torrey Hawkins (53:14.984)
It's not

Alvin Owusu (53:19.614)
like the Tom Brady's and the Michael Jordan's as they get on the road. They're just looking for a reason, right? And right now, Novak is on the precipice of doing something that I'm pretty sure no one has done before in a Grand Slam. He's got an opportunity to take down number three, number two, and number one to finish out in a row. And all he wants to do is just fight off these kids. I think right now he's just relishing the...

Torrey Hawkins (53:35.977)
and number one all in a row. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (53:45.48)
my gosh.

Alvin Owusu (53:45.954)
the opportunity to do that. But I'll say that before we move on to the next match. I think we both feel like this is no next match to win. Like, assume, his to lose for, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (53:53.851)
It's his to lose. His certainly his to lose. And it's not to say that he's infallible. We've all seen him lay up some goose eggs and some some tough moments. you know, I will rarely best out of five rarely out of slam and rarely with you know, it would take some doing it would take a lot of doing and the right circumstances for for Alexander Zverev to to pull this off. And like I said, great tennis. I'm looking forward to a good match.

Alvin Owusu (54:03.692)
Rarely best out of five though. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (54:22.444)
Yeah, all right, let's bounce up to the top, the top semi-final there. We've got hometown hero, not hometown hero, but the US Stallworth Brandon, pardon me, Ben Shelton. Did I say Brandon Shelton? Ben Shelton against one Yannick Center. Yannick had a, he had a very tough match against Holger two rounds ago and then straightened up and yeah, took care of, looked like a machine against.

Torrey Hawkins (54:32.817)
been. Yep. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (54:44.861)
Yup. Bounced back and looked fine. I was like, I was hoping for Ben's sake that he was dinged up sick or hurt. whatever the, whatever the stomach bug was, man, give me some of that Pepto-Bismol buddy. Because that brother, he came back, almost looked pissed off that, that we thought that he may have had a chance to retire. I mean, I don't want to talk about the whole group match.

Alvin Owusu (54:51.214)
against Alex de Manor. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no. He's right at the ship for sure.

Alvin Owusu (55:03.553)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (55:14.813)
too much, but I saw some great things from Holger and I thought he was on the verge of just tapping out. Here's the flip side of that comment because he didn't and he has survived the worst match of the tournament. was AKA Pete Sampras against Alex Kouretia back in the day when he was puking in the back corner and when coached his back. It reminded me of old school Sam and Kouretia back in the day and

Alvin Owusu (55:27.566)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (55:36.088)
Sure, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (55:42.863)
Man, gotta say getting through that match to me forged my idea of the steely competitor that Yannick Center is. I've spoken in the previous episode about how him and Novak had this savvy way of using the clock, managing the rules and the enforcement of the rules to their favor. And you heard it right here. He did it like a champ, came back out, slow walked back to the back to change clothes, slow walk back out.

gave his camp a nod like, I'm good, I got this. And I said to myself, dude, you limping, now you're walking slow, eh? You ain't no nod. I went to bed after the third like there's no way, there's no way he won the fourth and going away. And I'm like, oh. And so I was, and then Holger starts calling the trainer. That's why I went to bed. I'm like, Holger, you can't call the trainer, you know what I mean? What you got in your behalf is your speed and you're in better shape.

Alvin Owusu (56:15.49)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:36.471)
Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (56:41.112)
So, and then when he bounced back, Alvin, I say this is over. Ben has played great, but Ben has been the recipient of a gift draw with other players being knocked out. That's no disrespect. That's not his fault. And he has been the beneficiary of Foe and others gone out. But I'm gonna say what you heard right here. This one here, in my opinion.

Alvin Owusu (56:41.293)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:50.998)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:55.373)
That's what happens, but yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (57:06.394)
Right? Even, even Gale. I don't want to put too much in the Gale match because Gale retired, but I want to say it from standpoint of to say, I don't, he hasn't gone five yet. If my, if my accurate, if I'm accurate on the match stats and I just don't know if he's ready to go five, one of the best returners so far that he's played and the current number one and defending champ. And I don't know if his other ways to win are

sure enough at this point in his career to beat Yannick another way. That's my concern.

Alvin Owusu (57:41.163)
Right and that's kind of the issue like yeah, he hasn't gone five He's gone, know four a couple times and one of those was a a short four and that he that gail Retired against him. Yeah and the fourth set early And he has had a pretty good draw, right? He took out musetti in there But then was I think he was the beneficiary of gail beating beating no, no beating Taylor who was the four seed, right? So that was yeah, that was that was the spot that that was that that should have been

Torrey Hawkins (57:49.855)
One zero. Right. Not even a four to me.

Torrey Hawkins (58:00.888)
card.

No, yeah, sure, sure, Fritz.

Alvin Owusu (58:09.42)
which you would say, for instance, quarter, right? So, but I think the kind of the, when you start to look at the characteristics of the match, like what does one player do well? What does the other player, like how does he hurt the other player? I think it just doesn't, it doesn't math out well for Ben, right? And I think that has shown up in their head-to-head, right? Like they played four times last year and Jannik lost one set in those four matches. So it's, he's got him kind of like, almost like he likes his ball. Jannik likes Ben's ball.

Torrey Hawkins (58:29.624)
Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (58:35.544)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (58:37.858)
Like Yannick's not giving up much space off the baseline. Like Ben's not gonna be able to push him backwards. And I don't think Ben returns well enough actually to match up with Yannick's one of the best first serves in the game right now.

Torrey Hawkins (58:41.91)
Yup, yup, yup. Now that's the key. That's the key.

sure and being left is gonna change a little bit of that but not enough unfortunate matter. I mentioned this earlier in our previous episode about our weapons are gonna cancel each other out right. You know Ben's got the big serve. You know Yanis got great returns. Those are gonna be what they are right. They're gonna there's gonna be more aces than you thought there's gonna be more great returns than you thought but that's gonna largely be statistically speaking a wash. The second and more key matchup is going to be Ben's returns

Alvin Owusu (58:54.539)
Not enough.

Torrey Hawkins (59:21.057)
to Yannick's serve, right? And it's gonna be, does Ben want to win the longer points? Is Ben gonna transition to Yannick's passes? I don't know if I like either one of those options for Ben at this point in his career. Do I think he'll get there eventually? Yes, but do I think it'll be there by tomorrow? I really don't. I just think it's gonna be a tough call for him. The other thing, if the longer it goes,

Alvin Owusu (59:22.584)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (59:40.718)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (59:47.634)
I could see that taking the legs out from under Ben on future service games. And I could see that actually helping the Yannick. assuming Yannick is actually back healthy and good to go, is all indication of what he is, I just don't, man, it would be hard, best case scenario from what I'm looking at playing the way they are, Ben could steal a couple of breakers and push this thing to five. It's what I'm hoping happens, right? As a fan, and I know Brian very well.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:00.386)
Yeah, he looks like he is, yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:12.396)
Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:17.302)
huge fan of Ben and all that he's accomplished but he's gonna have to look at this match in my opinion over the next six months to two years and say how do I get this number of weapons in my arsenal so that I'm not just a one-two punch I have other ways to beat you I have other ways to bring pressure to you because unfortunately he's got a lot of pressure on himself to hit big serve big finish early and that's a lot of pressure against a guy who's patient

tactical, covers the court amazingly well, and by the way, has four slams already, and about similar age. That's a tough order, that's a tall order.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:54.944)
Right, yeah, and you know, think, well one, two slams, two. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Janik's got two, both last year, but he's got two. Yeah, exactly. But I saw Ben play last year in Miami when I was down there, and he played against Musetti, which is interesting that like, Musetti, I came away from that match thinking, man, his B game really isn't there yet. Like there isn't the safety that I wanna see in someone who has all these big weapons, right?

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:59.062)
Mm. Right. Could be two more at end of the year. Forgive me. I'm picking Carlos.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:24.206)
You know, we don't necessarily always rise to the best versions of ourself. We often fall to our practice level, right? And so that was that was missing in March of 2024 fast forward to August of 2024. He looked like a more complete player at the US Open, right? You're starting to see him making more balls. He gets to the semifinals. He hangs tough with Novak, right? A lot of growth. And I think that growth has continued up into this point. Like he's now he's now semifinal back to back Grand Slams. Like that is not something that we

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:35.451)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:49.489)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:53.987)
that we should overlook in Mr. Shelton's development here. So like you said, I think the ideal version is he's keeping points short when he can, he's getting in when he can to pinch off volleys at the net, but then also getting ourselves into a tiebreaker, right? That's kind of the space he wants to go and let the numbers fall in his favor. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:57.533)
Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:03.687)
Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:08.943)
Sure. 100%. Evo Carlivic tennis buddy. Evo Carlivic tennis. Hold serve, rinse and repeat and just get to the breakers and steal a couple. He is slicing better. He's getting the net a few more times. I find that his backhand is not as sloppy. I feel like the chances he's taken are not near as irrational as they were before. Not off balance as much as he has been in times past. Just watched him in August or late July at the Atlanta Open, which wasn't his best tennis, wasn't his best tournament.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:21.687)
Yeah!

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:38.578)
Some might argue that he cashed it in a little bit early to kind of get ready for the tournaments. But I would say that he played some, his last year was certainly a good follow up. I am looking forward to a good match. I think it's gonna be good test of Ben's future in my opinion against the top one or two going forward. Because at the end of the day, he's gonna be in one of those guys halves. He's gonna be in Novak's slash Zverev's half or in...

or in, not to mention Al Kharaz obviously, or in Yannick Sanders half at some point. So to get through them, right? And not play, know, he got a, the USO before he played Francis Tiafoe. No offense to Tiafoe, but that's a good friendly rivalry match. If I had to play you Alvin in the semis of a Grand Slam, I would be like, that's a lottery ticket. However I'm playing and you're playing, I know you, right? And as opposed, I'm loose, I know Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:09.87)
Y'all next half.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:29.261)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's loose. It's loose. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:35.613)
I got that I feel good about my chances versus playing some guy I don't have played who's a who's a another player who's you know I don't know man that's that's a much different matchup and then here even when he played who did he play in the in the round before we got to quarters of Australia what wasn't it Paul that's why I said what did Paul a couple years ago two years ago so again even right

Alvin Owusu (01:03:54.211)
He lost to Tommy in the quarters of two years ago. Yep. I was at that match. I was actually at that match. It was a fun one.

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:01.871)
Even those matches, I'm like, he's had some great opportunities to play guys he knows, right, in these moments. So I'm not saying he hasn't played any slam since then. Of course he's played some great tennis. He's a top 10 player in the world. I feel he's got, I told you just before the start, I think he's got the best chance of any of them to win a slam. You know, so I'm certainly a big fan of Ben Sheldon. I just think this particular matchup, if you had Fritz there, buddy, I would be leaning toward Ben in that matchup. If you told me he was playing Zverev.

I'd be leaning a little bit to Ben, it's the magic. He's playing against Yannick Center. And I don't know if I like that matchup for him right now.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:36.142)
Yeah.

This is more of a checkpoint in his maturation, because mean, Ben is 22 years old, right? think we all kind of, the story's been told that I think Australia last, maybe two years ago was his first time going outside of the country to play a tournament, right? So he didn't grow up playing the traditional ITF circuit and so on. like this, seeing these players that are kind of in his age range, but bringing different things, he's still growing as a tennis player.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:07.791)
100%, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:08.718)
I think it's house money for him. I think he will show up. He always shows up. So I think that's gonna be a fun one. I think we're... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:17.455)
He's a Boris Becker of type Sydney. a big splash on the stage right when he came out and took him another five years or so. I know it for Boris to kind of fully mature and get his game full and complete before he won his next slam. And I think it's a lot like that for Ben. And to your point, this would be a good match for him to really learn from and his team can help him really continue to develop for that level. Because the top are only playing, they're really playing for those top four players, you know, and obviously at those four tournaments.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:41.217)
Absolutely.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:45.751)
Right. Yeah. All right, let's take a bounce over to the women's draw and we'll start on the top half with Irina Sabalinka and Paula Bedosa. So to set stage there, like everyone knows they're best friends and we previous episode we talked about how Irina is extremely complete right now. She's kind of, outside of that Andriva match, she's kind of like, she's hacking her way through this. Like she's having flashes of brilliance in the tournament, but then she's also having some

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:51.812)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:59.471)
Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:03.63)
and

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:12.33)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:15.252)
some uncharacteristically sloppy tennis, but yet, you know, she's bankable, here we are in the semifinals where she should be. And then on the other side, we have Paula Badosa, former, you know, former number two in the world, gets injured, drops down into, you know, the nether regions of the rankings. And then last year was her first year back on tour. Again, she's climbing back, she still lost some of those.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:21.099)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:34.774)
We like crazy.

Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:39.864)
tough matches that like, know, third set against Navarro at the US Open where like, you can see her tennis is there, but maybe she's just not there. She's not ready to reclaim her position as a top 10 player, but that has all changed. She's playing lights out tennis right now, almost put on a clinic against Cocoa Golf of like, this is how you do it. And now she's in a semi-final. So what are you looking forward to in this match?

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:57.558)
Thank you.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:07.436)
Once they get past the, and they will, the friendship game or two, they're gonna, the first big pump fist and the first big, you know, come on, it's game on, you know, and they'll be friends afterwards, but for that two hours, they're gonna be mortal enemies, you know what mean? As you can expect, both of them are highly, highly top A, type A type of competitors. I learned a lot about...

Arena when she played Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. you. And I'm going to call her Anastasia so I don't have to say her name a few more times. What Anastasia did and much like Vadovsa Stavrka, come back, was top in her game three or four years ago, had an injury, came back and kind of building her points back. You heard it right here. Anastasia was out hitting Arena Stavrka in that match. It found her form.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:39.118)
Probably a chink of a... Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:45.848)
Fair.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:05.15)
really found a way to groove and beat. I was very impressed with how she played her. I saw something, I talk about adjustments all the time. found a way to block returns. She never blocks returns. She blocked some returns. She took away some of the time that she was taking from herself. Let me say it differently. She gave herself some time with her big returns.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:20.974)
Right, exactly.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:32.216)
gave ourselves some time.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:34.548)
were taken away and Anasazi was absolutely cranking off of the ball that she was being given. Quick side note, Navarro needs to go work with Anasazi for about two weeks and figure that part out because when she plays in such context, that's what she needs. And nobody does it to me better than Anasazi. But she also showed me in the Supreme before Badoza how I'm starting to find my form against you. And the second time I see it,

I may have the goods that day, but today I don't. And that's what I see with Paula going against Arena. She has the ability. I don't and she's coming around, but I don't know if she's ready to beat a player on both sides. Let's face it, Coco has played the most aeropro match she's played. We all know the foreign has had some issues. The serve wasn't as big as it's been before. Went away.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:06.263)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:26.19)
That thing went dead for a while. That thing went dead for a while in that match.

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:32.036)
I'll leave Coco out of it right now, but sad to say it was pretty glaring and it was almost a clinic on how Paula just routine almost everything to that side. She served to it. She rallied to it, step ups to it. She approached to it. I mean, she did everything in the book on how to attack a person's weakness. And it got to the point where it almost felt bad for Coco at a certain point. I was like, Coco, quit going left. She ain't going to you. She's coming for it.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:33.592)
Fair, fair.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:43.596)
Yeah. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:54.658)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:00.006)
Sheet forehand, you know, and just go big down the middle and find one. But she didn't. And I say that to say, you don't have that luxury against Arena. Arena's got both sides humming. Her serves looking pretty good. Her returns getting better. She found a way to change it up a little bit. She's been coming forward on a couple. This will be a tough match emotionally, but I kind of see this being two close sets or maybe a slow start first set and second and third going toward Arena, in my opinion.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:27.694)
So there are probably two things that I most appreciate about Irina Sabalinka's game that I think don't get enough attention. And last, and I think maybe a couple episodes ago, I talked about Irina at length and mentioned how complete she is as a player. But the two things that I think, the two of the things that she added maybe two years ago, or really you could see, one of them was due to her increased level of fitness, right? Her footwork is impeccable.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:53.64)
100%.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:57.55)
She moves like someone who is, let's say half her size. She is an athlete's athlete. But her footwork, it's like she's a ballerina. Like she is spot on on her feet. And then the other thing is mentally. She is so mentally tough. She, I mean, everyone, it's the serve and the big forehands and the grunting and like it's the big game that gets all the attention. But it's those two things that I think allows her to.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:03.208)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:13.583)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:25.0)
not just be a one-off Grand Slam champion, where she can, if she wins this tournament, we're starting to talk about where in the record books is she gonna be, right? She's won three Grand Slams at this point. We get to four and we're talking about something serious. Iga has four, right? So I think in this matchup, there's one thing that's interesting, because these ladies, they are really good friends, but they did play three times last year.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:32.709)
Sure. Dynasty.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:42.373)
100 %

Alvin Owusu (01:11:52.161)
And I think I saw all of these matches closer than you'd think and it always comes down to like the first set's always highly contested and then the second set can get a little strange. But they did split sets last time they played. Granted that was on Klay, not sorry, two times ago, Stuttgart. Well, Stuttgart's also on Klay. So their last two matchups had been on Klay, Stuttgart and then Roland Garros. But I think Paola is in a different place right now as a player. Her game's tight.

Mentally, she's right where she needs to be, where she was in like 2021, which is like, you know, also the last time she got a W over Arena and Arena was also a different player then. So I think now you're seeing both players fully formed and at their at the kind of like peak of their powers, if you will. So I think they're both going to bring it. I think this first set is going to be I think they're going to get past this for this friend thing pretty quick because they I haven't really seen it be an issue in the other matches. I think it's going to be lights out in the first set.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:38.317)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:42.787)
Lights out. Sure. Yeah, I agree.

Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:51.382)
And I think this is the instance in which Paula actually steals the first set because I think she's actually playing better than arena is right now over the course of the last five matches that they both played. Paula's consistently she's been playing at about like you talked about your different levels. She's been at about a four since round one. Like she's she's humming and arena has used her fortitude to get herself through some of these matches where she hasn't played as well. But I think this is where it all kind of comes to a head.

I'm gonna step out on a limb here and I say this is the one that Pala gets. And I actually think it's gonna be in straight sets. It feels like a four and two kind of match. I think she's gonna take that first set and I think that's gonna put Arena on her heels a little bit.

Torrey Hawkins (01:13:34.591)
think for you for your sake I think and the reasons you mentioned I agree with the points you make while I agree disagree on your overall result it has been my coaching experience and this is going off your exact points it has been my coaching experience that players tend to play really well and they have a tendency not to play as well right behind it she played out of five almost a six against Coco

Alvin Owusu (01:13:42.878)
Heh heh heh heh. Fair.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:58.415)
Mmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:14:03.607)
That is what concerns me against going into Arena. Arena has not played great up to this point.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:11.68)
One good match, she played well against Dreeva, which is almost like tailor-made for her.

Torrey Hawkins (01:14:15.103)
which I almost think that that match was really her, her four, not her five. I thought it, thought Mira didn't play great that match ironically. Now I would, and I'm telling you, she played a gritty four against Anastasia and had to because she was absolutely on top form that day. I feel that if there was a day for her to bring her five game, which is yet to

Alvin Owusu (01:14:23.704)
Sure, yeah, yes, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:35.97)
Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (01:14:41.798)
arrive and you know it's there it's a two-week tournament it's gonna of course it's get six seven matches you're play the gamut of your range i feel it's more likely for her to play a five for the first time than it is for paula to play a five again and back to back rounds that is where i'm going out with that match that's not to say that paula can't steal one can't steal it in general or still the first but i feel like arena is playing very well the one point that i would completely agree with you her mental

Alvin Owusu (01:14:42.488)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:56.632)
Fair. Okay. Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (01:15:10.592)
I'm gonna use a term here, Alvin. Her mental flexibility, not her mental toughness. Her mental flexibility has gotten so much better. She was always tough. She was always feeling too tough, too tough on herself. She's now flexible enough to get past it. She gets over her mistakes and things quicker. She's got a boyfriend. Her life is more complete. She's not still mourning her father. There's things that she's understanding about herself that I've been here before. I don't get pissed off on that stuff anymore.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:24.726)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:15:40.062)
hats off to Coco for kind of hitting a little bit of that post-mortem and determine kind of realize, you know, it's at the end of world, you know, I'll be back. This is long year. I was happy to hear her maturity in her comments. But in my opinion for this match coming up, I feel like Arena is going to get up for this match and she's going to actually have a ball that she likes, a consistent shot she likes. Paolo likes to hit stuff up for him as well, like a good spanger, almost like a, you know, almost like a, she almost hits the ball big.

I hate say it, almost like Moya, you know, for a young lady. She likes to tag it. But that pace, unfortunately, is going to favor Rina, in my opinion. So there we all will both be looking at the match to see who was right. I'm looking forward to the matchup. I tell you the match I'm perhaps really hoping is a match. Is that against Madison Keys and Iga Shvantech. I just feel like Iga, my God, she just dismantled poor Emma so bad last night. I felt like...

Alvin Owusu (01:16:20.022)
Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for this one.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:38.518)
You know how I was as surprised at that match as I was with the Fekina-Dabidich-Fekina match in Tommy Paul. I kept waiting for there to be more, and yet Tommy never let Fekina in the match. He never let him in the door. And I felt the same way with Iga and Emma yesterday. Emma got to rallies midway through the second when it was over. She was on her back foot hitting buggies.

Midway through the second down a break and I felt like she just finally caught up to the return coming that fast and so Even the match that they showed they showed they I think she won last year. I don't know if it maybe any was I want to say it just it just seemed like I Don't see Madison when she was swinging from the hip serving big coming forward. She just almost trying to out consistency Eager you're not gonna have consistent Eager

Right. And you're going to have to find a way to come big, go behind her, come forward. A lot of guile, a lot of all court, a lot of big serving and really taking some risks on the return, which I haven't seen Madison do a whole, whole lot up to this point. I feel sometimes she's in this, she kind of confuses who she is and what her strengths are in matches like this. To get through the previous match, she'll do some things.

but that kind of takes away from who she is. And I feel like she's in a match now where she's going to need every single last one of her weapons to be on and to be sharp and to be ready. She's not going to beat Iga through consistency and taking time away per se. If I heard the baseline, she's not to take strikes and take body blows and go hard, big down the middle, hard, big body on serves, come forward and just force Iga to be in the worst spot all times on her heels.

I don't know if I've seen that tennis from Madison, dare I say ever.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:38.734)
Okay, so, okay, so it is, I think it's out here on Front Street that I am probably, Madison Key is his biggest fan. Probably right behind Bjorn Franchangelo, right? But I think, okay, so this is what I've seen, right? So, Iga's humming right now. Iga's bakery is open. She is blitzing people, bagels and breadsticks left and right. It's, yeah, it's.

Torrey Hawkins (01:18:46.35)
friend.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:00.176)
Man. Drive-through. Drive-through is like Chick-fil-A. Two drive-throughs. mean. Yo.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:06.35)
It's bad right now. Like she is looking like she's looking like 2023 EGON clay. Like it's a it's a bad it's a bad scene. But there are some things that Madison is doing right now where I think the thing that we we've talked about this before in our relationship, like game style clarity. She's seeing it. She and she's she's had a couple of changes in the last few months. Right. She changed rackets. Right. Went from that Wilson Ultra over to I think she's used on Yannick's Ezone now. And she went from gut.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:23.216)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:35.971)
to Polly, right, which is just kind of allowing her to take off the, yeah, take off the governor and just swing free, right, and trust it. She said as much, she's like, that's kind of the biggest change in my career, I trust it. She trusts the swing. Now what she has to do in this match is trust herself. If this match, Ega will blow you off the court in the first 45 minutes. You gotta weather that storm. Like she will come out hot and firing, and it's a big, the big difference is, is it,

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:38.874)
swing free. Thank you. Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:48.75)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:59.672)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:05.582)
Is it gonna be, are you gonna be down to set to break in 45 minutes or are you gonna be at five all? And if she can trust herself, especially she's serving quite well, right? And she's being extremely clear about what she's trying to do, which is stay consistent long enough until she gets that ball when she has the right ball, pull the trigger, be clear and be clean, right? So.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:27.47)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:30.474)
If she can do that and trust that it's going to have to balance out in her favor over the course of maybe a longer first set. The one time she did BDK, it was pretty handily on hard. Every other time it's been pretty handily the other direction. So I think it's gonna have to be a blend of that. Hold tight in that first set. Stay within yourself, because EGLE's gonna come out firing.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:52.418)
and go the distance as long as you can.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:54.102)
and be willing, yeah, be willing to say like I'm gonna, it's almost like I gotta go like Shaq for 45 minutes. I'm gonna get hit on the free throws, but I'm gonna continue to attack and dunk, attack and dunk, and then hopefully, she's the last one left standing. It's a horrible matchup for Madison, obviously, right? Ego's bad matchup for most people, right? But yeah, yeah, she's gonna be on her throat from ball one.

Um, and you even mentioned, I don't know if this was in the last episode or not, like, Ega is the modern day version of Steffi Graf. And like it's, she walks around the court like, like a menace, right? Head down, brim down. Yeah. She's like, I'm just here to.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:32.695)
Yeah. she's Darth Maul all day. She is. He's Darth Maul. She's walking around while the doors are closed, pacing back and forth. And I think she's closer to Novak in my opinion of the the modern day equivalent. I think that there is a way to beat her. Madison has the tools for sure. The height, the strength, the size. She has all the things that Ega doesn't want. But yet Ega is has proven to be very

is very proficient at defending, right? So, you know, I look forward to that match. I look forward to that match being a match. I don't see that in any way as respectful to your favorite player. I look at it being, but it's going to be, and she has nothing to lose, you know, which I'm sure Bjorn's telling her. You have nothing to lose. You've already been a grand slam finalist. If you want to get back there again, it will not, you have to play, I love the way you said it. Be clear and be clean, but.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:05.304)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:29.814)
she's going to have to go for it out of it. She's gonna have can't be a lot of second serves, can't be a whole lot of can't be a whole lot of going for big shots at bad times. She's got to have a lot of body blows. Ega as any good player is much like Monica Sells back in the day is phenomenal on the wings. She's not great down the gut. Up the gut is the body blows. First step ups for her she go down the she go right the body.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:32.866)
Yeah, you just gotta go for it. Gotta go for it.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:47.448)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:55.175)
She should have overheads at the body. She should have serves at the body, slices flats that matter. And then occasionally, occasionally zinger out wide with a slice, zinger out wide with a kick and then go behind her and come in and close off the volley. Much like, I tell you, who did this the other day, Novak Djokovic did it to Carlos. He just used his speed against him and showed him a different level of play, which Novak's no, he's no Tim Heman, but he came in when necessary because he knew he had to and it was.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:13.378)
Right, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:23:24.947)
It was tactically necessary. And that's what I think if Madison does that, I'll be impressed. B, there are a few players I would love to see more than Madison and Arena playing in that final with just knock down, drag out tennis. That is big time tennis. Not to say that Eagle won't be a very high level, but on hard court, you love to see the two Titans clash, so to speak.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:36.706)
Yeah! Yeah!

Alvin Owusu (01:23:50.349)
Yeah, and that's gonna be, I think the women's matchups are extremely interesting. I think we both feel like the men's matchups are probably a little more straightforward and we probably expect a Novak center rematch in the final. I think the two women's matchups are gonna be extremely interesting on a lot of different levels. But that's why they play the matches. So yeah, I mean this was fun. I think we're gonna.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:10.399)
Yeah. Yeah. That's what thought about the game.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:17.902)
I feel like coming back after the finals of both, uh, you know, if we, if we feel, if we feel the need to, to, to hop on again before the finals, we'll do so. But if not, you'll definitely hear from us at the end of the tournament. We do a little personal tournament wrap up. Um, this is our, and this is our first grand slam together. myself, Tori best of three nation. Um, so, know, however you're watching this, however you want to reach out, let us know what you think. Let us know what you think about the format. Let us know if there's something that piques your interest or you want to, you want to learn more about or hear more about, um,

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:33.723)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:47.629)
Yeah, it's a two-way, kind of a two-way conversation. We can't hear you, but we can see your words and we're wanting to give you the people what you want. But until then, I think we'll put a pin in it. Tori, always a pleasure, and we will get back at this in a few days. All right, be easy.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:51.762)
the

Torrey Hawkins (01:25:05.266)
Pleasure's mine, Alvin. Pleasure's mine, brother. Look forward to it. Peace.