Ep. 25: Part 2: WTA Miami Open Wrap-Up and Quarter Season Review

I don't know this is going to be welcome back to another episode of Best of Three or if this is welcome to part B, but we're going to chop it up here. We just talked about the men's Miami Open and did a little review of the first quarter of the year and talked a little bit about our thoughts on what we've seen and what we expect to see going into quarter two as we move over to the European clay court swing. And we're going to do the same thing with the women, which actually in my opinion, TH is a lot more interesting right now than what's going on on the men's side.

diashawk (01:40:40.485)
100 % 100 %

Alvin Owusu (01:40:43.035)
You know, we both came out Miami feeling really, really a lot of conviction around some things and a little surprise and a little excitement around others. But I know you were watching the women's final. we're taping this on Saturday night, right after the women's final. Arena won that one in a straight set against Jessica Pagula. I wasn't able to watch the match as closely as you were. So I wanna give you the space to kind of talk about, you know.

what you saw in that match and kind of like maybe what you've seen throughout the course of the last week and a half with our finalists and anything you wanted to kind of cover there.

diashawk (01:41:19.669)
Excellent, excellent. Thanks for teaming up on that, Alvin. First of all, congrats to Irina Sabalenka, who continues to play not only great tennis, but she's been durable, Alvin. She's gotten to the finals of the last three or four major tournaments this year. And for her winning it, congrats to her and her team. Hard to say that against the number one player in the world, but in the...

era of women's tennis where it's been so up and down and so spotty in terms of repeat performances from the top since Serena. I told you this before, she's the closest thing to Serena I've seen. I feel she's not just one of the best players to women's players coming up. She has the durability album that week in, week out, she's just solid. You're just gonna have to absolutely beat

or catch her on a bad day and she doesn't have many more bad days. And so I want to say that at the outset, finaled Australia, finaled Indian Wells, obviously finaled Miami and won Miami today against JPEG. I could not be more impressed with her, especially with all the talk of the tournament season and how long it is and the turnarounds. And yet here she is yet again. And I think that needs to be, that needs to be said and appreciated because the others, right.

Alvin Owusu (01:42:38.71)
Yep.

diashawk (01:42:46.454)
did not play as long as she did in all the other tournaments. And yet she's in it again. So let me just say that.

Alvin Owusu (01:42:49.22)
And you mentioned this, yeah, you mentioned this before. You mentioned the Serena comp before, and you and I talked about this kind of off air a couple days ago. I think it's not as straightforward as with her power and the way that she wins matches, which I think the comp is, when you look at it side by side, the comp is there, right? I don't think anyone else has been able to, you could honestly say she plays kind of like Serena. This is pretty legit.

diashawk (01:43:16.992)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:43:18.307)
But I think the most impressive part and probably the part that you're leaning into is her consistency. Irina Sabalenka doesn't matter the time of year, it does not matter the surface. She is there last two days of the tournament. A bad tournament for her is a semi-final loss. And that's wild on the women's side. That is wild.

diashawk (01:43:40.96)
especially in today's era and post-Sarena. And that's I wanted to say what I said, because it doesn't happen that often. Now, with that said, let me tell you else is pretty consistent, not to the same degree as Jessica Pagula. I happen to know some people in JPEG's camp. grew up with, I used to live with one of old coaches and shout out to her main man, Adam Guski and Anzie Cargill, who were some early coaches for Jessica in some early years.

Alvin Owusu (01:43:44.351)
It's wild.

Alvin Owusu (01:43:56.385)
Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (01:44:10.816)
I'm going to tell you, Alvin, and I want to say this about Jessica Bagula, and I wrote some things down. wanted you to, I wanted to share this with you and get your thoughts on this. I said, and I thought this was pretty, pretty solid. I said, Jessica's personality and demeanor, her game and tactics, her confidence and experience are much needed by the women's tour. If you can go three or

beyond enough to take her down, you have truly earned a result and passed a litmus test of the highest level of women's tennis. Many players have slipped into the top 50 facing various players at odd points, waning older players at the sunset of their career, solid players on their least favorite surface, or after a great week the week before, or beating the player

who beat the player the round before. Not their fault, but they weren't truly tested nor did they reach a level. So it's understandable when their results are all over the place. Jessica provides a standard of play that is both difficult to beat and rarely has a truly off day. So a solid performance against her is something of merit.

I say that to you to say, and I submit to you, especially in her final run this year, and she's done it, Alvin, for over 10 years. Not quite the body of work of Grand Slam wins as Irina Sabalenka, but you'd be hard pressed to find a person who's had the consistency and the body of work of Jessica Pagula. And I say that to you to say, especially in the wake of her taking down Ayala and a few other players this tournament,

a resurgent rata condo, I'm telling you Alvin, she is setting the bar for you have to be this good to be a top five or better player. And there are many players in that top five, and I don't wanna say anything negative about the others to compare her, but you know who they are, who've not had that consistency year in, year out. And Alvin, we're talking post surgeries, we're talking post, you know, some big results, bad results, we're about myrta things.

diashawk (01:46:33.883)
JPEG just continues to get it done. And so I wanted to really put a shout out to Jessica and ArenaBowls. My personal feelings aside, I love Jessica in general. I just feel like she has done the tour of favor by being so good and consistent that she has helped players that have beat her reach a level that when you beat her, you're like, that was hard.

And now I know what it takes. And I feel like Iaola is going to be the better four losing to her. I feel like Rada Kano feels like I went a close three with Pagula. I know I'm right there. My game is back. And that's what I wanted to say.

Alvin Owusu (01:47:05.879)
So then.

Alvin Owusu (01:47:19.159)
Yeah, we've talked to Litmus before, both on this show and, wow, 2008, I was at the US Open, you weren't there, but was, Skoh was playing in the first round against Yarko Nemenen, and we were like, know, Yarko Nemenen is that top 50 Litmus. Like, if you're gonna be a top 50 player, you have to beat him. And there are other players like that, like the kind of, you hit a level like, like,

diashawk (01:47:34.428)
Mm-hmm.

That's right.

diashawk (01:47:41.946)
I'm set.

Alvin Owusu (01:47:46.667)
Karen Hatchanoff is like, you want to be a top 20 player, you got to be Karen Hatchanoff. And I guess maybe even on the men's side, and it sits past as probably like your top 10, your gateway person. Jessica Wigola, tell me Paul, okay, that's fair, that's fair. Tell me Paul, that's fair. Yeah, but on the women's side, because we get so much, there's so much fluidity on the women's side, kind of there always has been that there is very rarely a,

diashawk (01:47:58.529)
I would say Tommy Paul's a better gateway, but a Paul or demon are but but to your point I'm picking up what you put

diashawk (01:48:10.788)
Thank you. Thank you.

Alvin Owusu (01:48:15.552)
someone who's long enough and at a level that's consistent enough to say that this is the torchbearer for this level. And Jessica Bagula has become the torchbearer for, let's say, top five tennis. Like, you wanna be in top five? You gotta figure it out, Jessica Bagula, because it's not straightforward. Well, it's straightforward in theory, but then the ability to actually do what it takes, it's gonna take some time.

it's gonna take some time within the course of a match. You're gonna able blow through her, right? if you, and I saw this in the match against Ayala, it's like you could see the tactics kinda coming into play. And it's one of those like, okay, Alex is trying to get that lefty forehand out wide to Jess's backhand. And at some point she starts to miss wide and also starts to pull line early because the thing that Jess was doing was,

diashawk (01:49:07.161)
Alright.

Alvin Owusu (01:49:12.682)
what she does so well, she punishes everything in the middle of the court. You let Jessica Magula get the ball in middle of the court, she's gonna pong you around like Andrea Agassi. It's like you're in her trap. So you're trying to play maybe little outside of yourself, which is harder and harder to do. You get deeper in the match, let's get tired. And I just start, the air started to come, it's like, that's it right there. It's gonna take a little while to get to it, but it's there.

diashawk (01:49:34.424)
I also thought she did a, and sorry to control, I thought she did a great job just in that match with the olive of not allowing her to get the inside out, the ball that she wanted. She took her cross. She's like, girlfriend, you know what? We will go my backhand to your forehand all day. I'm gonna prove, you want that down the line? You want that down the line forehand? You had it in the first set, but just as soon as I get you, I'm gonna take my backhand down the line.

And then we're going to match up backhands if we have to. She threw in a few slices. She threw in a few shots and she got, she took away Yala's ability to hit the big down the line ball. Once she realized, okay, I got you. So you, so you like that ball. She just continued to make the, she made that second and third tweak of her game that I felt that was the difference. And that's why I say she's a litmus test. Alvin, you're not going to play one way and blow through Jessica Pagula. You're going to have to play two or three styles.

B game, different stuff. She has good enough serve to hold. She has great returns. You know she's not as fast as some. You know she's not as tall and big as others. But buddy, she does not miss balls. She won't panic at Elvin and she will not give it to you. You will have to take it from her. Unfortunate for today, Arena took it from her today. That second set was just an absolute give me that. But her first set, Elvin, she went down 2-0.

Alvin Owusu (01:50:41.653)
She won't panic either. She won't panic.

diashawk (01:50:58.679)
And look, she was almost a little leery, almost a little down. She came back and won three games in the first set of it. Like you almost thought she was gonna take that first set. Lost it first, lost it seven-five. There were several trades of breaks. Arena's got a big serve. You don't just break arena for nothing. And they went back and forth on break two or three times. It just was unfortunate for the end. I really feel like arena got a little, she just hit stride a little more. Then if you saw the match, there was a certain side to play on.

Alvin Owusu (01:51:07.444)
Right.

diashawk (01:51:28.565)
but the wind was so gusty today that that where the wind was too, the headwind so to speak was right in front of you. It was just so hard to hit deep and Irina figured out if I can just tag it as big as I can and get you deep. Right, no problem there. Jess actually missed long a few times trying to tag that ball back with the wind to her back. That was actually kind of, it was almost like she played better wind tennis. Again, Irina plays in this Florida.

Alvin Owusu (01:51:43.188)
No problem.

diashawk (01:51:57.108)
Florida win. She knows she was out of play. So I felt that was actually what cost Jess more than anything else. Everything else was pretty good. Just a couple of breaks that got her. But again, first set was great. Second set was good tennis too. You just feel realized she hit a stride as Arena's been very typical to do recently. She's starting to get what I call the vice grip. Like Novak, she's just starting to know, okay, now I got you. Now let's take it up two more notches.

Alvin Owusu (01:52:04.116)
And it's entering.

diashawk (01:52:25.108)
That boa constrictor effect where you're like, move a little more and I'll squeeze a little tighter. And that's where she's just starting to dial it in, man. And she's just not gonna let you go.

Alvin Owusu (01:52:35.701)
It's weird, like she hits the ball so hard, but, you and I don't know if you've had the chance to see her, you know, in person, but I've like weirdly seen her a lot in person, especially in practices, both at the US Open, kind of before the tournament started one year I was walking around during qualies and she was out practicing and I was like, footwork, impeccable, one. Two, as big as she hits that ball, it's safe. Like it's so.

It's so heavy and when you watch it on TV, you can't pick up on it. But when she's smacking that thing, the RPM she's actually getting on it, it's like, that's bankable. Her forehands, it's safer than Jesse's forehand, which is like weird to say, but that thing is dropping with conviction. yeah, yeah.

diashawk (01:53:10.306)
Pretty

diashawk (01:53:16.69)
100%.

diashawk (01:53:20.99)
And she's six foot tall, bro. I mean, she is a tall woman. I mean, she absolutely bringing it. Again, I feel like she did a great job on her side of the draw. I actually thought that you're gonna help me with the name. Ken Nguyen, I thought was a very good match with her. I thought Jane played a solid match. It was a good second set effort as well. Again, I feel like Arena's starting to match up against these players better. She's handling the challenge better.

just, just because I think the two matches mattered and we know that, you know, Jane had a, had a bit of an early upset in Australia, right? She's, but she's still all day top 10 in the world. mean, five, six, whatever she is in the world now had a good, had a good match against and playing some good tennis, by the way. I just felt like.

There was a point in the Paulini match where I think we both, we all kind of figured six foot, five four, you know, this is going to be, this is going to be a match. I think Jasmine might be five two. I'm going go out and say, she's maybe five two, maybe five three with what shoes on. And Arena might be six, pushing six one. There was a point in the match, Alan, and I've watched Arena play quite a bit over the years. There were times when Arena would struggle.

Alvin Owusu (01:54:24.52)
Hehehehe

diashawk (01:54:39.343)
to be the expected favorite. She would get down when the player make good shots. She would get a little upset if she felt the match slipping away. I saw Arena Sabaleca smile a couple of times on Jasmine's great shots, her great gets, almost as if, and it wasn't the mercy. Okay, I'll give you that. It was a, wow, that's a good shot. Good for you.

Alvin Owusu (01:54:41.779)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (01:55:04.754)
Good for you. That's nice.

diashawk (01:55:07.344)
And it was a level of maturity of saying, wow, I hit that ball exactly where I needed to give you the worst possible shot and you pulled that off. Like, smiled, racket tapped, like, that's a shot.

Alvin Owusu (01:55:16.529)
Yeah.

Novak does that sometimes too. Like he'd just go, good shot, good shot.

diashawk (01:55:23.216)
Right, and what I like about it is, especially for the perfectionists that they are and how as good as they are, it lets them off the hook emotionally to say, you know what, I couldn't do it any better. That's how I get shot. They're not burdened by the win, the result, I gotta do it. She has come into her own, Alvin, and she is playing such good tennis and her mind is there. She treasured the win.

against Jasmine Paolini. She knows eight, nine, 9.5 times out of 10 she should beat Jasmine Paolini. She enjoyed every bit of it. It was not, I'm looking past this match, Jasmine's really matching me, I'm almost a foot taller, I had bigger, I'm finishing. She was like, you know what, I played well, know, Jasmine's always tough to play. It was this kind of almost a revelation of she's just another player in the tournament.

even though she knows she's number one player in the world. And that's Arena's mental maturity at coming of age where she's not her record. She's not her stat. She's her. And a lot of players have struggled with that. think Carlos is struggling with that currently. You have to separate the two. She's having fun out there, Alvin. She's smiling. She's enjoying the battle. I wrote in my notes as well, Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (01:56:35.654)
Well she's

diashawk (01:56:52.3)
The best players in the world enjoy the process of beating you more than they enjoy the win. They enjoy winning more than they enjoy the win. The win's great. Yeah, okay, I won. I had to lose. But I enjoy beating you. I enjoy besting you. I enjoy matching up and changing it up, making the adjustments. That's what drives them. And when you get her to that level and she's done won the world,

she's going to be tough to beat for the next.

Alvin Owusu (01:57:22.162)
Well, she's on the, she's on the precipice of something which I don't think, you know, gets enough attention right now. Like she's, she's done, she started, when you look at the list of like the things someone has to do to become great, right, in our sport, you know, it's, it's all tennis related stuff. mean, when you get to number one, we get to number one, Grand Slam's won, so on and so forth, and she's done all that stuff, right? I think she's hitting that point now where she is,

She is trying to become an icon in sport. And I think just kind of the region of the world where she's from, she doesn't get a lot of attention. I feel like if she were from, let's say, I'm not even gonna say Spain, let's say she was from a Western European country, or if she was from the United States, she would be a really, really big deal. She has this personality that lets you in. She smiles, she's fun. She's cool and...

diashawk (01:58:05.804)
anywhere else. Sure. Germany, for an example, or whatever else. 100%. She does. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:58:20.515)
the brand of tennis she plays is attractive and she has all the stuff of being, and like she's very comfortable being number one. Where like you look at, you talk about like someone like Ega who likes being the best but doesn't seem comfortable being number one. Like I am the one.

diashawk (01:58:36.981)
She doesn't seem as comfortable and doesn't seem as comfortable, I'm going to say, in that process. Yeah, isn't as comfortable in the process of winning. Likes to win perhaps a bit more than the process of winning. And there's a lot of players like that out there. There's a lot of players that fall in that category. And perhaps that's why she's struggling right now. She's trying a bit too hard.

Alvin Owusu (01:58:42.513)
Like competing for it? Yeah.

diashawk (01:59:02.411)
and not playing within herself, you know, trying to outdo what you do and don't get me wrong, it takes a fiery competitor. But I think there's also a point where I saw Hinga struggle with this and she finally kind of hit her head of stride. I saw Celis struggle with this a little bit. lot of the top players that Capriotti, we know struggle with it, right? And had these issues with just trying to, you know, kind of dealing with how good she was, especially at a young age. It's very difficult to play that level of tennis. Let's face it, Sabalinka.

struggle with this early on right in her career. So I think I really feel like what's enjoyable for me to watch her is to watch her coming of age and really watch her enjoy winning and taking it all in stride. She's in the moment Alvin. She's right there. She's dialed in. She's not chasing the results. She's chasing her best tennis and trying to be the best she can be and the results come. I read a she's playing her own best tennis. There's a

Alvin Owusu (01:59:52.528)
Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. Chasing your own best tennis is a beautiful place to be.

diashawk (01:59:57.577)
There's a great book I wrote about, read, The Score Takes Care of Itself. And it was written by, it's by my main man, Coach Bill Walsh from the 49ers back in the day. And he was talking about, you take care of all the things you can control, right? And in that book, they detailed meetings he had. He had meetings with the grounds people at San Fran State. I mean, he had meetings with, he wanted them all to realize,

Alvin Owusu (02:00:04.686)
Yeah.

diashawk (02:00:24.297)
you're representing the best organization in the nation, right? And they were terrible at that time when he first got to it. He wanted them all to believe, really dial into this, we're the best. And he wanted, he got the uniforms, he wanted more gold than me, because he wanted to shine, he wanted the best uniforms, he wanted the best of this. And his whole thing was, he was making them all believe and buy into this best thing. And sure enough in Montana, you know, was able to get him in a bit of a playoff, they had a couple of great games. Then they started winning. It was like they were already used to winning.

because men today all thought they deserved to win because they all want to put in the best effort. But that was, as he said, but the score, he never was worried about the score. And he kept telling them and the players would say it out, Coach wants, could we have been better today? Could we have, could we have just, what more could we have controlled? And that's all it was about every day and day out. You're talking about in the 80s, early 90s. So that mentality of the score will take care of itself is what I think, that's where Rina's at right now. It's really fun to watch her.

Alvin Owusu (02:00:56.525)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:01:22.533)
Yeah.

diashawk (02:01:23.579)
be in that space. And I gotta tell you, going into the French, going into Wembe, there's not many players I see that can derail her at this point in time.

Alvin Owusu (02:01:32.471)
Yeah, it's interesting, know, kind of coming out Miami, looking forward into, know, before we start looking forward into the clay court season, like, obviously this is like, eagest space, right? You know, the next few tournaments, you know, as we start to hit the clay, the American women, most of the American women are gonna go to Charleston. I'm gonna pop up to Charleston next week for a day or two, maybe one day. And then, you know, in earnest, the swing starts probably in Stuttgart, right?

diashawk (02:01:38.982)
Bye.

Alvin Owusu (02:02:00.407)
and then you go Stuttgart and then Madrid. So they're on clay, but they're both weird in their own way that like the Stuttgart's indoor clay and the Madrid is at altitude. So they both play a little fast. Ega has won both of them, but Arena's been.

diashawk (02:02:09.316)
Right. Right.

diashawk (02:02:15.015)
And one's red clay and one's, and the Charleston's green clay. So you got, you you and the clay is different. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:02:18.817)
Right, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, there's, I feel like that's one of the cool things about, you know, the Sabalinka and the Eega of it where they haven't met much recently, but they had, think they were two of the best, obviously Eega is the best clay court player in the world. I think Ariana's right there. And I think this is we started to get a lot of like, they had one of the best matches like you're gonna see in Madrid last year. Again, it's a very fast clay court. So, you know.

Well, I'm excited to see them tussle over the course of the next three months. But before looking back and looking forward, who are some players that you've been either really happy with what you've seen in the first quarter of the year or very surprised? You know, we had a little running watch list of ATP players like, I'm a little worried about what I've seen so far. What's a you on the women's side? Who's a?

Who's getting your round of applause and who's getting your side eye right now?

diashawk (02:03:21.252)
Getting my applause, I was very, very impressed with Alexandra Yalland. I I could not be more proud of how she not only played this past week, I think, and she had about the best breakout as you can have, not just in who she beat, how she beat him, but her energy, her tenacity, her smile. She looked like she was as comfortable as anything in

Alvin Owusu (02:03:34.663)
this week. Yeah, this week. Yeah.

diashawk (02:03:50.98)
in the whole process. Like she was meant to be there. Obviously very impressed with her. I was very impressed with...

Jessica Bagula for sure for where she's going. I was very impressed with, and this one here might surprise you, I was very impressed with, let me find my notes here. Hope you can edit this one here in a second. I just had these names written down. I was very impressed with Emma Raducano. She has played some of the best tennis that I have seen to date.

And I'm talking even from her US Open run several years ago. Emma Rodocano Alvin, you heard her right here, is back. She's playing some great tennis right now, playing with some confidence. It was perhaps one of the best, she was one of the best stories I've felt of this Miami Open. And here's why I say that. Because it looks as if she's no longer doubting herself. She's playing the kind of tennis that she knows she's capable of.

She's not playing victim. She's not playing well with me. And she is actually striking the ball, taking the ball early, serving well. To me, when I see a player playing within themselves and playing well, I'm always happy to see that because I kind of feel like they're going to raise the level of everybody around them. Who's getting my side eye? Who am I concerned with? Truth? Truth?

Alvin Owusu (02:05:17.549)
Hold on, before you go concernless, let's go back a second here. I wanna talk about Alex Ayala first before I come to Imran Akanu. So Alex, I think the comp with Alex, the lazy comp is like 2K25 Fernandez. yeah, it's lefty, know, Filipino descent. I know Layla's not Filipino, but.

You know, get a lot of, there's some similarities there, Babylon racket, the whole deal, yada, yada, But, it's very, okay, when Eagle won her first French Open, a lot of casual fans are like, who is this girl come out of nowhere? It's like, no, no, joke, this girl won Junior French Open last year. This is not an accident. And sometimes it's the through line between junior greatness to professional success. On the men's side, it generally takes longer.

diashawk (02:05:46.914)
Sure. Right.

diashawk (02:06:05.302)
Yeah. Sure.

diashawk (02:06:14.314)
100%. Took that five years.

Alvin Owusu (02:06:15.554)
On the women's side, sometimes it's quick. Yeah, sometimes on the women's side it's quick, but as fans of professional tennis, we don't also sometimes see what happens on the junior side. it's just players are unaware of. Like Alex Ayala won junior US Open in 2023, and I found out about her three months later. I had to go back and double check this yesterday. Like I watched the YouTube video of this random girl's ITF YouTube video of a day in the life of an ITF player, and it was her.

training at Rafa Nadal's academy. And she'd been there for six years. It's like, okay, so this didn't just happen overnight. This is what she's been doing. And it's funny, some of the drills they were doing in practice, they were filming in 2023. You could see it in her match. And I was watching the match very intently against Jessica. was like, oh, she on purpose, if you try to go high to that forward and back, you leave it hanging. She's coming to the court, taking that thing off the rise, boom.

diashawk (02:06:46.815)
Hey, it's Cavendley.

Right?

diashawk (02:07:00.159)
100 %

diashawk (02:07:13.375)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:07:14.177)
Right? And it was like, that's cool. I believe in that. If she's ready to go, which is the way she is, what I saw this week was repeatable. And that's encouraging. Now, the Emma of things.

If Imran Khanu had never won the US Open, this would be a great pop on the scene. Do know this is the best friend which he's had since the US Open that she won?

diashawk (02:07:44.551)
1000%. And I am taking the U.S. open.

Alvin Owusu (02:07:45.741)
This is the best, this is literally the best result, the best result she's had since winning the US Open three years ago.

diashawk (02:07:50.142)
And I am taking that tournament with her and Layla and putting them off to the side as the Cinderella story that it was. She's playing quality tennis right now, Alvin. She's playing quality tennis. Do I think she's gonna be a Grand Slam champ again? I do not. But she's playing top 10 ball right now. And I'm gonna tell you back to my quote on Jessica. She played Jessica strong.

and has never in my opinion played that well. She was one of those players I talked about that kind of ran into the player that beat the player, the player that played the aging player, the player that and just happened the draw fell just right. She got it. Good for her.

Alvin Owusu (02:08:32.763)
I'm willing to forget everything that's ever happened on a tennis court with Emorata Kanu before March of 2025. I'm willing to forget it's, is as new to, at this point, I'll let her be as new to me as Alex Ayala is. This is year one.

diashawk (02:08:44.326)
And I think we should.

diashawk (02:08:49.149)
If you do that, you'll be impressed.

Alvin Owusu (02:08:53.735)
I am impressed, here's the thing, because I've watched a lot of Emma's matches. let's take the results out of it. Like lot of what we've seen with her with the up and down has been a lot about her fitness and just not fitness, but being healthy, right? So let's assume she's healthy, sure, sure. But from a on court standpoint, there are things that I saw this week that are different. She has never been one to be as dominant with the forehand as I've seen her be this week.

diashawk (02:08:54.865)
Cool. Yeah.

diashawk (02:09:08.797)
Her mental fitness as well. Don't sleep on that.

diashawk (02:09:22.045)
Her back, I've always bought her a Striking it now, Alvin. I mean, striking it. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:09:23.626)
And that is a, look, dictating with it. Like the backhand's been as clean as Christmas as long as it's first time I've seen her hit a ball. But that forehand, and actually being able to go plus, like serve plus one, dictate with the forehand from the middle of the court, that is a hallmark of top tier gas pedal tennis, which is the type of tennis that she should be, yeah, yeah. And if I miss one, I'll do it again.

diashawk (02:09:36.273)
Yep. Yep.

diashawk (02:09:45.757)
and trusting it times matches. Thank you.

Alvin Owusu (02:09:51.563)
Yeah, and so that's the positive side that I'm willing to say, okay, let's forget everything that's happened before here. If you're healthy and you're ready to go and you're feeling good, she had a weird run in in the UAE with a little bit of a stalker. Okay, a lot's happened, but we're here now. And what I saw in the last two weeks, girl's playing good tennis and she looks like a better tennis player than she looked in the last 18, 24 months. And that is.

diashawk (02:10:09.029)
Right.

diashawk (02:10:14.843)
percent.

diashawk (02:10:19.176)
last last last eight weeks.

Alvin Owusu (02:10:19.435)
That's what I should be saying about someone who's, yeah, that's what you should be saying about someone who's 22 years old, right? Like, oh, they're still getting better. That's a good sign, because I do think her top end is probably top 10, which is, yeah, you can make a career, that's a career. This is your job. And so I think that's fantastic.

diashawk (02:10:24.731)
kind of fit.

diashawk (02:10:34.427)
A good one.

And she looked happy with herself and what she's been able to do. And you know that has that compound effect. right, the more you work, the more start to have results. You work harder, you have more results. Before you know it, you start working harder because you're like, you know what? This is great. Now I'm only getting better. And that's what I mentioned that about. It was very refreshing to see.

Alvin Owusu (02:10:46.803)
Yeah, and build.

Alvin Owusu (02:10:55.38)
Exactly.

Before we go to team side, let me throw in a couple players that I've been really happy with and kind of surprised by in the beginning of season. Obviously, Madison Keys, if you go, she wins Adelaide, wins the Australian Open, semifinals Indian Wells. Okay, she kind of maybe hit the wall here in Miami, that happens. Home tournament too, I think it's a tough, that's a tough one for the home players. I've never seen her actually play well in Miami. I've seen her.

diashawk (02:11:04.875)
Okay.

diashawk (02:11:19.055)
Yeah, I'll have some this week.

diashawk (02:11:26.256)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:11:27.466)
Pull a couple of first rounds, second round losses in Miami, but I'm willing to throw it out, whatever. Same thing with Mir and Drava, right? Mir is having a hell of a year again, comes into this tournament a little bit, 13-match winning streak, also a little sick, under the, maybe not under the weather, but feeling some things, which I want to put a pin in this to come back to another time. But then also, Belinda Bintich. Belinda came back.

from having a child and is playing better tennis than Belinda Benches before, before. Yeah, so that one I'm excited to see, like, okay, is Belinda gonna be a, is she gonna be a force to be reckoned with moving forward? Maybe so, I want more players in the mix. I want more, I want there to be more, you know, you

diashawk (02:12:01.336)
before child 100%.

Alvin Owusu (02:12:24.1)
mix up at the top of the game, not because there's weakness there, because there's that many good players there.

diashawk (02:12:27.256)
ride and avoid if anything. It reminds me of and I don't want to see your thunder because I got I got three players like us put into team on the rise team. Not least of which is Ashlyn Krueger there. You know, remember watching old school women's bodybuilding competitions where the ladies would almost elbow into the stage to flex. It wasn't the people up front were confident were like

Alvin Owusu (02:12:50.506)
Oh yeah, on the stages, yeah, yeah, yeah.

diashawk (02:12:56.503)
I deserve to win this. And then you saw another competitor move up like, oh, oh, but have you seen me though? And then, oh, hey, let me get in here a little bit. And I just, always liked the analogy of that where your elbow on your way in, they're not letting you in. not, there's not a full way. They're not, not, eight players didn't stub their toe, right? Ega lost to Atayala. She literally got beat. know, Emma Navarro got beat.

Alvin Owusu (02:13:17.459)
Yeah. Yeah.

diashawk (02:13:25.078)
to, you know, by, O'Connell. I mean, just got outplayed, but it was a good outplay. was a good close match, but it was a match that Emma needed to win, you know, Ronald O'Connell and that, uh, Navarro had to realize, ooh, wow, I didn't know she could play that level of tennis. So even, you know, I'll see you Madison, who lost to Yala. I felt like, well, that wasn't a great match for, for Madison. They were surprised, Alvin. They were surprised and taken off guard.

which to me is also saying, you're talking about players that are playing pretty good tennis right now. So that's my whole thing is I really like what we're seeing now in women's game because these other competitors are literally elbowing their way into the top. So we're not talking about eight players were hurt, they went out, like the men's side. We have seven seeds lose out on a Saturday and three of them on a Friday. But right before it, we're talking about these players were surprised and they all went the distance.

Isha Mbaya'ala went deep, Barakana went deep. So to me, I like what I'm seeing. I would have to tell you my last, the player I really watched, I watched a couple of good matches with Ashley Kruger. Love her game. Love how she... Just feel like, yeah, McCartney Kestrel, I got to see her as well. Obviously she's here from Georgia, one of our faves. I just like what the young players are doing.

Alvin Owusu (02:14:35.113)
I've been, finally, welcome to the party. Welcome to the Ashlyn Krueger party. I've been trying to tell you.

diashawk (02:14:52.533)
Team side eye right now, I have to tell you Alvin, I have to tell you. I feel like Rebecca is a little bit on the skids right now. I have not seen her play great tennis now, a few tournaments in a row. I am mildly concerned about Coco. I have to say it. She's not full-fledged team side eye, but I am concerned. I'm concerned that she is not.

Alvin Owusu (02:15:10.352)
Yeah, let's let's

I think that's where we were going.

diashawk (02:15:22.342)
I'm concerned that I'm not excited about her game at this point in time. I feel like this was before Coco won US Open Coco. Like I kept wondering when will she ever get the forehand serve figured out. And then that tournament she served and hit the forehand as big as she's ever hit in her life. And I feel like does she need to go back and get Brad Gilbert again and then kind of get back in the mix because he seemed to be the one person who was able to be the whisperer.

in our ear to get her to hit the ball and just trust and feel it.

Alvin Owusu (02:15:52.21)
So two things before we go into Cocoa, I feel like that's Cocoa's top of my list, and I think that's where we're gonna spend the time here. Last person that I'm really happy with, which we never talk about this woman, and not a lot of people do, Clara Towson. Clara Towson is putting together a hell of a year right now. For those who don't watch a lot of not main...

diashawk (02:16:08.468)
We're Towson.

Alvin Owusu (02:16:18.985)
you know, main stage women's tennis. Clara Thompson is six foot tall and hits the piss out of the ball. This year, she opened her B year, she won Auckland, all right, lost to Arena in the round of 32 at the Australian Open. She went in semifinals, Lentz, and then another tough loss in Qatar, but then she won Dubai, lost in the final Dubai to Mira and then lost to Mira again in New Wales. So like she's starting to like build and build, you're talking about losses to Sabalenka.

diashawk (02:16:24.34)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:16:48.476)
Losses to Andrava, like this is how you start putting together like a top 10 resume. You just stop losing to everyone else, which is like, you can find your ceiling, right? That's a cool thing. So I think I just wanted to make sure we talked about her. The Rebecca of it, there

diashawk (02:16:57.073)
Sure.

diashawk (02:17:01.135)
Right? Or... Right?

diashawk (02:17:07.393)
You have to throw Badosa in there as well, who beat Towson in a heck of a match.

Alvin Owusu (02:17:11.773)
When healthy, when healthy, Badosa is, mean, former member to the world, like she's, she's got the game.

diashawk (02:17:15.281)
I'm saying very very happy her getting healthy would be a great another addition because that was a good match and she I think she got hurt in that match that's his walk over to be all about that was a heck of a match and again to your point if Towson's playing that good a ball and then Badosa's right there but dosas plants with the tennis lost arena in Australia right so I say to say

Alvin Owusu (02:17:23.888)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:17:34.46)
But this is... Yeah.

diashawk (02:17:38.147)
She's another one on my team, you know, buddy. Hitting the stride very nicely right now and a great time to get ready for the year, get her healthy. She's into the clay. She's from Spain. I she's clearly very comfortable on the clay. So this will be her getting healthy will be a great season for her this year for going into this quarter too.

Alvin Owusu (02:17:51.75)
Yeah, the...

Alvin Owusu (02:17:56.775)
Yeah, the Rabakana of it. I put Rabakana and Dina Schneider and Emma Navarro kind of in the same bucket. Like, I'm not, each one of them for a different reason, I'm gonna give them a little bit of grace. Like, Rabakana's going through some stuff with the coaching situation and all that. that's starting to, I mean, she's still, you know, she's still like number five in the world or something like that. Like, she's gonna be all right, like even on her worst.

diashawk (02:18:06.737)
Okay.

diashawk (02:18:26.105)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (02:18:26.362)
Like she balances out her like kind of weird tournaments with like popping up and winning one or getting to the finals. So like I don't know if we're ever going to see consistent results out of her because it seems like her off court life is just, it's not, it's not an equilibrium. Yeah. And then Emma Navarro, is it kind of in the same level with Dina Schneider? It's just like, this is year two, right? This is year two. So in year two, you not only start to figure out, you need to figure out more about yourself, but everyone else is starting to figure out more about you too.

diashawk (02:18:36.847)
A little chaotic.

Alvin Owusu (02:18:56.358)
And like you've seen with Emma and Navarro, like all of her matches this year just been a lot harder. Even the one she's winning, like in Australia, they were all hard and players are starting to like realize how they can kind of get to her and making her go through that. Right, exactly. To the Haunted, which is a different mentality, right? A whole different mentality. And same thing with Schneider. Like kind of like she surprised a lot of people, won five.

diashawk (02:19:11.575)
also top 10 the world now. she's gone from the hunter to the hunted, right, which is a tough mentality. Neither I would give you.

Alvin Owusu (02:19:24.487)
She won five events last year and four of them were on different surfaces. think she was like her and like Alcara's were the only ones who did that. So like, but now she's second year full time on tour and she's top 15. Now she's got to like, can I repeat, can I defend these things? Like, so like those, I put them together though, because it's not as, it doesn't really seem like it's necessarily about the tennis. It's probably more about being a tennis player at whatever point in their career they're in right now. Yeah.

diashawk (02:19:27.449)
Right.

diashawk (02:19:35.183)
Can I repeat?

diashawk (02:19:49.422)
Being a true professional and being consistent to your point, is why we're so, you know, have keeping so much adulation on the ones that are able to do it. And obviously these ones have yet to do it, especially up to here. I would throw my team side eye. Elena Ostapenko has to be up there with my side eye. I feel like she's she is she is 100%. I feel she needs to she

Alvin Owusu (02:19:59.578)
It's hard to do it year after year.

Alvin Owusu (02:20:10.15)
She's throwing it right back at you.

diashawk (02:20:18.893)
She's got so much talent, so much ball striking ability, I think between her fitness and between her, just her clarity. She's not playing the level of tennis she played a few years ago. And I feel like it shows her fitness is clearly the first thing we would, is to look at, but you can see her results too. She looks like she's not, doesn't look like she's enjoying it out there. Doesn't look like she's competitive. If I told you, you know, of the players that I mentioned that are going up, you heard right here, Alvin.

with the number of players that are breaking through right now, and she's a low seed right now, she may not be seeded at any other top event going, at any thousand level going forward, not only due to lack of results, but others are now starting to raise around her. And so if I'm in her team, I'd be a little concerned. Just saying.

Alvin Owusu (02:21:06.285)
Eugh.

Panko and my friends who know, no, I'm team Panko. All her shade and all her nonsense, I love it. Most people hate it, I love it. I don't take her too seriously. I don't think she takes herself too seriously. I think it's good to have someone who is a true character on tour. And my favorite Panko stat is just like everyone else,

diashawk (02:21:14.924)
Yep.

diashawk (02:21:22.219)
Yeah. Right.

diashawk (02:21:33.77)
Yup.

Alvin Owusu (02:21:38.297)
She's never lost to Iga. She's like seven and against Iga. Like three times in the last six months. Iga can't beat her, which is just funny. Because right now, Panko can't beat anyone else. It's just laughable. she's part of the entertainment of the tour, not the meat and potatoes of the tour. But Coco Golf is part of the meat and potatoes of the tour. So let's look.

diashawk (02:21:54.225)
I'm with you.

diashawk (02:21:59.53)
Yep.

diashawk (02:22:06.184)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:22:06.341)
Let's get into it. just to catch the people up here. So Coco loses to Bidosa in the quarterfinals, I'll show you it up in, right? Round 32, loses to Marta Kostik in Qatar. Round of 32, McCartney Kessler in Dubai. Indian Wells, Benchich, round of 16. Miami, Magda Lynette, round 16. So what we're seeing here is that she's not getting to the business end of any event, right?

diashawk (02:22:29.012)
Fourth round.

Alvin Owusu (02:22:35.621)
She won, you know, World Tour Finals in Riyadh in November, but we haven't seen like, the real Cocoa Golf please stand up? Which one is it? Is it the one who had hot summer and went, you know, won DC, won Cincinnati and then wins US Open? Or is she, what is she? What is she? What do we want?

diashawk (02:22:45.482)
Please stand up.

diashawk (02:23:02.409)
I'd be camped out, I'd be waiting outside of Brad Gilbert's house with coffee in hand. I got bagels, I got donuts, I got around the golf at your favorite spot. Please give me six months. I gotta figure this thing out and get myself back on track. And I say that both in jest as well as in reality because I feel like she's playing her best tennis when that happened. I've seen this before.

Coco golf and we blamed on age before we blamed it on. She's just so young. She's just so young. I saw a girl whose tactics and technique were breaking down. Her serve was average at best. Her forehand was laughable and just continue to lose her matches. You just talked about Emma Navarro who's now finding it tough and tougher in year two. This is now year four for Coco.

And you have to appreciate Alvin, some of those things, the leopard hasn't changed spots. She got through that open, she got through that summer, she got through those things and played some great tennis and got the quote unquote monkey off her back. But she did not necessarily kick down the door of anything else really since then. And while I think there's a maturity factor, there's a whole lot of maturity, she's still young. I have not seen major game changes.

I would love to see her get back and I don't know, I say this completely out of thin air. It doesn't seem like she's playing some of the same high level doubles tournaments she played before, which I thought was a big test before she was playing more matches, she was getting more returns and getting more serves in. I felt she was playing more bigger moments. I've seen this be a problem and I need you to stat check for me. I see a lot of these players starting to get better at tennis and the agents and the people around them, you need to start focusing on your singles.

like doubles somehow takes it out of you. These players play a match every other day. Come on now, give me a break. Get out there and play some ball. And you're training anyway, you might as well play a match, especially for doubles. And I feel like that doubles really gave her a strong sense of not only winning, but she was getting the returns, more chance of serves. That's just me. I feel like she is a player that can really benefit from it. I also feel Alvin that she's at a very pivotal point where

diashawk (02:25:27.174)
She's starting to think that she's arrived and in a lot of ways maybe she has, but I don't think she's really resolved some of the issues in her game. And so while she's won a slam, she's not fully finished building. And I feel like for her to think that she has, it was just a bad week. Madison had a bad week, had a bad match in Miami. She's not having a bad year.

And she hasn't gone through the test of time. She's still floating, ranking included, from last year, Alvin. You know what mean? She's not necessarily, in my opinion, playing the best tennis she's played before. And so I say that to say, I'm just concerned that those same things are creeping up again. How does she get away from it? What has her camp not made her really continue to get down? And where I see a player like, what, again.

She's a 3C, she's five in the world. I gotta compare it to the other top fives. Is she continuing to get better? Do I see her and say she's a better player than I saw her six months ago? I don't say that.

Alvin Owusu (02:26:35.585)
Yeah, I'll give two things. I think those are all very valid points and a lot of them I agree with so I don't need to repeat them. There's two things that I feel like are in Coco's favor right now. Like you mentioned she's young, sure. She's going into probably her best surface where she can kind of hide deficiencies the best on clay, okay. One.

diashawk (02:26:58.947)
Sure. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:27:03.467)
where on the men's side you see players like an Andre Rublev or like a Sysipass, right? Who get to a certain point or like Felix Ojea-Alecim, get to a certain point and then their game hits like this level of homeostasis, right? Yeah. And then other players, their younger versions of themselves come up into the pro rankings, but their high end is a little bit higher and they pass them. So what you start to see is the ranking starts to drop.

diashawk (02:27:18.499)
of a real wall.

Alvin Owusu (02:27:32.641)
the player has not gotten worse. They just have hit their wall, they've hit their ceiling and then other players with higher ceilings just kind of supplant them, right? So I say that to say with Coco, okay, these are the problems, these are the issues.

Okay, so maybe she's not the fourth best player in the world, maybe she's fifth. Who else is there? Like quite honestly, like you see that Miria Andriva like passes her maybe. Okay, fine, maybe she does, maybe. But then what else is there? Like we still have the same top players, you still have Arena Sablekia, you still have Iges Wotek, you still have on her best day, on most days you have Elena Rabacuna, and then you've got, and then you maybe you've got Miria Andriva, right?

But then it's Coco. Yeah, Keys would be in there in the same way that, we're talking about three months. We're talking about three months, right? It's the same way that we're worried about Coco is the same way we shouldn't necessarily be all the way in on Madison because she has a whole career to compare up to the last three months. I will say I'm worried. I don't know that, I also have the same concerns that you have with her game, just not.

diashawk (02:28:18.465)
You didn't put keys in there, but yes, but I'm with you.

Alvin Owusu (02:28:47.954)
evolving. just don't know that.

diashawk (02:28:49.409)
I'm concerned with her future. I'm concerned with her present. And I'm concerned that the issue she's had in the past are resurfacing. And consistent results due to shaky forehand and serve. And consistent results due to tactics. She is not playing smart tennis. She's relying on grinding. She's relying on running on being on the run. And Alvin, as fast as Coco is, she's not as adept at taking time away and cutting off the

Alvin Owusu (02:28:58.56)
Mm.

diashawk (02:29:19.083)
corners like some of her younger counterparts, there are players that are playing better than she is cutting off the court and are better on the move than she is. She's just, in my opinion, a little bit better an athlete and is a phenomenal backhand on the run, which I think is great. I don't feel that same. I don't think she trusts her forehand out wide on the run to go wide or across. You almost always know she's going to go across. When I saw Bedosa beat her at

in Australia, it looked like she had watched film and was like, why would I go anywhere else but to a forehand? mean, think it was almost scary, but here's my point, Alan. And I don't think anything has changed. That's what I'm saying. That's what's concerning me. We're not talking about a new problem. We're talking about the same problem that's resurfacing. So that's why I'm concerned, because I feel like it not should have higher stature. And now the spotlight's starting to go on to the Alexandria y'all.

Alvin Owusu (02:29:55.539)
Yeah, was, I felt bad watching that match.

diashawk (02:30:17.663)
Now the spotlight's going on to the resurgence of Imran Kandu and so on and so on and so on. And now we're getting to this space where, hey, what about me? And I'm kind of, and I just, I'm worried. As I said, I'm concerned, I'm not worried. And certainly not for a future, just for a present. And if these were new issues, I'd say, know what? Her team will get to that. These are persistent issues, Alvin. And that's why I'm concerned, why I'm concerned in the present, because I feel like she had it lit.

Alvin Owusu (02:30:28.053)
Yeah.

diashawk (02:30:47.069)
And now I'm sort of thinking, maybe not.

Alvin Owusu (02:30:50.721)
I'm gonna leave you with one question before we wrap things up. And this is something that, you know, a good friend of ours, Doseph Weems, you know, he asked me this right before the Australian Open. He was like, whose career is better, Madison Keys or Sloan Stevens? And this is before the Australian Open. And I was like, okay, well, you gotta go back. I think Madison had just won the warm up event, so this is like right before the turn

diashawk (02:30:59.433)
Dig it, my main man.

diashawk (02:31:10.879)
Before, before, that.

Alvin Owusu (02:31:20.128)
And I was like, well, you gotta go back. Like obviously Sloan won a Grand Slam, but like you look at like how consistently Madison's been between 20 and 30. She's never really dropped off. Sloan kind of dropped off in some years and come back and so on and so forth, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, and then Madison wins one. And then he's like, okay, now whose career do you take? Because I think I took Sloan's at that time. And I was like, well, now you have to take the Grand Slams off the boards since they both won one.

diashawk (02:31:32.733)
She's dropped off a couple of times.

Alvin Owusu (02:31:48.169)
Well, hell, I'm taking Madison's. She's been there longer at a higher level. And then it got me thinking, we talked about Emma Ranikanu winning that one grand slam and how it just changes the way you look at her as a player. Where she almost, not to she would have been better off without winning it, but you almost have to look at her career without it. Cocoa golf, kind of similar to Andy Roddick. If you just take the slam away, right?

diashawk (02:31:51.42)
Sure.

diashawk (02:31:57.382)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (02:32:18.687)
How does that change the conversation around someone? Our one time Grand Slam winners, it seems like they're forever beholden to those two weeks where they put it all together.

diashawk (02:32:33.318)
I would agree to disagree, but I see where you're going. First of all, I saw Andy Roddick play one of the best matches I've ever watched when he lost in a long match against Fed five years after the US Open. I saw Andy play an unbelievable Wimbledon match. I want to say either against Roth or against Fed, played his butt off.

Alvin Owusu (02:32:54.003)
Right. Right.

diashawk (02:33:03.259)
and played great, better than he played in the 03 Open that he won. So in my opinion, now I'm sensitive to I know Andy and he did a lot for Scho. So I say that to say his game continued to get better. He just came up in a time where the three were coming through strong. Now, but I get what you're saying and I get exactly why you're saying it.

Alvin Owusu (02:33:24.88)
Right. So I think...

diashawk (02:33:32.162)
I think it might be a little bit different. would rather put that one slam with the Carlos Moya or someone else like in that realm more than him because I say it, was that kind of, Moya to me was a top five player that happened to win one, not a number one that won one that year in my opinion. And that's no slouch on Carlos Moya. Carlos is great player. Yannick Noah, my favorite player of all time. Yannick Noah was a top 10 player.

Alvin Owusu (02:33:54.015)
Okay, okay.

diashawk (02:34:01.23)
that happened when the French that year and was absolutely phenomenal. I don't think he would ever win another one. And it was a great highlight and so on. But he was not a perennial number one or even top five for that level with the guys he was playing against. So just so we're clear on one Grand Slam does not a, but one Slam does not a champion, does not a top number one player make. And I say this to you, Alan. I think that

Alvin Owusu (02:34:17.951)
So maybe it's a hybrid of that situation though, because I think it's kind of the same thing.

diashawk (02:34:31.402)
especially with as up and down as the girls game has been. You might even say, this is for Ronald O'Connell, this is for who was the old lady that won from Canada? I'll just ask you, know, the Bianca, I keep getting her on Blender, sometimes mixed up. I'll just ask you, who was the other one that had a kind of a one and done that we haven't really seen much since? There's been about two or three of them that have just kind of been in, out, gone, haven't really done much since. They've just been a

Alvin Owusu (02:34:41.833)
Yeah, Bianca Andreeska.

diashawk (02:35:01.035)
The women's tour is full of these kind of players that seem to, and I'm even talking about Emma, of course Emma, but I don't think Coco was done by any far stretch. Her future's bright.

Alvin Owusu (02:35:14.086)
I don't think she's done. I just don't think she's...

diashawk (02:35:15.287)
Right, you're asking me if you had to take both slams away from Emma and Coco right now, who's having a better career? say, right, I'm not saying, it's way too early to tell, right? Way too early to tell. I am pleased to see, and this is recent, this is four weeks, three weeks, two weeks recent, I'm pleased to see Emma Rodicano look like her game's improving. Forget her wins, Alvin, she looked better.

Alvin Owusu (02:35:22.366)
Well sure, that's not even the question. Emily hasn't done anything.

diashawk (02:35:45.991)
She was playing better tennis. Now, can't she keep it up? Well, that remains to be seen. Coco looked dominant when she won the open that year. Coco looks like the old Coco before that US Open win in the last three or four months. That's what concerns me. And that's all. And to me, that is either getting away from the coaching staff that worked, forgot maybe what was getting you there. I don't know. What I can say is what I see.

Alvin Owusu (02:36:03.302)
Okay. Okay.

diashawk (02:36:15.52)
And what I see as a player that everybody started to realize, yeah, just go to the forehand. And that should never be the case with a player at her level that has the resources, the networking, and who would not want to work with Coco, right, at this point. So I feel like it's more of an issue of will she get this sorted out quick enough to kind of dissipate all this blood in the water, or will she not? To me, Rebecca has another one. I just...

She's a little different in the sense that her current is all the thing I'm concerned about. I know she's a good player. She's got a Canadian better, but she's a little crazy. So I'm a little, she's a little bit, she's a little different to me in the sense that, you know what mean? She's a little different to me in the sense that she's a harder nut to crack. She's a different player to kind of work with. Who was the Russian player back in the day that was a little bit crazy? I love how she played, but boy, she was a little pistol.

I'm looking at her face, just can't, mean, crazy, crazy. mean, just like, you could see her, she wasn't quite hitting her racket in the head like, who, I can't believe I'm forgetting this name.

Alvin Owusu (02:37:29.031)
Well, we can treat it as a cliffhanger and we'll come back and do a little career review of this femme fatale whose name has your brain here. Right.

diashawk (02:37:32.213)
Yeah, Wolf Tries the Clip Hanger for sure. God, I can't forget this name.

diashawk (02:37:40.879)
His name and her name both. Both Russian by the way. I'll have it at top of of the hour for for next episode.

Alvin Owusu (02:37:47.367)
Fair, so we'll put a pin in here. I know we've got a few guests coming on in the next few weeks and then we'll kind of swing back, check in on the tour probably like right around, probably Monte Carlo in a couple of weeks. And then we'll, we got some fun stuff, fun stuff coming up in the spring and hopefully you guys are enjoying this as much as we are. But I think for now we will bid you adieu. I'm still Alvin, that's still Tory. Best of three, we are out.

diashawk (02:38:13.832)
Hahaha.

Peace.