Ep. 24: Part 1 - ATP Miami Open Wrap-Up and Quarter Season Review

And welcome back to another edition of the best of three podcast. I'm Alvin, that's Tory. Tory, you know, I feel like we've been kind of like, what do call them? Like strange passage in the night, whatever that is. We are, I think you're currently in Miami. I'm in Atlanta, but a few days ago I was in Miami.

diashawk (25:06.274)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

diashawk (25:15.885)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (25:16.232)
and you were in Atlanta. for the people just kind of level set here, it's late Saturday night, just finished up with the women's final of the Miami Open and Tori and I decided we're gonna get together, kind of talk about that. The men's final hasn't happened yet, it's tomorrow. So let that be known. We don't know what's gonna happen in that final, but it doesn't really matter as it pertains to this conversation. It kind of does, it matters, it matters. I'm gonna say that it matters, but we can still get by with 97 % of the...

diashawk (25:35.362)
But we're trying to do it.

Always mad.

Alvin Owusu (25:45.565)
of the information. Tori, know you were intimately watching over the last few days and I was pretty hands on the first few days. before we get into that, tell me about this embassy suite that you're staying at. I want to hear more about it. I hear it's not your average suite of embassy.

diashawk (25:47.278)
percent.

diashawk (26:06.711)
my God. So full disclosure, I'm in St. Augustine and I was in Miami for a hot minute and I decided to dart on back. We are in St. Augustine, the old city as they call it, right on the Augustine beach. I have not been at an embassy suites this nice in a dare I say ever, Alvin. I mean, when I tell you this place, I have been to some pretty good resorts. I work at a pretty nice country club in Atlanta. I I know nice things.

Alvin Owusu (26:18.698)
Yeah.

diashawk (26:36.096)
This is one of the nicest embassy suites I have ever stayed in. I mean, from the entrance to the pool to the, I mean, even the breakfast. mean, you feel like you're at a resort. They call it a resort.

Alvin Owusu (26:51.232)
nice.

diashawk (26:51.926)
But I'm telling you, it's truly a resort-like setting. And I'm gonna tell whoever the head honchos are, and obviously the management here in St. Augustine Beach, the property here, mean, kudos to you guys. This place was absolutely beautiful. And I have to say, I was completely blown away. Don't know what my perception was coming in, but whatever.

Alvin Owusu (27:14.781)
Right.

diashawk (27:15.148)
It was a hundred percent blown away and I will be looking for properties like this every time I go somewhere and so just just hats off to the management here and the the people that put together because when I tell you the waters literally a hundred yards, know right outside the bedroom door, I mean it's just Just nice and it was it's so well laid out doesn't matter if you're with the guys here with them with girls here with the fam

Alvin Owusu (27:23.122)
Okay, okay.

Alvin Owusu (27:39.978)
Okay.

diashawk (27:43.339)
or here on Business Trip, I mean, you'll have somewhere that you'll probably like. The staff couldn't have been nicer, but the beautiful property was what set it off. And you know, I leave a lot of these beach towns, Alvin. Sometimes the property's gonna be little dated.

Alvin Owusu (27:56.32)
I mean, I've been to St. Augustine and it's been since probably like 2000, I went in 2006 and all I remember is drive through cocktails and Ripley's believe it or not. That's the only thing I have in my head from St. Augustine's.

diashawk (28:07.967)
Well, right, right. And of course, Flagler and all that. So I came here many a time back when I was playing back 30 years ago when I was playing with Morales and with Georgia State, we we always played that swing. felt like we were playing Flagler, Stetson and Eckerd and Rollins. It was either three of those four seemed like we caught them on the same trip all the times. All the time we came down. Bottom line, beautiful place. The city downtown, St. Augustine has really come up.

Alvin Owusu (28:23.966)
like Rollins or...

diashawk (28:37.834)
great job of refurbishing it. Great little kind of little Spanish flair they got to it. They kind of the old conquistador kind of theme. They're going a lot of buildings around Flagler. I mean, it's gorgeous. It reminds me a little bit of Charleston and a little bit of Savannah kind of that has that kind of and a little bit of St. Pete, like the old St. Pete, you know, the old St. Pete side. So, but no, beautiful place. you know, shout out to Court Reserve who is

Alvin Owusu (28:44.701)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (28:55.707)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sure, well nice.

diashawk (29:07.593)
on the leading court reservation systems out there that the Mrs. works for, Tim and Ashley Owens, excellent job, great, great function they're having with their employees. So I tagged along with the Mrs. for her work trip, treatment. So absolutely, absolutely. I do it and gave me a great time to catch up on some tennis and look at some things. as I said, I'm raring to talk about so much tennis. I feel like Alvin in this tournament, I feel like, and then we'll get into the ladies.

Alvin Owusu (29:18.941)
There you go, tag along when you can, tag along when you can.

diashawk (29:37.348)
later on, but I feel like we literally saw two different, two divergent paths in between men and the women this tournament. And I wanted to start off with some of the men. I watched each of the quarters a good bit. I watched the semis and you know, obviously we're going to see the final tomorrow. I have to tell you, I have to tell you that each of the matches were pretty solid.

Alvin Owusu (29:45.296)
Yeah.

diashawk (30:06.244)
always fiercely contested as it's going to be at this level of tournament but I felt like

I felt like there were three temperatures I got. I want to start with Novak because I feel like he continues to define age and continues to define whatever you thought he may or may not have been able to do. He continues to tell you, buddy, I'm still the goat and I'm not done until I say I'm done. And that's the first part of that thermometer. The second part that I came away with is there are still

plenty of players that are up and coming that are and players have been out there for a few years, know, so in the low end, even a Baratini that are out there still grinding, they're still saying, hey man, don't count me out just yet, right? I still got a lot.

Alvin Owusu (30:55.176)
But wait a minute, don't count them out of what? Because yeah, don't count them out of what?

diashawk (30:57.958)
Well, that's point. let me get to the third part before and I'll come back to the second. And I felt like the, I'm going to call it the rest of the top 10 was woefully absent at this tournament and also at Indian Wells. And with one or two exceptions, Tommy Paul being one or two of them did not have the quarter or semi or, and certainly not the final of the Australian Open.

to call it a long season, there's still a little more out. For an example, I can give Madison Keys a lot of love. She's still coming down off a huge high of winning a grand slam.

Alvin Owusu (31:38.49)
Yeah, but she, at least she also, but I like Madison, obviously I like Madison for a lot of reasons of kinship towards Madison Keys, but you know, she came off of that, she even came off that Australian Open win and at least semi-finaled her very next event. Like she semi-finaled Indian Wells, right?

diashawk (31:52.333)
This,

Alvin Owusu (32:10.801)
Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (32:19.694)
going, they go into the clay court season against the South Americans and the Europeans. Buddy, you really need to kind of make your, put your stamp on the U.S. hard court, mini hard court season before it swings back for the open, because that's a real good time for you to kind of cash in. You know that a lot of those players live here in Florida. A lot of those players train out of here. So it's not like they're not used to heat and humidity. They're not used to the wind. They train here. They're here. So I say, go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (32:25.649)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (32:39.857)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (32:46.341)
Right. So I want I want, yeah, I want to go back to the, the, the Novak of it before we started kind of un, unpeeling the tournament and talking a little bit about, know, well, you kind of, first of all, right, this, the, the Miami open kind of ends the, it's the second half of the sunshine double, right? So we've got the, sunshine swing. and it also puts a nice little, you know, nice little period on the end of the first quarter of the season, right? So we're at the end of, end of March here.

hardcore events are wrapping up, we're gonna be moving into clay court events after this. So it's a really good time for us to kind of sit down and talk not only about the event, but also about like what we've seen so far, call it, yeah, from Melbourne to Miami, right? The Novak of it all. So I saw Novak play against Musetti, I was in the stadium for that one. And that match kind of felt like a microcosm of everything going on in men's tennis right now.

diashawk (33:24.183)
What's unfolded up to this point? Jan, Jan here, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (33:42.49)
Yannick Sanders at home, just chilling, practicing. He's feeling no sweat bullets from the rest of the tour catching up to him right now. He's like, this is fine, I didn't need these miles on the hard court anyways. So Novak gets down early, Dimaseti gets down an early break, he's down 0-2, and then just decides, yeah, you're not, these children, still children, are nowhere near my level, rips off something like eight straight games.

diashawk (33:54.732)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (34:10.723)
And it was like, he put his chest into it. He's still outside of center and Alcara's who push him. He's still got these guys, rest, no one else has anything on him, anything. And we haven't seen him against like Fonseca, right? And I think tomorrow's match against MnSic will be, will be telling because I feel like MnSic is the less sexy version of Fonseca, like plays a big game, can kind of, kind of rip from all over the place. Like the kind of that.

new school kind of player, but I do feel like it's cool as it is to see Novak do his thing and really like still be able to turn it on. It makes me worry about the state of the men's game right now, especially with like, yeah, be very afraid. we talked about this.

diashawk (34:53.887)
Be very afraid. Be very afraid. The main game right now is like Swiss cheese. mean, more holes in the Titanic. Now that I'm telling you, I walked away from this tournament and I said to myself, first of all, first of all, just look at the, look at the draw itself. Look at how many unseated players, how many top seeds went out early. I think I counted on Saturday alone, seven seeds went out on Saturday out in seven, on Saturday alone.

Alvin Owusu (35:01.134)
Yeah.

diashawk (35:23.712)
Two or three went out on Friday. Of course, that's probably the same, whatever, the second, third round. But Alvin, let me say this, and let me say this to listeners and viewers at home. When you have, well, that's right. It started with three seeds going out, not the least of which was Carlos, Daniel, and of course, Lehechka, who was, you know, we're gonna say, the lower seeds tend to be up and down because they may have played a guy who's, let's face it, who's, well, he's 26.

Alvin Owusu (35:27.654)
Same around.

Alvin Owusu (35:51.097)
Right? Almost seated. Yeah.

diashawk (35:53.107)
you know, a who's dismissing it in 33. They're not that far apart. We get that. But then on the next day, Draper, Rublev, Holger, Shelton, Hugo, Pomperin, and your favorite GMP all went out on that day. And I've got to tell you, call it what you will. I don't think any of these guys have a long enough run in Indian Wells or in Australia or anything.

Whatever, since then, Chapao Ploa, you may give it a love, too. Dallas was a long week for him. And Draper, Draper, course, Draper, and to the point, Draper and Mira are gonna get a pass because of how well they did last week, 100%. To my point. But still, no, and we still have two big ones left, Stefanos and Tommy lost on that Sunday, which is the start of the third round. So then you come into the next one, and you got, of course, Baratini taking down Desmonar.

Alvin Owusu (36:24.409)
Draper, Draper, Draper one Indian Wells, right? Comes in.

Alvin Owusu (36:32.111)
They get a pass. They get a pass.

diashawk (36:50.372)
And then you've got to run a little beating Casper. So I'm just saying, you it's to me, you start looking at some of these things. You can't really call it an upset when they get too, too deep. But I still call Taylor Fritz getting beat by Minsik and upset. And I would still say, I would still say Zverev losing off the fees of an upset. And even though it was, you know, closer and later in the rounds, fourth round, I'm still an upset. You're still, you're still a one-seater.

Alvin Owusu (37:13.402)
Oh, yeah. Kind of in reverse order. Taylor losing to Mincek on paper, it looks like an upset. And I've seen these guys, something about Taylor, when it gets tight, like when it gets to the winning parts of matches, he kind of shrinks. There was a...

diashawk (37:37.447)
Don't get me started on the wimble doesn't match with him and the doll two years old. Two years, three years ago. When the doll hurt his shoulder and had to serve underhand. Don't get me started.

Alvin Owusu (37:40.812)
Right, yeah, yeah, maybe three years ago. Exactly, exactly. And I always tell people like, when it gets close, especially in tiebreakers, like you need to be solid, but you also need to be bold. Like there will be opportunities and you must take them. We get to make returns, we gotta make a high percentage of first serves, but kind of outside of that, like when we have chances, we must be bold. And Taylor is hitting back hands from the middle of the court, just not, like looked like he was not trying to build anything. And we're talking, this is the third set.

tiebreaker here, this is for all the marbles. Exactly, and great players don't do that. They go get it done. Even Djokovic, who will lock down in a tiebreaker, his lockdown is not from a position of defense. He's just going, save your targets, same conviction, but you leave one short, he will tag your ass for it. Yeah.

diashawk (38:10.97)
He was hoping that Minsik folded to the moment. That's exactly

diashawk (38:26.96)
M-M-MORE

I will add to that, Alvin, this. This is why I call it an upset. You can't pick and choose. Are you gonna be the three-seater or not? Either you're the three-seater and we expect you to get to the final over an un-seated player, or you're not really a three-seat. You may get more of a 13-seat. Now, I don't put that on Taylor. Taylor's a great player. If anything, I thought Mincic and him played exactly alike. So you gotta know.

how not only to beat yourself, but also what that player is or isn't likely to do. You had five matches to scout and watch. He had the same. By the way, Mincic never broke Taylor the entire match. Taylor broke Mincic and played a very solid second set on my net. I don't think the third was that bad. Forget the scores. My point is that's a match for Taylor to win. And I'm gonna go a different angle on you, Alvin. It's forget the match.

Alvin Owusu (39:08.867)
Hmm. Hmm.

diashawk (39:26.223)
How many more matches will he not get to to play a Novak, to play an adult, well an adult, to play a center, to play Carlos. To be the man, you have to beat the man. He lost in a round that was gonna allow him a chance to get a look at the man. That's what is so troubling to me is it's not just the loss. The loss can happen at any time. These guys play some 35 weeks a year.

But this one is going up against the greatest of all time. You want to notch your belt, build your career on. That's right. I beat Novak at his prime in Miami, beat him down. I think personally, those are the moments that he's waiting for. And he stubbed his toe with this one, not getting to the, that's me.

Alvin Owusu (40:11.961)
Yeah, here's, okay, I'll push back on that a little bit and maybe even reframe it, right? So Taylor Fritz as the three seed. Let's just, let's say Taylor Fritz as the four seed. Let's pretend like Yannick was here, right? I don't think of him as the four seed. I think you have to look at him as like, is this, does this guy have the fourth best chances of winning this tournament? In any tournament where all the big guys show up, right? Thousands and Grand Slams. And when you say that, yeah, maybe he does.

diashawk (40:25.048)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (40:41.913)
But his chances are pretty slim because I think there's a big gap after the, let's say the one, two and three. And I'm going to take Zverev out of this. I know he's the two right now, but outside of Novak and Carlos and Janik, the chances of someone else winning one of these big titles, you know, obviously Draper did it a couple of weeks ago, but I feel like there's there's a, there's a line there and there's a pretty big chasm between three, which is right now is probably Carlos.

And then whoever's next, may that be Zverev or Fritz, who Fritz actually beats Zverev pretty regularly now. And yeah, so it kind of is what it is. I'm starting to feel like we're in this space where the rest aren't, like the top's just not very deep. It's pretty thin and it's pretty straightforward. So someone like Taylor Fritz is like, well okay, Taylor Fritz is ranked four in the world.

diashawk (41:13.206)
Thank

Alvin Owusu (41:40.118)
or five in the world, what does that mean? That means he's usually getting to the quarters of big tournaments and sometimes getting to the semis. That's who he is. I don't actually expect anything more from him because there's nothing to tell me that I should expect something more from him. He's just as likely to make the final of a Grand Slam as he is to lose the round of 16.

diashawk (41:57.579)
he becomes a three seed in a match in a tournament with center out Alcaraz losing second round. I'm just saying Alvin, he reminds me his up to this point. His results at this point remind me a lot of Tomas Burdick back in the day who was a phenomenal, think, offense to Taylor, I think Burdick was actually a little better of a player, more complete player in all facets. But it seemed like Thomas could never get past the same pace. could never.

Alvin Owusu (42:02.744)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (42:07.352)
Like this a bit.

diashawk (42:25.972)
breakthrough, mind you, some pretty tough talent to get through in his day. But I feel like as big and as good as he was, Rownitch was also very close to this. He reminds me more Rownitch than does of Burdick. But Burdick had that perennial, I could get to two, maybe three semis in slams a year and never really be a threat to win one, which is kind of hurtful. And I'm using that as my example, Alvin, for Taylor. And yet he's been gifted a few opportunities. That and the doll match when he played a wimpy.

Alvin Owusu (42:45.279)
Right, right, yeah.

diashawk (42:55.317)
Nadal literally couldn't serve, Alvin, couldn't serve. And his next match would have been against Kurios. I mean, you're like, talk about a good match. I mean, this is a perfect match for him. You know what mean? And then he had a chance to play the slam. Would he have beaten Novak? Probably not. But he would have. Right. But he would the chance to play him. You gotta play the guy a couple of times. That's how I'm getting that.

Alvin Owusu (43:09.88)
He's never actually beaten Novak, like ever. You gotta want chances. Yeah, I don't know if he actually wants the chances, to be honest with you. And not to slam on Taylor, right? American tennis, think on the whole, you take a step back and look at the macro, feel like men's and women's right now, American tennis is actually in a good place. I'm a little concerned about what happens on the men's side after these top three, top four guys, but.

diashawk (43:30.504)
Very good place. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (43:37.11)
I like, we're in a good place. We're getting swings at the, or bites at the apple, if you will. Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (43:42.024)
back, getting swings in back, no question. Having said that, then you look back at players like Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton. I thought Semi-Quarter played a great match against North. I thought he had a hand to go right there. I really thought that was a good match for Seb. He played, not only did I think that he played him close, I thought it was Frizz the contestant. thought, had he gotten that second set in the breaker, he could have gone three and I thought he may have.

believed in himself that he could have it. Came out pretty, came out sharp a couple of times. Didn't play a great, didn't finish the set, but his second set was some great tennis. Sebastian Korty, heard it right here, can hang with Novak for one to two sets if he had the right service on right day. And I was very happy to see him kind of move his needle up a little bit. And to be honest, especially with the lefty, especially with the serve, I was a little disappointed that Ben didn't have the same length of term that he.

could have and I would just love to see him have just a little better staying power in some of these 1000s, especially with the loss of the sinners and the Al-Khawaz. So same thing, my same argument for Taylor extends by definition to the other three or four.

Alvin Owusu (44:56.246)
Yeah, yeah. So I think that's kind of a, know, we're kind of going back and forth here between like what we saw this in the last two weeks versus what we've seen in the last three months. But I think it kind of all goes together, right? Outside of the, outside of maybe the top four, you can be safer and say top 10, 10 to 30, they're all somewhat interchangeable and I think it's kind of fluid. And that's, that kind of speaks to the, you know, they don't always, there's no one that's gonna.

diashawk (45:05.971)
Sure. It all goes.

Alvin Owusu (45:24.49)
very few players that will show up at the back end of events consistently, consistently. Like, Mousetis is likely to get to the semifinals of a Grand Slam as Ben Shelton is, as Tommy Paul is, like as Stefanos is. Like, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I think that's kind of, that kind of speaks to.

diashawk (45:28.648)
Thank you.

diashawk (45:37.734)
as Baratini is, as... To their fault. And I think that's my point, because I don't put Mousseti and Baratini in that same list of players. know, me personally, I put them on the 30 and outside, not the 15 and in. And there used to be a difference from that kind of player. To your point, they fade the black a little more between the 10. And that's with them is that they don't. And just go back to the top part of my thermometer. And as soon as you keep talking about

Alvin Owusu (45:58.963)
Yeah. Yeah.

diashawk (46:07.665)
long year, a lot of tournaments. Then you got this 37, soon to be 38 year old that's still playing some pretty good ball. I think he missed, I think the stat was he missed six serves in a two set match. There's been games, Alvin, where I've missed six serves.

Alvin Owusu (46:26.102)
Yeah, it's tough.

Alvin Owusu (46:31.77)
Hey, if you miss sixers and you're still in the game, that's pretty good.

diashawk (46:34.724)
You see what I'm saying? Sam was the guy for allowing me to still hold, right? But my point being six total? Six total, and you know the guy who give him returns up, so he got the best returns in the game ever. So I say that to say, Demichart plays some good tennis. I don't wanna jump back and forth. Let me do this. Let me go through my quick notes, and I'll give you just a quick segment that I saw from the quarters, and maybe just dial in a little bit on the men's matches themselves. I felt.

Alvin Owusu (46:40.426)
Yeah, nah he's-

diashawk (47:03.635)
I mentioned Korda and Novak earlier in that quarterfinal match. I thought that Seve played solid. I mean, very well for him. Novak puts you in this vice grip and then he just does not let up on you. I think he plays this through the middle, kind of hard ball right out. You're making you change directions from awkward spots that he knows you're gonna go for. He knows you're probably gonna make the wrong decision. But when I tell you, Alvin, it was tactics.

201 and 202. mean, it was just or maybe even a gradual, gradual level class. The guy was just hammering away at Sebi because he knew Sebi has a back and as clean as his down the line. He just didn't give it to him that often. And so was very happy to see that match, see Novak's just, just his overall savvy, Alvin. I don't think there's many other ball strikers that are as talented as Sebastian Korda out there or certainly, certainly top 10 level, but

when you play, this is where I was getting that kinda earlier when I saw my main man Taylor Fritz playing Mensic. They play a lot alike. You then have to know what your style doesn't like as well. Novak knows that Seve is a lot like him. Has the hands, has the overrides, has a good backhand. So he says, you know what, Sebastian? Nice backhand. You're never gonna get one clean look at it down the line. Those three winners you have on me, that's all you're gonna see. And that just tells me Novak's genius on the court.

where you just, you won't get the ball to hurt him with.

Alvin Owusu (48:34.101)
And you know, as an aside, on Andy Roddick's podcast a couple weeks ago, he had Rafa on, right? So they got a chance to talk for about an hour. And one of the, mean, there've been lots of clips about it you can go find it everywhere on the internet, but Rafa did say something interesting about how he approached playing Novak, where he preferred to play up the middle to Novak because he felt like, Rafa felt like taking his lefty forehand and Novak's backhand was not gonna help him any, because Novak would step in either, he could go back that...

diashawk (48:54.242)
Thanks.

diashawk (48:59.03)
I give health.

Alvin Owusu (49:02.929)
know, outside cross court with him or also have the ability to take that backhand, run it up the line and then kind of put Rafa on defense. you know, the big takeaway is, you know, for you junior players, for you lower level players, you can hit the ball in the middle. It's fine. It's fine. If Novak and Rafa can do it, so can you.

diashawk (49:20.077)
It's your best shot. It's the biggest target in the court. There's no angles. Hit it deep enough, no one can hurt you. And he does it off the returns. He does it off big on the rise backhands. And then it allows him then to counterpunish from the corners without having to go side to side. He knows that next ball's coming back through the middle. It has to. Or you're gonna miss, you're gonna miss trying. So anyway, I thought that was a very good test for him.

Alvin Owusu (49:42.057)
Right. Right.

diashawk (49:48.268)
In the next match, the next quarter, had Fils playing Mensik. Obviously, we Mensik got through to all the way the final now. So, and Fils is just coming off, had a big win. I think this was a good tournament for Fils in general. I don't think that, you know, I saw a couple of matches of his. didn't, he continues to have trouble holding serve. He had trouble in this one here. I think if he gets through those little serving issues, he can have games where he just, his service goes away.

Alvin Owusu (50:10.653)
Yeah, that's-

diashawk (50:17.996)
And his game's built on that first serve. I would love to see him dial that thing in a little bit more. I think he's a very classy player. I love watching him. He reminds me a lot of Scope in a lot of ways. He has that kind of big serve, big forehand, United Staggit athletic. Great presence, great voice, right? But I like he's good at every match. I love the kid, looking kid too. I just feel like I would hate.

Alvin Owusu (50:34.984)
has presence as well. Like he has presence. Moment doesn't seem too big for him. Yeah, yeah, he's good for tennis.

Yeah, hey, hey, brother, that's a sharp brother. Hairline cleaner than the Board of Health.

diashawk (50:48.47)
Seriously, man, I'm just, yes sir, love, I love, and he thrives in that, right? It's like I just see him, you know, he needs to, he needs to get Gail, his barber, I'm sure they got the same barber over there, they got black barbers over in France, but, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (51:00.212)
Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. You mentioned, I think, you know what? This is a great time to take a trip to Coach's Corner. I know we usually do it at the end, but I wanna do it right now because you said something about Arthur Fees' serve, right? And that's one of the things. I think that's probably his biggest, the thing that's holding him back the most, and I feel like my coach's eye sees, okay, that toss is way too high. Way too high. And we often talk about like,

consistency in the toss, we want it to be repeatable, but a lot of that is partly in due to how high we tossed the ball. So can you kind of break down what you've seen in his serves specifically and then what some of our players or coaches that are listening out there, something that you could probably give them to help them with their own serves.

diashawk (51:50.601)
I'm going to talk technique first. First one's got a great serve. I think his toss is a bit high. It makes him vulnerable in matches that are, especially matches that are hidden stadiums where the wind is swirling. The tournament in Unile, Florida is out. I want to say, I sent you a screenshot of it was like between 15 plus mile an hour wind up to 25 mile an hour gusts. So you're not going to ever get a long period of time where you have

no wind in those kind of conditions. And you're Miami, right there on the coast. So good luck with that. Not only is it a high toss, I feel like with a high toss, as you go through the motion, you have to hold your load too long and it's too easy to miss time. The quicker the motion, the less breakdown. The shorter the toss, the quicker the motion, right? And I feel those are a couple of things for lot of the players back home. He's got a nice little pinpoint. He brings his foot up. He has a nice action on it.

Alvin Owusu (52:36.295)
Right.

diashawk (52:49.991)
He's a tall kid, taller, what, 6'1", not quite 6'2". He has good action, got a good arm. He's a strong kid. So he's gonna continue to get better with it. But in my opinion, if anybody would benefit from a more of a hybrid motion and a little bit of a shorter toss, to me, he doesn't have the number of aces that he should to justify the missed first. And then the second thing I'm gonna talk about is tactics. And as a result, he doesn't seem to use the flat body near enough to really dial the target back in.

A lot of guys out, and I've seen a lot of juniors just leaving the college. College, think we almost go the other way. almost, we don't use maybe one first server game, you know, because you're trying to get that first server player and get the points started. But I feel like a lot of players, they will use a second serve for a first serve, but they're still going for the out wide corner. They're still trying to slice you out wide into the side fence on the deuce. And you're like, the goal was to hit a first serve in, not today.

Alvin Owusu (53:43.485)
Mm-hmm.

diashawk (53:49.222)
lesser first serve to the same bad target. And that to me is really what hurts players nowadays is they're thinking, well, I didn't go for it it wasn't a flat. Well, you missed the first serve. You got to have a flat serve that can hit a target 90 % of the time. And to me, that's where your flat body comes in. And to me, especially in the men's game, if you've got a weapon for a serve, then that means on a bad day, it's still a strength. You've got to be able to dial in

one of those serves, your great flat, your good kick, or your slice, that has to have a pretty dependable target for most, that's the body serve. So between technique, don't serve it, don't toss it too too high, too many things can go wrong. Legs can go too early, too little, the foot can come up, be little off balance, just a few degrees front, back, or to the side, you're missing that first serve, you're missing that connection on it. And obviously with the tactics, bring those targets in.

Alvin Owusu (54:42.971)
Right.

diashawk (54:47.397)
especially with a guy like Metsi who's got pretty good returns. You don't need to give up a lot of missed first serve opportunities or give up too many second serve opportunities when you know the guy's not missing many returns either. And that's the last thing I'll say about big serving. Know who you're playing. I had a pretty big serve out, but I had mine up to pass 135. I think my highest was like 139 back in the day. I had a pretty good serve. I'm a tall guy.

Alvin Owusu (55:02.118)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (55:14.031)
Must be nice.

diashawk (55:14.821)
If I had returns, I might've been somebody, right? But the point I'm getting at is, I say it to say, but I had this innate sense going against players that had great returns. They never saw my bigger serves. Maybe occasionally on a second serve I was up in the game, I may have thrown in a second flat when they moved in. I might've thrown a flat body at them at 125, just because I they weren't expecting it and I had the lead. But I knew the guy wasn't gonna hit a winner on me on the return and he wasn't gonna miss returns.

Alvin Owusu (55:33.456)
Yeah.

diashawk (55:43.46)
Why did I need to spend so much energy trying to get my ace through him? Took me a long time to learn that. I had to get to college before I really understood that. know, Chuck McEwen, one of the lessons he taught me when I was at Georgia State, he was like, uh, Hawkins, nice serve, but it's coming back. And sooner you get through your head that it's coming back, the sooner you're gonna get ready for that next ball. And I never forget him saying that. I'm like, I'm thinking my serve's coming in slow. No.

at that level they all have returns. So you know what that means for the pro. So I feel like he just stubs his toe a little bit Arthur. He gets that part fixed up, again lowers the toss, maybe a hybrid motion. saw what happened to Madison. Let talk about somebody who changed the motion a bit and had some great success. Geez, her motion's a lot shorter, a lot smaller. You know what I'm saying? And he continually runs into trouble with the serve. I don't care who he's against, that doesn't matter. It's him. It's toss, it's height.

Alvin Owusu (56:11.439)
It's coming back, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:27.237)
safer too. Like she's not double faulting anymore, which is an amazing thing.

diashawk (56:39.551)
It needs to be simplified sooner the better between toss, between target, but either way, that's the biggest thing for him to kind of get down and really dial it.

Alvin Owusu (56:48.869)
And the height of the toss thing, and I just want to make sure people can kind of conceptualize this, like we talk about time a lot here, right? And what, like, you the amount of time that you have to get certain things done in between, you know, certain parts of rallies. But in the serve, it's almost the same thing, right? Like, you have to go through your entire service motion from the time the ball leaves your hand in the time you actually make contact with the ball. So, like, think about how long a service motion takes. It doesn't take.

diashawk (56:55.107)
Yep.

diashawk (57:04.832)
set.

Alvin Owusu (57:18.513)
that long, so like the toss doesn't need to be that high. Those two things need to be matched perfectly. You don't want too much time. You don't want too little time. And it's very hard to give yourself too little time to hit a serve. So it's like you often hear coaches say like the easiest way to fix a serve is to bring that toss down. Don't toss it as high. Because like you mentioned, you don't want to get to any part of the serve and have to stop and lose energy. Yeah, you want to keep that thing moving. Yeah, you want to keep that thing moving.

diashawk (57:42.4)
and wait. 100%. I used to tell the expression with my juniors, I probably told you this, your serve is leaking power. know, longer you wait, the further out, too far you hit it, you're leaking power. And the longer you have to hold that load, the more you have to work on timing it. All those are moments where you are leaking power and you're not really connecting. You're not getting that snap at the true apex that you could.

Alvin Owusu (57:51.696)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (58:10.992)
Yeah, okay, so I always appreciate a good coached corner trip, especially in the middle of the segment, I kind of, maybe this is a little out of place, but I want to kind of tackle it now. think that the person we haven't mentioned, which I think is the elephant in the room is probably Carlos Aqueraz. And right now, boy's in a, he's in a place right now. Like ever since losing to Novak in the Australian Open.

diashawk (58:15.136)
Sure.

diashawk (58:33.93)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (58:37.316)
He just kind of seems like he's, you we talked about his performance in Indian Wells. Okay, whatever. He won Rotterdam before that. Fine. But we get here to this event. He comes off of a decent run in the desert. Okay, lost a weird one to Draper. But I expected him to like, you know, really put his foot down, reassert himself. That's what you're looking for for, you know, a four time Grand Slam champion. And my man just loses his first match to

David Gauphin, I mean, in the year of our Lord 2025, like what are we talking about here? Like what are we talking, and he played horribly. He played horribly. So I'm putting him as, you know, a player that I've got my eye on, like, hmm, just my hmm list. He is at the top of it right now. And that's probably a little unfair, but we expect things from Carlos. And maybe Carlos is, maybe he's showing us who he is and the fact that.

diashawk (59:11.774)
Amen, amen, go fan.

Alvin Owusu (59:34.862)
he can kind of come in and out of dominant tennis and show us some ugly stuff, you know, in between.

diashawk (59:41.822)
I think some of that's maturity. I think a lot of it is going through the phase of what he expects of himself. There was a former partner of mine that had a great quote that his old coach at College of Charleston told him. Can you win on a bad day? I think the genius of that statement is most people can win on a good day.

Can you win on a bad day? These past two tournaments are two weeks long. It includes the qualies. Now, they've got some breaks and some different days, right, Dave? Nope, just put the draw and all that. But these terms are two weeks long. And one thing I like to always ask my players, how many bad days do you think you'll have out of two weeks? Do you think you'll have at least one? I said it's likely you'll have two or three. You'll also have two or three really good days, right? The rest of that is in between, but you don't get to decide necessarily when those days are.

the genius of the best players, I should say the thing that needs to be appreciated with the good players, you're watching them get through. It may not have been their best day on the tennis court, but they found a way to win. And what makes the go to the game, obviously you're Rogers, you're the Dawes in here and obviously Novak, is they found ways to win on some bad days, right? I have to put Carlos in that category because he's won, what's it, four slams? So he's...

Alvin Owusu (01:00:51.183)
All right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:08.697)
Force Lamps.

diashawk (01:01:09.488)
He's won four, you can't say the kid hasn't done it, right? I would take the loss itself as a blip, but I would still, like I said with Fritz, if he wants to establish himself as one of the greats in the game, he's gotta be able to get through tournaments like this to play his game, or at the very least, followed up with a solid rebound tournament in Monte Carlo, Madrid, whatever the next big one is for him that he plays. And I think he will. I think the question for Carlos is,

I don't want to see Carlos at a point where he's to question Carlos. He plays with such confidence and such athleticism and such just a pure, almost an innate sense. Some of the shots he goes for in things are almost stuff you wouldn't coach. You're sitting there holding your, holding your, I'm like, don't go down the line. great shot. You know, and you need to have that. That's his, that's his superpower. But at the same time, you gotta be able to win on a bad day. And I'm not saying that, and the two are not mutually exclusive.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:52.482)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:56.845)
Right.

diashawk (01:02:07.098)
He can still go for that shot on the days he's on, but he has to learn how to just grind through more or less the routine matches and handle those kinds of things. Look, last week, Novak lost to Van Der Schluyck or whatever his name is, and early in the game, so it's not uncommon that you can lose a rando match. I'm just, not worried about Carlos. I'm more worried about other players than I am about Carlos. But I say that to say.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:18.2)
So what.

diashawk (01:02:35.703)
I say that to say, but he has got to learn that side of it before, in my opinion, before number five, you know, because at that point, then he's matured and understand it's not all about I have to be on. And I really think that's where he's at right now, he thinks has to be on to win. And that's a problem. That's a burden.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:43.522)
Right, so.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:50.094)
Right. So maybe there's three, there's probably three things there. Yeah. So there, think there's three things there. Like one, gotta put some respect on my man, Bautik Van Der Zand, Shlip's name, and that he's, he's beaten, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. In the last seven months, in the last seven months, no, it's been, it's been closer than that. In the last like six months, he's beaten Carlos Ocaraz at the US Open. He takes down the doll.

diashawk (01:03:03.922)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry, Bachelor.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:19.168)
in Davis Cup and then takes out Novak in Indian Wells. Look, you can't say exactly. Put that hat on. You put that hat on right now. can't say anything about Batic, van der Zand, Schult. All right. Number two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to call him. Number two, there's something there. There's a little something in the air about Miami, about the tournament itself, right? These guys are.

diashawk (01:03:29.177)
Please, please, please forgive me. A thousand pardons, first of all.

diashawk (01:03:39.449)
Give me a slumber.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:45.646)
you know, they're trekking right now, right? First it's, you know, first it's down under and then they hit, some of them go indoor for a hot minute in Europe and then they hit the Middle East and then they come over to the States, right, to do these two tournaments that are both on hardcore but play very differently in very different conditions, right? So I feel like when I was on site, like, some of the, everyone just kind of looked like, if they're losing matches, they're not putting up a huge fight about it. It's just kind of like, you know what? Eh.

Let's go back to Europe. Let's call this done. We'll tackle these hard courts again in July or August. I'm done here. Get me on the clay. So I'm willing to caveat almost anything I see in Miami always. And then the third thing, Carlos.

diashawk (01:04:28.599)
The both of the sunshine double both of them they're those weird if you want to break out in the tour Those are your two those are your two those are your four weeks to try to break out on those two terms for sure

Alvin Owusu (01:04:32.003)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:41.431)
Sure, yeah. And then the last thing, and this is, I just finished reading this book. It's called The Secrets of Spanish Tennis by Chris Lewitt. He's an American guy, but he spent a lot of time in Spain kind of working with Luis Bergara, Sergio's father, and a couple of his coaches there, and traveling around and trying to get an understanding of what is it, what are the of the tenets of Spanish tennis?

diashawk (01:05:03.809)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:10.668)
It's a great read, highly recommended, just to get an understanding. But Carlos is this new version of Spanish tennis players who grew up with the emphasis being placed on not only the things they teach in Spain about how they approach tennis, but also more so taking the ball on the rise and playing on hard courts. It's kind of a hybrid of the two, a modernized version of Spanish tennis.

diashawk (01:05:34.433)
Yeah, hybrid, sure. A morphing, if you will.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:40.33)
sprinkled in with a little bit of a Mario star, right? Because Carlos does the weirdest, most beautiful things we see on a tennis court. I say that to say, Carlos seems to not, like what is his B game? His B game is not safe grind. I think the thing that Carlos can do on the days when he doesn't have the magic is just try to be consistent with letting his ball

overwhelm his opponent. It's not necessarily where he puts that ball. His natural ground stroke is impactful. It's impactful. He can draw errors just off of that ball, but I think he's so Carlos that it's gonna take a few balls to get to that point. He wants the smash gas on ball six, not on ball, he's not waiting to ball 10. So.

diashawk (01:06:17.191)
I that 100%.

diashawk (01:06:25.141)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:35.308)
I think that's what makes it harder for him in two out of three, whereas his best out of five record is immaculate, right? So that's where you got more time to let that kind of subbalance out.

diashawk (01:06:42.153)
He can almost, he has the ability to hit himself back into a match in the three out of five, where in a best of three, needs to be more precise. And let's be very honest, these two tournaments are known to be windy. And for a player that's, you start overthinking and you start kind of not hitting the ball as clean.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:46.603)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:52.342)
rate.

diashawk (01:07:03.923)
You know, in the wind is not a great place to work on your striking and especially if you're feeling a little bit off. I still think it's maturity. That's a part of his game that's developed. I'm not talking about a skill set per se, so much as it is a tactic. That's something I feel like Novak's really honed in over the years. And let's look back at some of the great athletes.

Alvin that have played this game that have taken them a while to really kind of find their groove. Let's be forget, Andre Acasey played seven years before he won his first slam, you know, and you could not get a more athletic, bigger ball striking, shorter point, bigger backhand on the line and laser forehand in the corner than Andre. It took him a while to learn how to kind of harness that and win on some bad days. So I say that to say, you know, I look at

Alvin Owusu (01:07:41.824)
Yeah, that's a good point.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:48.758)
Well, Pete as well. Pete went kind of like after he won his first US Open and then kind of went into the wilderness a little bit and then.

diashawk (01:07:54.282)
had a house at the Boris Becker won one with me back to back and didn't win another one for five, five, six years. You had to learn to have a complete game. Yeah. That's fed took about five years, took about five years to kind of get to get on the map and then she blew the cover off after that. I think he won the next nine or 12. But my point being to my point, these are things that

Alvin Owusu (01:08:01.003)
I think Fed, maybe Fed kind of similar. Maybe Fed won his first one and then, yeah. Yeah.

diashawk (01:08:16.112)
Just because he has won that early doesn't mean he's polished yet. He's happened to come in at a time. And that's why I say I'm not too worried about Carlos. Carlos is going to be fine. Keep trusting Carlos. Learn to your point. Learn a B game. You got to have one. I think that's the thing that I would recommend. And whether it's just, say, for targets and knowing that that's enough, whether that's trusting your legs and your fitness on a bad day, which is I always tell players, trust your fitness on a bad day. Make more balls. Keep it cross-court. You you don't have to change. That may be where he feels like he has to to win.

But in that mind, and again another great tennis-ism that I've always used, I think it's just a classic, you don't have to win. You can allow your player, your opponent to lose. And I have to say...

Alvin Owusu (01:08:59.09)
Right, right, yeah. Vast majority of the time, actually.

diashawk (01:09:01.093)
He's that's majority time. He's still taking the burden on himself to win. And I feel like once he learns that other side as they learn understands and appreciates more that he can do that more on a bad day. Save that big blister on the run forehand. Save that crazy break for ankle drop shot, know, for the days you've got.

The other guy is so pinned so far back that it works. Again, Carlos will get that. His camp will get him right. Juan Carlos will take care of him. Juan Carlos, that's all Juan Carlos did. So you know he'll get him through that. This is a part of, this is a part where he has to appreciate that part of the game and not look at, but I won this way doing this.

And I'm going to segue a little briefly going into Ben Shelton. Very similar. Ben has won with that going for broke, going trusting my guns, my gut, my trusting my guns and going with my gut on my instincts and just tagging balls and perhaps almost to a fault because now he's having to play his normal day. And now the guys are taking away a couple of big serves. He's not getting some of those same easier wins and results. And you heard right here, it's very difficult now to kind of adapt to a

Alvin Owusu (01:09:42.559)
Right.

diashawk (01:10:12.326)
a B game mentality when you think when I'm bowling or playing a game I'm pretty darn good. And that's just maturity and several weeks on the door.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:16.554)
Ben is like, Ben's like kind of weirdly between A and B game right now. Like you think about Ben Shelton when he came on tour and everyone was like, man, that serve, that forehand. And I remember watching a cold match, probably two years ago, I watched him play, I think was Musetti, actually Musetti in Miami, that might have been two years ago. But yeah, I saw him play Musetti in Miami and then I saw him play Tommy Paul.

diashawk (01:10:25.006)
Yeah, I agree.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:45.534)
in Australia, probably in the quarterfinals. Maybe that'd been the same year of a vice versa or in the order. he, my takeaway at that time was like, man, that backhand's got to get, we need to shore up that backhand, right? And he, feel like he has. The backhand seems pretty safe right now. It's definitely, yeah, yeah. I feel confident that that thing's not going to break down. But then like, I'm also feeling less of the pop and the aggression on the other wing, right? It's like, he's like,

diashawk (01:10:59.372)
No, yeah, and slice it more and put more balls in play.

Right.

diashawk (01:11:14.336)
Right. Right. Like he's taking 10 miles an hour off to land more of them.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:15.882)
The first serve's almost gotten safe. Yeah, first serve's gotten safe. The forehand's even gotten safe, but it's like, well, what's safe really gonna get you? Like, it's kind of in between gears. I think, and he's also young, right? And he's trying to figure it, they're all trying to figure it out, right?

diashawk (01:11:27.986)
Sure. 100 % and he needs to develop that and put himself out there. I saw him in his first match, one of his first matches three years ago at the Atlanta Open when he played Isner in the quarter and lost in a six in the third and literally had had John ready to retire right then and there. I mean, it was a great, great match. I saw him when he first came out.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:40.688)
Yeah.

diashawk (01:11:52.942)
Shout out to Ben and his dad Brian who I know very well. To your point, the arm was so live, you felt like it was elastic in that shoulder. mean, like he was just, you know, like it was a swing shot. It was coming out of, coming out off so big. I was like you, think he's, he has dialed it back a little bit, maybe at the expense of the pop. But again, and we mentioned just a minute ago on Coach's Corner, bring the targets in.

continuing to fire. And I think that's one of the things, again, he'll get better at. Tough tough, he's another guy with a pretty high toss, you know, and really likes to get out there in the court, you know, a few degrees here and there. A 16 mile an hour win and 25 mile an hour gust does a few things to a tennis ball. So if you're off by a couple inches, especially at that speed and that level, you know, that can throw some things off. So, but again, I really feel like he's, not concerned. It's not like he can't.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:37.513)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:44.425)
You know, we...

diashawk (01:12:49.033)
get it again, it's not like he's gone through reconstructive surgery and will never swing that big again. He just has to get back to point where he trusts it and really finds that second gear and feels good about going for it again. And whatever that's gonna take, that could be one part maturity and one part just some confidence and going through some draws and beats of people and kind of feeling as though it's getting a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:08.168)
I've got two more players on my ATP watch list, if I will. And another one is our...

diashawk (01:13:10.368)
Tooth.

Watch is in trouble or watch is in up and comer.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:16.328)
No, is in trouble. I think we've covered, I only had two players really that I'm happy with, like truly happy with and happy for on the ATP tour right now, and that's Yafon Sekka and Jack Draper actually. Like I feel like coming into the first quarter of this year, you know what, these guys haven't necessarily been here before. I know Jack semi-finaled US Open last year and maybe he shouldn't have, but he has become the player that has semi-finaled a US Open, so be it, fine.

diashawk (01:13:18.954)
Hmm.

diashawk (01:13:24.139)
Okay.

diashawk (01:13:38.667)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:45.776)
And then Fonseca, think we've talked about him at Nausium and everyone else is talking about him as well. it's the, you know, it's coming. If you're, if you're, if he's kind of like the, it's coming, it's happening, pay attention. The fans are turning out for his matches. Like it's, it's, it's not on the, it's not on the way it's here. So I don't even want to spend. Yeah. I don't need to, so we don't need to spill my jink on what those guys have done through the first three months of season. On my watch list, you know, our, our brother and melanin Francis Tiafoe.

diashawk (01:13:50.335)
Go.

Sure.

For sure.

diashawk (01:14:01.131)
Right. Right. It's not if it's when.

diashawk (01:14:13.961)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:15.24)
We are at about 27, 28 years old now. seeing some signs for concern. I don't know where we go with Francis from here. And I'm starting to feel like Francis doesn't know where Francis goes from here either. Results have been shaky.

diashawk (01:14:19.614)
Yep.

diashawk (01:14:25.896)
Mm.

diashawk (01:14:40.2)
at best.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:40.904)
He at best, carries himself, like I think he always will, like the man. But when he goes onto the court, especially the younger players, they don't fear him one bit. And I don't know that they should, to be quite honest. He is a gamer, he is scrappy, he will come up with things. I think he mixes up game styles as well as anyone on the tour. But when it comes to just kind of...

diashawk (01:14:55.645)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:08.839)
tripped through the first three rounds of every tournament like pretty automatically. I saw some bad stuff in Dallas when I was there. I saw some bad stuff this week before I even got there. I'm concerned. I'm concerned and I don't know that clay is the surface that's gonna get me out of concern. Yeah.

diashawk (01:15:18.461)
Yeah.

Yeah.

diashawk (01:15:25.35)
Right, right, right. He might be better on grass, you know, honestly, but he's gonna need a good wimpy. Let's peel back 10,000 feet. The anatomy, better word, the shelf life of the quick and scrappy tends to be about 10 years.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:30.171)
for sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:48.391)
Sure. Sure.

diashawk (01:15:48.71)
You can look at whoever you want to look at. And it always peaks early. They just decide, they just hang on through attrition, through reputation, through savvy. You can go back, I'll go back as far as Michael Chang. I'll go back to Layton Hewitt, Matt's Bielander. I'm trying to give you some of the players that were on the short and scrappy. I'll even throw in for good measure, Olivier Rokas and his brother, right? But you got these players that have been

on the shorter side that have found ways to be a David Inko. Here's another, he's a great player that is so, so you kind of get where I'm going with. Juan Carlos, let me, let's put, let's put them in there. A hundred percent. You get what I'm getting at. These players that have, you know, had the ability to, they were good. And by the way,

Alvin Owusu (01:16:24.79)
Nikolai Davydenko, yeah that's a good one. That's a really good one. Guillermo Correa. Correa is probably...

diashawk (01:16:48.039)
All these things were very good. I'm going to say the ones we mentioned were several grand slams and were good, like good, good. not one in the world good, which is not good. That's great. I say that so that we're clear. They had 10 year shelf lives. There was a peak. They weren't ever as good after the peak. And as far the time progressed, because everything depended so much on that speed, on that level of burst as they got a

Alvin Owusu (01:16:50.257)
Someone grand slams.

What in the world did? Right, yeah.

diashawk (01:17:16.975)
just a tiny bit slower for whatever reason, older, dinged up, whatever you want to call it, their games were never as potent later on. I feel like that may be where, that may be the territory that Francis is treading. I would never tell a fighter like him that he's done, because only he can tell me when he's done. But I will tell you, it's starting to show some, his body may be showing some signs of that 10 year.

Shelf life and it's unfortunate because he's a great talent and he's such an entertainer on the tennis court But at that age right and Francis been out there what eight nine years now, you know on the tour doing the thing He is no longer the spring chicken that he once was and it's not like that style It's not he can lean back on his big sir. It's not like he can lean back on his just crazy huge forehand or something he has to grind he has to and

Alvin Owusu (01:18:08.389)
Mm-hmm.

diashawk (01:18:16.292)
At that level, the war of attrition takes it out of you. So I agree with you on that one. I think that's a tough one for him. I'll be honest, I don't know what that means. It'll be a sad day to see his continued early exits. I think there's another down shift left in his career. He'll figure something out, a guru, a coaching change, a racket change, something, something. He'll figure something. He's just too competitive not to. But again, even that may be.

It'll still fall within that 10 year, I feel, thing. It's just historic, Alvin, it's just something. Father time is undefeated and I feel like his game isn't so varied that he can find another way to win without the grind and taking those death of a thousand cuts. So I think you're absolutely right to put it on the watch list, to be honest with

Alvin Owusu (01:19:09.219)
Yeah, and he's sitting at five and five on the year and I don't like to use these types of stats. I don't put too much into them, but all things considered, we've been on surfaces that he tends to do well on, on fast courts. It's not good. Second round exit in Australian Open, third round exit in Dallas, of all places. And then again, round 16, Acapulco, 32.

diashawk (01:19:17.698)
Thanks.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:38.758)
Indian Wells, round of 32 in Miami. We're not going in the right direction. I put it on him to, yeah, the year started early.

diashawk (01:19:39.906)
No.

diashawk (01:19:44.45)
100 % 100 % but the year is still early the year is still early, you know And so you can't you can't get can't get too nervous just yet But to your point it is cause for concern And he will certainly need some bigger tournaments and a very solid dare I say Wimby and and you know that quick grass court season to kind of kind of have some research and he's got the confidence that if he's playing well and returning well he can he can take down a couple of guys who aren't as aren't as

adept on the grass. So that part I like his game for as well. Heading back to the US Open, I certainly think, you know, he's certainly a player to watch for. But yeah, you've already started to kind of lower your expectation of him a little bit just because of what you haven't seen recently. And, you know, and as I say, you look at those players I mentioned, each one of them had a bit of an early surge within the five years of that career. And then they kind of just

Alvin Owusu (01:20:13.859)
Yeah, for sure.

diashawk (01:20:41.1)
kind of faded there toward the end. that's, again, that's just history. That's just the tendency of that style.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:46.457)
And then in my last one, who's maybe not necessarily, maybe similar size and stature, but very different game style would be Andre Rublev. Rublev caught a bad draw, probably caught a bad draw in Australia, right? He got found second in the first round and we've all come to see what he's really all about. But it hasn't, don't think, my man hasn't done well Australia, Indian Wells, Miami, zero wins. Zero wins.

So he's perennial top 10, right? Always making year-end finals, which makes me think, and he's coming into clay where he's actually pretty good on clay, which you wouldn't think. I mean, I think he beat Novak in a Masters 1000, not that, two, three years ago, the final. So like on clay, maybe Monte Carlo. But I'm less concerned about him. I'm just saying at some point it happens for everyone.

you're starting to see that, know, he's not, the guys like him who would be six through 10 are now starting to show up. The younger versions who do it maybe just a little bit better. And not to say that Andre's game is slipping, it's just like these people, kind of like how I view Felix, right? It's not you, it's you compared to everyone else. You're probably the exact same player. It's just all the younger ones, yeah, all the younger ones behind you,

diashawk (01:21:52.074)
Sure.

diashawk (01:22:00.234)
Yeah.

diashawk (01:22:04.094)
Yeah. They've raised their game.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:11.512)
who have a higher ceiling are just coming to take your place, right?

diashawk (01:22:16.254)
I saw some encouraging news today. He has tapped one of the all time faves of TH, Morat Safin, to be his coach. So I'm just telling you, if anybody, you remember several years back when Novak tapped Gorin to be the head coach and was in the camp. It takes crazy to know crazy. And I think that Safin will be able to talk Andre.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:23.618)
Merit's happened, let's go baby! Let's go baby!

Alvin Owusu (01:22:35.278)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:38.85)
Absolutely.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:44.356)
So is this official? Like know he's been kind of in his ear and I know like he's...

diashawk (01:22:47.805)
I just saw it my ticker earlier today. here and that to me is the best news I've heard from Roger Rublev. Rublev will now have an opportunity. If we can get Rublev to be, what's that game? The kids play with all the squares, you know what I mean? What is it? Something with the blocks or whatever. If we can get him to be that machine. No, no, the other one.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:50.86)
Okay, this is fantastic.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:13.475)
Like Minecraft? No, I don't know, I don't know.

diashawk (01:23:16.701)
It's like Minecraft, but it's the other way. Anyway, you can edit this part when we get to it. I think it's Roblox or RuBlox. Roblox, yeah. If we can get him from going RuBlo to Roblox and where he's just an almost the automaton that he needs to be and just bashing balls, then I, because he has the kind of game out. You talk about a guy that just needs to be able to go keep it cross-court and just penetrate you all the heck.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:21.539)
Nah, I'm leaving it in. Nah, I'm leaving it in. Oh, the Roblox games. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:35.363)
So what's, what.

diashawk (01:23:46.493)
He's a guy that I feel has enough firepower. If he just trusted his game, he's like he's like a soda ling. He's like a, what likes happen? I mean, the guy just can crush a darn ball. And so all the change and all the trying to crush the ball off the line and thread the needle, dude, you hit routinely 90 mile an hour plus off both sides. You know, you don't need to be the one changing. You know, just, just land that concord.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:15.011)
was just war of attrition.

diashawk (01:24:16.349)
Just more of a trick, you get yourself in phenomenal shape. Maybe like Seth, show up in the box with two femme fatales and just be crazy with a little bit. Let's have some fun out here. We're gambling, baby. And I think nobody can speak to him except the master himself who tamed crazy long enough. This is my main memory. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:23.349)
Yeah, maybe listen up a little bit. Maybe listen up a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:36.451)
You know, I'm just happy we're gonna see more Morad Safin around. This is great. We're in this renaissance right now where the guys from the 90s, early 2000s starting to come back around. I love seeing more Agassi out and about. Now Safin, this is good. This is...

diashawk (01:24:47.549)
Right. Yep.

diashawk (01:24:53.493)
Goren's an almost an institution now. He's been out there for a couple of players now. Murray and Novak's box, which is not quite that old, but still, you start to see the old ones come back. I'm just telling you, that's the best I've heard from Andre. And I think you're right. I'll be very honest with you. One of my players on my watch list is Daniel. I feel like Daniel has not made many changes. I said this to in the open when he played, who did he play? He played the young tie kid, I forget the kid's name.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:56.863)
Yeah, yeah, but the guy's like.

Alvin Owusu (01:25:02.166)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:25:17.078)
Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (01:25:22.967)
Kid, had him.

Alvin Owusu (01:25:23.298)
10? no, the first round Australia.

diashawk (01:25:26.746)
Played, this kid, Alvin, I'm telling you, there was a look on his face that he was blown away. Like, who is this kid? And I saw the same look on Stefano's face. I saw the same look on his face. I that, I see this look, like, who are these kids? Like, where do they come from? It wasn't a, I saw that look on Isner's face when Ben Shelton played him three years ago at the opening, at land open. Like, who is this kid?

Like nobody serves this big for this long. I know, I've been out here for 15 years, right? And it was just this look of disbelief. Daniel is showing me that right now. And I think, I wish there was a coach that I could look at and say, this is what we're going to have to do. But I feel like he might need to reach back and grab that coach or swing up that stature himself to really, really kind of redefine his game a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (01:26:18.55)
He did, yeah, he did just separate with his longtime coach recently. I don't think he's announced a new coach quite yet. But yeah, I hear what you're saying.

diashawk (01:26:26.361)
Yes. I always have to say, I'm piggybacking on what you said with Rublo. I feel like, you got to get a coach, somebody who has some belief in you get you going. wasn't, Zverev is always a question mark for me. Losing the feast wasn't a terrible loss, but in fourth round, but again.

Alvin Owusu (01:26:42.241)
Meh. He lost to Fyss in Munich last year. Fyss beats him. He just beats him.

diashawk (01:26:49.208)
It's just a tough matchup for him. get that. Again, great win for Feast, especially with him losing later on to Domenic. I just feel like I'm still waiting for him to continue to chomp through and build a momentum case, taking him into his first slam. And I've not seen that just yet. And I'd love to. And I feel like that's what...

Alvin Owusu (01:27:14.593)
I'll raise the question, what have you seen that makes you think that that's coming?

diashawk (01:27:20.994)
What makes me think that it's coming is that center is still out, Alcárez is troubled, and Novak's 37, almost 38 years old. If there is a time for it to happen, it's now. And that's what makes me think. He's too close not to, and he's right there. That's what makes me think it's coming.

Alvin Owusu (01:27:39.115)
So you think he's gonna, if someone's gonna fall into one, it's gonna be him. That's what you're saying.

diashawk (01:27:43.358)
If someone's going to fall in and be able to actually do the deed while he's in it, it certainly isn't our five through 10. It will be Alexander slash Sasha.

Alvin Owusu (01:27:54.357)
That's an interesting question. Okay, okay, let me pose this to you then. Carlos does a Carlos and loses in the second round of French Open. Let's say, center's gonna be there because he's coming back, I think he comes back, Rome is his first event back, which is right before French Open, but let's say he's just not ready. Third round exit, right? Let's say Novak, he's broken down by then. Third round exit.

Do you think, okay, week one is over and Novak, Carlos and Janek are out of the tournament. Do you feel like Zverev actually has what it takes to then see himself to the finish line, regardless of who's in his path?

diashawk (01:28:43.317)
I'm gonna answer this two ways. Number one, yes. Number one, yes. He has the game to do it, he has experience to do it. Number two, I hate that all of those people in your scenario faded. It's better for him if at least half of them are still there. Because I feel like the moment would get too big for him, would be his to choke if it goes the other way around. And that's just my personal belief. It's a dominant team match of.

Alvin Owusu (01:28:44.923)
ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho

Alvin Owusu (01:29:06.462)
mean, can, gosh. So, okay, the year that,

diashawk (01:29:11.893)
five, six years ago, or seven years ago, I would love for him to beat Carlos on his way to, I would love for him to beat Novak on his way to. And then at that point, in Sasha's brain, I earned this, not I don't, don't blow this. Do I think he can do it? 1000%. Hey, the kid just got to the final for Cry Out Loud in Australia. I know the kid can do it. It's not a matter of.

Alvin Owusu (01:29:34.474)
Sure, final Australia, final French Open. Like yeah, he's easy.

diashawk (01:29:38.932)
We know, finally that's over, we lost the team. We know the kid can do it. I feel he's the next best threat past those three players, which is to your point. And if those players are up and down, there's a good chance. Now, back to your point about center. Center, and I don't want to get too off the deep end here. Center will come back like he never left. You heard it right here. These types of situations, center's out right now training right.

Alvin Owusu (01:29:53.952)
Hmm.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:01.91)
yeah, he's gonna be fine.

diashawk (01:30:07.859)
Center will pick up where he left off like, y'all should have had me, y'all should have won while you had the chance. Novak, you only can hope the tennis coach in me, the pierced in me hopes he's healthy. But at 37, 38, you know, there's always a thing. And he's flying around the clay. He's playing on limited schedule, but he, again, he's completely dialed in. He just can't affect his own health to that level, not anymore. And Carlos, again, I'm hoping for Carlos' sake that he has a great franchise, because obviously that's the dirt, and that's what he's.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:13.246)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:21.128)
Yeah, never know, some sliding around on clay, weird things happen.

diashawk (01:30:37.543)
while he's arguably as good, if not better on grass and hardcore, he's certainly not terrible on clay. I'm just hoping to hear. You get what I'm trying to say. So I just feel like he's one of those kind of players where I would tell you that I would almost say the grass, he's almost better at grass, ironically, just because of his movement. And I feel like he doesn't hit such a heavy ball, but he penetrates it pretty well. He covers so much on court, he slides so darn well.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:44.894)
reigning French Open champions not terrible on clay. heard you.

diashawk (01:31:06.105)
It's like different parts of his game shine on different surfaces. That's why, again, why I'm not worried about Carlos. But I, for Zverev's sake, hope that the three you mentioned are in it, because then he won't be in his own way. That's just my own personal, from an unofficial psychologist standpoint, hope about Sasha. I hope that he does it. I think he's got one in him, and I really think that he can do it. And...

Honestly, I think that's gonna be the real story going into the French and the whole play court season is who will take out center and who will be waiting for him on the other side of the final when he gets there. That to me is gonna be the real story to me in the next two tournaments because let's face it, Novak, if healthy, will be in that conversation 1000%.

Alvin Owusu (01:31:55.422)
Yeah, think Novak, I think when you start to look at the, you know, start to look forward in the clay court season, I don't see Sinner as the clear cut. Sinner is probably the best hard court player in the world right now. You know, he's gone, know, Australian, US Open, Australian again. So I think that's, there's not a lot of argument there, but on the clay court, I don't see him as being that person. I say all things equal, it's probably...

Carlos and then Novak and then center, maybe Carlos center then Novak, somewhere like that. It's not as straightforward. Especially when you talk about best of five. I think that's a, yeah, it's gonna be interesting how this kind of levels out, you know, going into Q2. So I say, let's, I think we've kind of fully exhausted the inside. Maybe let's take a break here and then we'll come back and we'll talk about the women Miami Open, look over Q1 and kind of take a look forward into Q2. All right.

diashawk (01:32:26.297)
Yup. Right. Not your fault.

diashawk (01:32:41.691)
Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (01:32:50.137)
Absolutely looking forward to it.