Ep. 39: Coco Gauff Is Your French Open 2025 Champion

Alvin Owusu (00:03.178)
Coco Gauff

 is your 2025 Women's French Open Champion. I'm Alvin, that's Tory, this is Best of Three. Gotta give props where props are due. Yeah, it's a... Yeah, and just to kinda level set, I feel like it's, that match finished, it's five o'clock p.m. on Saturday, that match finished about, I don't know, five hours ago. So we've had a little bit of time to let it sit, but we haven't talked at all.

diashawk (00:15.539)
Game recognized game album. Game recognized game.

diashawk (00:28.94)
or four hours ago.

Alvin Owusu (00:32.768)
I have no agenda here. I just wanted to, let's just talk through it. Let's just talk through it. I'll say that I was not surprised by much that I saw as far as like the ebbs and flows of the match, right? Arena came out guns blazing. She got right to that point of, you know, 401, 40 love serving, I believe.

diashawk (00:39.019)
Yep, talk to it.

diashawk (00:53.313)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:02.194)
If that goes five one, we're looking at a, know, something a little bit. Yeah, a little bit, something a little bit different, but like we talked about when we previewed the final.

diashawk (01:05.248)
Let's creep.

Alvin Owusu (01:13.034)
Coco was able to stop the bleeding, absorb the pace, follow a very simple game plan, on the surface simple, make balls, stretch this thing out, use her biggest weapon, her elite movement, her speed, her defense. And I was explaining to Matt that was at my house, it's like, used to this drill, offense defense, where you would just.

diashawk (01:29.875)
speed and sensitivity.

Alvin Owusu (01:40.734)
rip balls at the coach who's standing in the middle of the court, hitting volleys, like very easy for you to handle and you just gotta continue, continue to rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, the key is the idea is that you are to, as you get tired, as you get a little mentally shaky, you gotta find a way to keep doing it. And it's like Coco just said, Irina, we're just gonna play offense defense today. I hope you can finish the drill. And she could not. Okay, Tori Hawkins.

diashawk (02:03.478)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:11.027)
What say you? What was your big read and then we can get into the little reads.

diashawk (02:15.828)
My big read overall, congrats to Coco. She's been playing great for the last few weeks, has had a great clay court season. Alvin Tennis, three finals in the trot. Night and day difference on her final from three years ago going up against Iga Sviatek. She's a much better player than them.

Alvin Owusu (02:25.833)
two finals to three, three finals on the trot.

Capt it off.

diashawk (02:44.018)
I was disappointed in the quality of tennis. I have to put that out there. There were moments, especially in the first, a lot toward the end of the third, where I thought the tennis was high level, but there were just so, so many mistakes. Ariella Polaca, she was so emotional that she didn't find kilter until it was a bit too late.

Alvin Owusu (02:46.495)
Hmm.

Alvin Owusu (02:59.785)
Who are you pointing fingers at here when you say what? Arena Savalinka.

diashawk (03:11.915)
I feel like she was mad at herself for blowing that 401 lead, not necessarily understanding that Coco was going to come back. She said it in the post-match, well, it really an interview, the finalist comments, it was an ugly final and it was, but she said, there you go, you probably saw it. And I don't disagree with her. I don't, don't disagree with her at all. She's being very real. She had a lot to blame for that and make no mistake.

Alvin Owusu (03:27.935)
She said it again in her post-match interview. She said it again, yeah.

diashawk (03:40.657)
it's going to be an ugly matchup when your best gets matched by another player's best. And your matchup is a true rock, paper, scissors matchup. Her offense, Coco's defense, her power, Coco's speed, right? It's, it's literally mocks Knicks. It's, it's just nip tuck all the way through. What I felt the difference maker was in this match today was Arena's

emotional state did not stay stable enough for the entirety. And I also felt like she stubbed her toe early in the second, never really recovered, and was mad at herself for both the 4-1, could have been 5-1, and was mad at herself for the stub of the toe that led to, face it, it was 2-1 out of them. Before you know it, it was 4-2, 5-2 very quickly. And it was, so it was a manageable second when she was doing right things. That's on one side.

Alvin Owusu (04:29.811)
Yeah. Yeah.

diashawk (04:37.425)
On the second side, make no mistake, Coco fought her butt off today. I loved how much she fought. But, Arena did not continue to come forward. And had she continued to come forward, I thought she would have had the better end of the business end of this match. Because you can't just continue to attack until you finish. If I could take a quick sojourn to Coach's Corner.

Alvin Owusu (04:42.439)
Mm-hmm, but

Alvin Owusu (05:03.945)
We haven't visited in a while. Let's head to Coach's

diashawk (05:07.133)
So, so let, let's talk about what offense truly is. The great Nick Saviano has, in my opinion, probably laid out the four best, the four types shots of tennis, which I think are, largely misunderstood. You have defense and you have offense, which most people think, but most people think that that's all there is. There's really neutral and there's build. And Saviano would claim to you, and I think he's exactly right. And I think it's

I'll even go further. The majority of your shots are neutral. You get the chance to build every once in a while. And Alvin, for the listeners out there, the coach and me have known those for years at every level of the game. You give me a 10 sample shot rally. Seven of those shots are neutral on either side. There is the occasional player, Sabalink is one of those players, that has a big enough weapon.

in the serve in the first strike that four of those ten, maybe five if she's playing really, really, really well, are building with one of them being offensive. And by that I mean the other five are neutral at best. And in most days, it's seven of the ten are neutral. You might eke out two of those shots as building. And the only time a player is in defense

Alvin Owusu (06:20.841)
Mm-hmm.

diashawk (06:34.25)
when you have that true offensive ball. Let me explain briefly. Defense means you have no time, court, or options. Offense means you have all the time, all the court, and all the options. Which means defense and offense don't happen very often. They're about as far away as east and west. The fact that I'm there, you're there. Right?

But the other seven, because we start off at such a tug of war state, it's pretty much even at the beginning. So it takes a lot, which is our game, right? But I say that to say for this match, you had the weapon of arena countered by the phenomenal, if you will, counterpunish of Coco. So you're going to get some ugly, some tenacious, some long, some grueling.

Alvin Owusu (07:23.411)
Right, so.

diashawk (07:28.77)
and the weather was suspect. I mean it was so windy it was crazy but again on both sides. Here's my point. Coach's corner. If you're going to play the offensive and we're going to say aggressive that's a better term. Take it on the rise. Take it early. Take it through your opponent. If you don't have the offensive finish and let me go back and qualify that. Those aggressive on the rise take time away shots are building at best.

Alvin Owusu (07:30.611)
Yeah.

diashawk (07:58.962)
And until you come in and finish, you're not an offense. You think you are, but you're not. Go ahead. Please.

Alvin Owusu (08:01.855)
All right, let me layer this in here, because I like the way that you've put it together as far as offense. Let's go backwards. Defense, neutral, building, offense, right? And this is, those are kind of your steps in big macro level, right? So I was explaining this to Matt in that.

diashawk (08:13.417)
There's your four steps.

Alvin Owusu (08:28.387)
If, if Arena Sabalinka has to hit 150 shots over the course of the match before she starts to break down, that's fine because not many players are going to force her to hit 150 shots. I'm using 150 as the number, right? That is her, everyone's got a limit to something, right? Like you can, you can run a six and a half mile pace for X amount of miles. At some point your pace will come down, right? Everyone has a, I use the term Mendoza line for their ability to continue to do something at a certain level, right?

diashawk (08:44.762)
Right. That's her threshold.

Alvin Owusu (08:59.025)
Arena finds herself on offense a lot and her opponent on defense a lot because of how dedicated her footwork is and how big she hits the ball, right? She can take a ball, hit it right past the vast majority of players on a lot of balls that most players can't do that off of. Right? You and I are hitting a building ball, she's hitting that as a clean winner going straight through the back of the baseline, right? On the other end of the spectrum,

diashawk (09:07.314)
very very quickly.

Alvin Owusu (09:29.481)
Coco turns what looks like defense into neutral, right? That ball that arena hits that usually is crossing over the baseline and is stung her opponent, Coco's there. Like let's say an average player is gonna be hitting a stretched out, sliced backhand, float that thing up as a dink, Coco is fast enough to slide into it, hit the open stance backhand, and now you're back at neutral again, and she's gonna make you do it over and over again.

diashawk (09:45.225)
100 %

Alvin Owusu (09:58.461)
Arena doesn't usually have to build for very long. She's usually finishing. And Coco, that is Coco's weapon. Coco makes her continue to build to a point where you don't feel like there's anywhere to go. I felt like at a lot of points, it's just like, where am I gonna go? can't, it's like playing, it's very similar to Yannick Center as far as horizontal movement across the back of the bass line. Like, where you gonna go? And I think the key, you know.

diashawk (10:14.792)
100%.

Alvin Owusu (10:26.206)
And this is not hindsight is 2020 because this happened in Madrid. This happened at the US Open a few years ago, right? Arena, it's almost like arena, you're not gonna be able to finish with the ball going through the back of the court. It's gotta go off the side of the court, which is.

diashawk (10:32.377)
US Open Fuse 100 %

diashawk (10:40.968)
It can happen but not as often and let's add to your point because you're making a good point here and she doesn't see it that often. That's really, if I may, that's really the issue here is that most aren't that fast. Most aren't that counter punishing and that fast and most won't make her hit that same step up three times. You can hit two.

Alvin Owusu (10:51.655)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (11:08.349)
Right.

diashawk (11:10.535)
Most can hit one, hitting two is extra, but you can finish off in a volley or a swinger and you're okay. Hit three of them and maybe the third one's on your back foot and you're a little hesitant about going forward or not. That's where this match really turned on its ear was on that third ball. And at that point, and I give Coco a lot of credit, she hit more big forehands today. She hit more, she came forward more, right? Than I've seen her in times past.

And I felt that Arena forced, forced meaning she was trying to still stay in building, trying to get to offense, not realizing she had been neutralized. And that's where she fell apart.

Alvin Owusu (11:54.441)
Let me pop this point in, and I don't really have a good place for it, but you mentioned Coco's forehand, and this is the thing that stood out to me today, as well as in her match against Madison, and then to a certain extent against Boisant as well. Your four stages here, defense, neutral, building, offense, her forehand, which has been suspect, has held up fine all this tournament. You can even say that her forehand has made a leap.

diashawk (12:08.965)
Yep. Yep.

diashawk (12:23.012)
I was sick.

Alvin Owusu (12:23.602)
but what she can do is she can defend with it. She can actually neutralize with it. She can finish with it. She can't dictate with it. So the...

diashawk (12:35.803)
with.

can't dictate and ironically doesn't pass as well. Ironically, of all the counter punishing, she still prefers the backhand pass.

Alvin Owusu (12:46.564)
Yeah, I mean that backhand pass is money. Her two shot, god I love a two shot set up. if you can, we're still in the corner right now so if you can take that first ball when your opponent's approaching you, get that first ball down to their shoelaces, right, where they have to go down and pick that ball back up. Now you've got, you got a one way ticket to Main Street there. Two shot pass, two shot pass. Somebody mentioned it in the broadcast today, I can't remember if it was.

diashawk (12:53.008)
Who shot pass pattern?

diashawk (13:10.725)
Broadway!

Alvin Owusu (13:16.456)
Chris Everett, it might've been, it was Lindsay. Okay, thank you, that feels better, that feels better. Yeah, I would've been shocked, but, not to the shade, I would've been shocked. Lindsay, for sure, and they have similar voices, like they kinda, you need to be paying attention when you're listening to them without visual. But yeah, the two-stop pass is so key, it's so key, it's so fundamental, but it's so key. And.

diashawk (13:19.046)
It was Lindsay. It was Lindsay talking. Two past matters. Wouldn't have been Chris. Let me say that as a caveat. Would not have been Chris.

Alvin Owusu (13:44.005)
know, Coco's one of the best in the biz, getting that ball down low and then passing with a much easier, manageable ball to deal with. But yeah, she finished, she was able to finish well with the forehand. Obviously she defended well on that side, kept her errors down, which I think we knew was going to happen. I guess those are one and the same, right? You would expect the errors to come off the forehand side while playing defense, but she just plants that right leg, you know, open stance, gets that thing up and rolling and just makes you continue to.

diashawk (13:54.746)
Yep.

diashawk (14:01.517)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (14:13.266)
Just keep, I mean.

diashawk (14:14.022)
right? Tons of bug you up, had a lot of height on the ball and arenas 511. So to get the bottom arena strike zone is difficult to do and she found a way to do it. Um, I want to add one more piece to this because Coco doesn't get the credit she deserves off her, off of her tactics. She was a little overwhelmed in the first few. She fought back very, very well. I felt that Coco not only match the weapons better,

Alvin Owusu (14:26.152)
Please let's do.

diashawk (14:43.457)
I felt like she matched her pace better. You know when a lot of the errors started happening, Alvin, when Coco, when Arena didn't hit as big. Arena had a few lucky points early in the second and thought maybe some off pace might hurt. But unfortunately it Arena more because she wasn't going for the shots. She then got pissed at herself and went big and that actually helped Coco get online.

It's a very weird situation. This is a random, you know, analogy, but there was a battleship movie. It was like a realistic movie of the old school, you know, game battleship. Remember the Gabor game? And the enemy, this alien, was very keen on anything you did to attack it. It read your response, your intent, if you will.

Alvin Owusu (15:24.744)
Like the board game? Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (15:38.568)
Mm-hmm.

diashawk (15:39.493)
because it saw you arming your weapons and such. So the only way to beat it was to bring this old 1960s aircraft carrier, the ones that you and me and probably our kids have walked in Charleston, know, in the old, you know, the old 1955 USS whatever, Constitution or whatever, you know, kind of an air, and they had to literally get this aircraft carrier up to speed because it was analog. It wasn't digital. It wasn't nuclear. It wasn't all the things that the,

Alvin Owusu (15:51.516)
Yep.

diashawk (16:09.134)
high level alien can read. Now the point I'm getting at is with the analogy, with speed, with the ability to defend at the nth degree, they were dead in the water. Anytime you were pressed fire, the alien fired before you did and countered out of force field, right? When you didn't know the alien was caught off guard, to my point in this match, when Coco sliced, Alvin and I hated the chef do it, she sliced more forehands.

Alvin Owusu (16:09.426)
Yeah.

diashawk (16:37.633)
and hit more balls short to almost bring Arena in. But I have to give her credit, it was a great tactic.

Alvin Owusu (16:40.688)
It was a nice play though. It was nice, out, inside out forehand slice, like dying low to the backhand, like kind of in the service box. Like, what are you gonna do with that ball? What are you gonna do with that ball?

diashawk (16:47.981)
Yeah!

diashawk (16:52.476)
Yeah, what are you gonna do with that ball, arena? What are you gonna do? You're gonna come in. What are you gonna do? You're gonna come into my backhand.

Alvin Owusu (16:56.862)
on a lift and land, two handed backhand? Like what are you really gonna do with that shot?

diashawk (17:00.503)
Arena missed that ball more times because she Coco gave it to her. We'll just what I say and we said it a few podcasts ago. Sometimes athleticism doesn't give you the credit for your strategy and your tactics. It was very smart. It was very petty and she knew forget everything you heard. Let me give you the ball. You don't want to get the ball. I want and isn't that what we call matching up? Well, Alvin.

She matched up well at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how it looked. doesn't matter what it was. Wendy too? Come on. What am I going to do?

Alvin Owusu (17:34.463)
Two people do the same thing and it gets called two different things. You know who else was really, really good at that shot? Fed. Fed would take that backhand slice. He'd do it on the backhand side, not the forehand side, but instead of slicing it deep, he would slice it short. Right, so you're gonna have to, you have to come up and you have to lift and he's right there, boom, knock it off. So it's a very, very, very good tactic. It looks a little different because Coco's not the most fluid of players.

diashawk (17:41.506)
this.

diashawk (17:48.1)
Short, short slice service box. Made you come up. Yep, yep.

Alvin Owusu (18:03.388)
with her dexterity, you, I mean, you can't knock the hustle. Like she knows what she's doing. She's a two time, two time Grand Slam champion, right?

diashawk (18:11.981)
Two time.

Alvin, I was very impressed by it I wanted to make that point because I feel like sometimes the black players don't always get the credit they deserve for being smart as well as being athletic. And sometimes that athleticism and mind you, she is athletic. Sometimes the athleticism gets a little bit of lion's share of the compliments, but she played that match very smart for the package she has today. will going forward, I hope she gets that point bigger. Hope she gets a serve better.

Alvin Owusu (18:28.414)
Yeah, that's an industrial strength rubber band right there.

Alvin Owusu (18:38.086)
Yeah, let's.

diashawk (18:43.179)
And she will, she's 21 years old. She'll continue to improve. And I was very happy to see the match up the way it was and she sees the moment. I was very, very proud of her. I was also happy to see the match continue to get back up on a crescendo as much as the second set was a bit of a decrescendo because they started getting back to big time tennis. then Coco as well started hitting the point much bigger.

It wasn't like she could only hit a slice, which is, that's what I was happy to see the last few games finish up on as she, and she held serve for the, for the, for the win by the way. Right.

Alvin Owusu (19:18.718)
I did not think that was gonna happen. was like, in this world, does Cocoa Golf step up to the line at 5'4 to serve it out? I like, I've seen some ugly double faults out of her. She was steady today. She even got a, she even hit an ace at 30.15? Yeah, I was like, woof! Yeah.

diashawk (19:26.689)
and close it up. Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

diashawk (19:36.547)
right? That caught the outside of the line. It was maybe a 15 off. The one that she caught out wide on the deuce barely caught the line.

Alvin Owusu (19:44.127)
Oh no, there was one, no, that was what was on the outside, because it was down the T and it was a slice, yeah, slice T. But yeah, I was thoroughly impressed. I was shocked that it was almost exactly like we said it was gonna be. If Cocoa Golf is gonna win this match, it's going to be take the initial onslaught, neutralize, make it, just get notched in and then extend it, extend the match, exactly.

diashawk (19:48.035)
Down the T. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

diashawk (20:07.788)
Yeah, get your foot in. Extend, extend the rally, extend the match. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (20:13.574)
It's interesting that her quarterfinal match against Madison Keys was almost exactly the same. Almost exactly the same. Madison was up 4-1 40-15 serving. Coco comes back, gets into a tussle, gets into the tiebreak. Madison wins the tiebreak. Same, Arena wins the tiebreak. But she didn't feel like they were actually winning the match. And Coco, to her credit,

diashawk (20:21.238)
Yep.

Right?

diashawk (20:34.646)
Yep. Yep.

diashawk (20:39.905)
H-how to present.

Alvin Owusu (20:43.176)
gets out of the chair, out of the first set with the exact same look on her face in both matches, like I'm good. I'm good. You're in my match right now. If we've gone, if we've played 13 games and it's, you know, we've been separated by one tiebreaker, then I'm in a good spot. she, yeah, it's, tennis is a beautiful, quirky, interesting game with so much depth.

diashawk (20:47.527)
Right.

Right.

diashawk (20:57.986)
Right.

diashawk (21:07.586)
A of emergencies, game of runs, a game of tactics and adjustments and it just continues to play out. I was happy it went three. I kind of thought it would. I kind of thought Cocoa would win in three. But I did not, you know, you never understand the points in between, right? That's always where it gets a little bit, you know, I'm going to say the word precarious. Go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (21:32.807)
Right, so let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Not ask you this, but it was something I think of note. Last three Grand Slam finals, Irina Sabalenka has taken place in all of them. US Open champion, Australian Open finalist, French Open finalist. She has faced an American in each one. Jessica Pagula, Madison Keys, Coco Golf.

diashawk (21:48.299)
Thank you.

diashawk (21:55.977)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Now, yep.

Alvin Owusu (22:01.629)
Looking pretty good. Looking pretty good for the old US of A. Now granted, these women are all very established. Nothing new around here. They've all been around the block for a minimum of five years. Cocoa about five years into this now and Madison's been around since, I don't know, World War II it feels like. Yeah. Well she turned pro early, right? She was one of those last of the ones who turned pro like 15 or something like that.

diashawk (22:21.474)
20, 20, 13, 20ish, maybe, at least 10 years, if not more. Right.

Alvin Owusu (22:31.6)
It's been 15 years and she's like not 30. I don't think, think she's like 29. It's weird. But yeah, it's exciting times. I don't know what to take from that. I'm not gonna stand up here and say like American tennis is where it needs to be because there's not a lot of like heavy, heavy contenders right behind that. Like Navarro, iffy, sophomore slump a little bit here. Payton, we got a ton of girls in the conversation. A of women in the conversation.

diashawk (22:45.473)
It's not.

diashawk (22:49.461)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But still in the conversation, I would certainly say, and shout out to Ola Mompwist, who's been, and Catherine Aldi, who've been part of the whole USTA national training and pro development for a long time. They've done a great job with the girls and ladies for a long time. Ola was a standout at UGA.

Alvin Owusu (23:07.218)
Absolutely.

diashawk (23:17.25)
probably 30, 40 years ago, way back and has been with USA for a long, long, long time. And shout out to our boy, Jermay, who's been a part of that whole conversation as well with public development, lot with the girls coming up, obviously, spent a ton of time with Venus, had some time with short-stamp with Naomi as well. So there's a good think tank around that group. Lots of commitment, lots of resources and lots of focus on that group to have them at that stage. And I don't think a lot of countries realize the commitment it takes to...

to stay the course on that. Right? Yep. You want that. You want that. And without that, let's face it, it gets a little, it gets a little ish, you know what mean? And so I think that's a big thing. I don't think there's much to it other than the happenstance and the serendipity of them happen to also reach. Each of them have had very different paths to get there.

Alvin Owusu (23:48.392)
And the togetherness too. Those women are all very close as well and they practice together down in Florida. It's a good thing. It's good thing they've got going. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (24:13.96)
Sure. Yeah.

diashawk (24:15.584)
One's a billionaire's daughter who wasn't that great of a junior but just willed herself through grit and and ball striking to get herself in the top. nobody predicted Jessica Pagula to be a pro tennis player, let alone top 100, let alone top 10, let alone top five. And I think that's and that's well established. And the girl has just continued to say, what else can I do? Tell me what I can't do. I'll prove you wrong. Coco, we all knew.

Coco was one of the players who played my tournament when I ran the, when I was the tournament director of the girls 12. She, in fact, her second year come through, she had just won the clays. Corey golf, her Coco's real name is Corey, by the way. most of the listeners may, may not know that, known by Coco, Corey, the dad, C O R Y, not C O R I called me up and said, coach, she's not going to make it. She just finished off a heck of a mat, a tournament, one clays a week or two before my hardcore tournament.

Alvin Owusu (25:00.68)
Dad.

diashawk (25:13.732)
for the girls 12 hard courts and said give that spot to somebody else and letting you know at a time she needs to rest she's dinged up but i knew then when you're part when you went to clays at 10 years old in the 12s pretty good you're on a rocket ship you know what i mean so as she was and as we now see so always she had that you know prodigy type you know label at that time i saw her four or five more times during it alvin there was a

Alvin Owusu (25:27.294)
Yeah.

diashawk (25:42.624)
tournament I went to and I want to say it was Louisiana had to be Louisiana. was an it was a back then. You remember the old designated. It was an old designated in Louisiana. I want to say Baton Rouge, you know, mean, oh gosh, that's right. Boca back in May. She played the one and when I tell you Alvin, she almost got worked by the pusher of the South in the first match pulled out this. Yeah, she's playing all ITFs and playing pros. This is probably 18s. Coco's got to be

Alvin Owusu (25:50.782)
Gross. It's like Bocage, or Bocage Tennis Center maybe. Yeah, yeah.

diashawk (26:12.689)
At that point, 14 maybe, playing up good old girls. And this girl that she beat was probably about the same height and size, just a little older. You know, when I tell you the girl pushed with the best of them. I mean, she wrote a whole chapter on winning ugly in the addendum to Brad Gilbert's book. And Coco was down a set to break to this girl. And people starting to gather around the match like, ooh, this is supposed to be that Coco golf girl. And Coco found a way.

Alvin Owusu (26:36.082)
Yeah.

diashawk (26:39.231)
to pull that match out. And I remember telling a couple of my buddies and my coaches at that tournament to have the savvy and the trust in your game to come back. You haven't played at a junior tournament in a while, let alone in the South. But to get in the door, she had to play a couple of matches, right? And she goes on to win that match, was able to win the tournament. Alvin, she got better every match. And when I saw that, I thought to Cory then, I said, she's playing some good ball, man. She's playing some real good ball. And she needed this kind of a win. She was, it was.

Alvin Owusu (26:52.574)
Sure. Yeah.

diashawk (27:07.628)
Albin, it was Nip Tuck the whole time. She wasn't just blitzkrieg and girls. And that's what you see. She's got a target on her back, right? And obviously the third girl you're talking about, Madison, was also one of those just 10 years earlier. We knew she was going to be She's tall, she's strong. She's, you know, mean, Madison's got to be every bit of six feet. They say 5'11", I'm saying, I'm calling BS on that. She's every bit of six feet and massive, massive forehead. And within four five years of going pro,

Alvin Owusu (27:28.819)
yeah, yeah.

diashawk (27:37.757)
reached the finals, obviously lost to Sloan in the US. My point being, each of them have taken very different paths. Now, I say that to say, happy that all three of them are there, excited for the US American women's future, including Emma, including Peyton, including McCartney, including all the rest of them that are coming through. But I will say that the USTA needs to keep their foot on the gas to continue this onslaught, this barrage.

Alvin Owusu (28:07.048)
Sure, yeah.

diashawk (28:07.301)
of play and recent rumors give me the impression that they might be slowing down the cruise control a little bit. And that's going to the talk show.

Alvin Owusu (28:14.782)
Well, we shall see. Let me ask you this. As we, know, not to rush to put this behind us, okay, we've kinda hit the halfway point here. Two Grand Slams behind us and we'll get into this maybe a little bit at a deeper level, maybe next week, two weeks from now. Things slow down a little bit, but what does Arena need to do?

I'm not gonna say obviously evolve as a tennis player is a, no one's perfect, right? And it takes a, it.

diashawk (28:44.636)
Go. And this is just the latest iteration of Arena. Make no mistake.

Alvin Owusu (28:48.798)
Well, and I don't know if it's even an arena issue. It seems like it's more of a matchup issue, and that's a beautiful part of our game, right? Not many players are going to be able to pull this weakness, which I think it is a weakness, right? The ability to kind of be a little more creative when playing offense as opposed to continuing to trust on one, two shots, going power through the baseline, not being able to maybe hit the heavy ball off the side, come in and finish with some dexterity.

diashawk (28:54.878)
Yeah.

diashawk (29:16.626)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (29:19.512)
What does that look like for Arena Sibelinka next week as she starts to prepare for Wimbledon, part A? And then how does this change your view or does it change your view of Coco? And I'll give you my opinion on part B and then we can come back to the first one. I don't think it does. think Coco, Coco's issues are still the issues. She will continue to work on them.

The second serve is suspect. Clay helps, I think, helps that kicker. Allows her to do a few more things with it. She doesn't have to be as aggressive with the kick serve to get the kick that she wants. that's one thing. The forehand, I mean, there were instances in which her forehand got tight and started to drop short, which ended up, yes, which ended up, it was so short.

diashawk (29:59.398)
Agreed. 100%.

diashawk (30:12.39)
and inside service box.

Alvin Owusu (30:15.942)
and someone expected that it hurt her. I was like, that's not on purpose. That's tight. That's tight. Right. And so you can't even get up to that ball. what do you like, you gotta, have to, she's catching it so low, she has to lift that ball and now she's on, in the service box and.

diashawk (30:16.402)
that it hurt. I said that's the same thing. Yeah. There was a couple that barely cleared the net and I'm like, Yeah.

diashawk (30:34.781)
Hence, missed approaches, she meant on the tape, she was not ready to come in, didn't see it, didn't know it was there. Let me go back to answer your first one first. Wimby for Sabalenka and beyond continue to come forward. The whole point of my coaches corner conversation was you cannot live in build. Build is just that building toward offense.

And if she continues to come forward, Alvin, she'll be fine. You know, the one tactic that I never thought this player would get, and he's actually got phenomenal volleys now is one Novak Djokovic. He has completed the avatar training and has all three. Remember that? To my point. And so does Orianna. She has time. I'm saying from the standpoint, this match will force her to do so.

Alvin Owusu (31:14.866)
No, back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (31:22.43)
Well, he's been on tour for 20 years. I mean, you got time.

diashawk (31:34.287)
She will realize how many they're to go back and review the tape. You know, her Anton is going to look at her and it's going to be like arena. Look at how many times you're going to come forward and knocked off the volley. Look at how many times you were at the net knocking off the over to the volley and you won the point easily. You simply did enough to make it work and you didn't do enough and continue to keep your foot on the gas. If you're going to commit to your aggressive style, we have to finish. And at that point, when you stayed back,

Coco's second, third ball got deep, not the first. And so it's attackable, still attackable. And Arena and her team, trust me, they're get a bit good. They're gonna continue to make her come forward and finish off. She had a couple of clutch backhand volleys, Alvin, forward or overhead solid. If anything, I think that's the only issue she has is her continual evolution. I like the word adaptation of what she's doing already.

Alvin Owusu (32:31.323)
It's almost like the same thing you would talk about with Fed when he got with Lubicic. If you want to get past this problem, this is what you have to do. And I can imagine it's, for a player, right, Irina's like, well I'm still number one in the world and Fed's like, I want all these Grand Slams, but even if there's one player, if we're doing this for one player, that one player has denied her two Grand Slams.

diashawk (32:35.26)
100 % 100 %

diashawk (32:52.227)
One,

Thank you. That's enough. That one point has the the antidote to your game. Going back to your B part of your question with Coco, Coco has to continue to trust the forehand and trust the serve. Alvin, I had the luxury several years ago, Martin Blackman was the head of player development. He had several coaching conferences, if you will. He had one for Asian American coaches. He had one for black American coaches, obviously African American coaches, and he had one.

Alvin Owusu (33:00.753)
Yes.

Alvin Owusu (33:14.94)
Yeah.

diashawk (33:24.796)
It was trying to get all of us, each of us in our own, you know, in our own Bailey wig, so to speak, to speak to each other as a group and to read and to double down in a sense on what we're doing as coaches and what we can do. Had to be, had to have been a player or had to have coached a top player to even be invited to this kind of a thing. felt honored to be part of it and be in the mix. I remember being in this mix album.

And when the subject of Francis Thiago came up, and this is probably Alvin 20, I don't 2015, 2014, 2015, maybe, maybe earlier, give or take. So he's just coming out of the juniors, just played the first match or two of the pros, right? Everybody in the room was complaining about this young man's forehand not big enough, the technique is jacked, serves not big enough, he's not that big, blah, blah, blah. And none of them were wrong.

Alvin Owusu (33:57.598)
I 20, 15, 14, 13, somewhere there, yep.

diashawk (34:22.703)
I'm sitting next to Chip Hooper, had one of the biggest serves in the 90s, sitting next to me. And was big as I was. He was clocking 1.40, 1.45 back in the day with the old school Prince Graphites, a guy I looked up to. I'm watching, I'm just watching the room. I said to myself at the time, said, you know what? It's real easy to nitpick a player that's still evolving, still adapting, still maturing.

But one thing you can't, you know, can always measure the size of the dog in the fight, but you can't ever measure the size of fighting the dog. And so my point to it is we now know Tiafoe's now been a top five, whatever he's been in play in the world. He's gotten the same as a Grand Slam. Didn't seem like that foreign technique was such a big deal after all. Now did he have to work on it for sure? Was that saying that he could just forget about it? No. But I say it to say we're real quick sometimes to throw

dirt on the coffin on a certain thing and a player who's still coming into their own. And I would like to say, think Coco, the more she has success, will trust the serve. She'll trust the forehead and she will start to kind of put a Heisman out to the naysayers about what she can and cannot do. And this match today was a big part of that. Does she need to have the ability to hit a little bigger on the step up?

Absolutely. Does she need to have the ability to take more swingers? Of course. But Alvin, Egos Vialetek won this tournament three times. She's got no huge step up forehand four times. She's got no huge step up forehand. She's got no huge down the team 130 serve. Coco hit a couple of 115, 117. She hit a couple of serves today that I was like, hold on now. Right.

Alvin Owusu (35:59.934)
Three in a row, four, four, yeah, four times.

Alvin Owusu (36:14.513)
Yeah, can hit the big one. It's the consistent hitting spots with the kicker on the second serve that seems to be the issue. But I digress, yeah.

diashawk (36:22.816)
I only dare to say she's coming into her own. And this match to me was more about Coco's fight and her belief more than it was about her game development and her game has developed. She will only get better and she will only improve and success. She has a funny way of having compound interest. She'll continue to double down on her game.

Alvin Owusu (36:35.356)
Whoa.

Alvin Owusu (36:43.549)
Right, let me say this. You mentioned this in the beginning about this match was ugly and I think Arena in her post game, on court trophy ceremony, she said some things that I was like, ah, that's a little, she said, I'm sorry to my team for this horrible final. And then she said this with a microphone in her hand and I'm like, okay, you're in a position right now where she's crying, she just lost. Okay, maybe there's a.

diashawk (37:03.287)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (37:12.559)
maybe there's a loss in translation right there. Maybe she meant something different than what she said. But then said the same thing in the post-match in the press conference. And that's when I'm like, nah, we're gonna cut that. We don't do that. That's out of pocket. At that point, you need to just take your L. Coco played great, yada, yada, yada. And also, there are very few...

diashawk (37:16.109)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

diashawk (37:31.521)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (37:41.81)
beautiful matches. It's very rare that two players play great in a tennis match. It's very rare that they play great at the same time during a tennis match. And it's quite often that the player you're playing against, especially in the final of a grand slam, number one versus number two, that player might force you to play some bad tennis because they're pretty good too, right? know, Coco can't really take the offense. Why? Because arena hits the shit out of the ball.

diashawk (37:52.12)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (38:11.389)
She's the best player in the world. She's gonna make things that she, she made Louise, Boisson, Boisson look like, look like a junior, right? And she's pushing her around the court with the forehead. Can't do that to Arena, because that ball's not sitting there, right? And on the other side, Arena's, mean, Coco's gonna forced Arena to do some things that she's not that comfortable doing, because she doesn't have to do it because of Coco's own skillset. So I just like,

diashawk (38:20.062)
Yeah. Right. Thank you.

diashawk (38:38.835)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (38:41.229)
Matches, tennis matches are chaotic by nature. Weird things happen. We're running around doing this is not drills. This is not the ideal circumstance. We're playing on a natural surface in a windy environment. 14 days in this event. Everyone had a nice warm up in the last week of this tournament to get into this. Like, Arena's match against EGLE was a fantastic preparation to be rock solid, ready to go.

diashawk (38:47.033)
Thank

diashawk (38:55.331)
Yeah. Raining, misting.

diashawk (39:03.117)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (39:11.109)
in this kind of environment. Coco got the first look version of this match against Madison five days ago, which I think helped her immensely. Just kind of the rhythm of the match was, know, the quality was better, but the rhythm was the same.

diashawk (39:11.736)
Yeah.

diashawk (39:18.135)
Yep. Right. Yep.

diashawk (39:27.189)
And I would say the two of them played very similar. To your point, was like, was right. was a darn, know, dress was a good word. Let me segue in here a little Alvin and let me say this. Number one, Irina is emotional in general and I like her emotion. I like her keeping it real. I'm not disagreeing with her that it was an ugly final. There were times it was ugly. The second set in particular, the majority of the second set was ugly. You're right here.

Alvin Owusu (39:29.019)
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It was like a very nice dress rehearsal.

Alvin Owusu (39:53.949)
Yeah, but when you lose you don't get to say that. When you lose you don't get to say that.

diashawk (39:56.12)
And mind you, she did not, did not discredit Coco in the mix. I want to, and I think that was key. What I'm getting at is, Arena's perspective of what quality tennis is, is the semi with her and Iga. Knockdown, drag out, hitting the ball big, indoor tennis, right? We're both Eastern European.

We know how to step in and take the ball early. What do you not think? What does every aggressive kid, right, in juniors hate to play? playing a pusher. As if. Correct. I'm. Go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (40:33.607)
Pushers, hate play pushers. Yeah, but that's my point. We all get, god, we all get reduced back to our 12 year old selves. And that's the, yeah.

diashawk (40:44.312)
Yeah, but that's at the core of what it is. So her perspective won't allow her yet. Her perspective at 37, her perspective at 47 is gonna be like, you know what? I didn't do that very well. And now that I'm thinking back on it, good for her to recognize that. Wow, you know what? We may see Arena's book in 10 years and talking about, I now fully understand all of tennis and I see the other side better than I ever saw before.

Alvin Owusu (41:12.475)
Maybe. Maybe.

diashawk (41:13.494)
The putt knock. The pusher gets discredited because they play a ball you don't like and they win points the unattractive way, right? In reality, it's a ball you can't handle. No one ever complained about beating the pusher 6-0, 6-0, and they are so glad they got all those reps at those swinging volleys. You complained about the loss. So I say that to say she just played, in my opinion, probably the best set of ball striking you've ever seen with her and Eega.

And in her opinion, that's quality tennis. So to see the slice forehands, to see the kicks and the buggies high to her backhand, in her mind, I made a ton of mistakes. Therefore, mistakes means ugly and ugly means I didn't play my best. I get where Rena's at. And I know what you're saying. I'm not, by no means am I justifying Ms. Sabalinka. I think I come from a place where I understand that.

Alvin Owusu (41:59.496)
Yeah.

diashawk (42:11.325)
At over 50, I appreciate the other side better than I used to. I will also say this, Alvin, Irina has some maturing to do. And her comments showed that. She also says she'd come back stronger. I believe she's continued to come back stronger. The girls made every final, I want to say the last three or four, consecutive. think that record also belonged to one Serena Williams. And that's a big deal. So I say that to say, Alvin,

Alvin Owusu (42:34.775)
US, yeah, yeah.

diashawk (42:38.935)
The both players and even at 20 at 27, arena's got some maturing to do both understanding what she doesn't do well and the need to continue to adapt and evolve herself. And again, and Coco cannot walk away from this match saying I'm so good, which I know she won't and say that my game is just where I want to be. She can look at it and say, I improved upon my 2022 vital. I have won my second grand slam. I'm starting to believe tennis said this the other day.

tennis is the better for her having got here because there needs to be a foil to Sabalinka and she is now proving herself to be said foil.

Alvin Owusu (43:17.757)
So in the last month, she has gone one and one with Irina. Well, let's take this, yeah, she's gone one and one against Irina. She lost to her in Madrid, beats her here. Remember, she also tuned up EGAA a couple weeks ago as well. Yeah, so what do we, who is,

diashawk (43:41.066)
Pretty good, by the way.

Alvin Owusu (43:46.759)
KokoGolf's problem at this point.

diashawk (43:48.982)
or in a sample deck.

diashawk (43:53.75)
And on hard-court and grass, it will be a problem.

Alvin Owusu (43:56.52)
Well, mean, let's take, on grass we don't know, but we have a sample size of at least two on hardcore and clay and Irina's the one holding the plates while Coco's the one holding the trophy. So I don't know, is it a problem? Is it a problem?

diashawk (44:12.907)
I think it's a problem. I think it's a problem and I'll tell you why. A few years ago, US Open arena folded. Coco received. She did not take. In this match, Coco notched it up and allowed arena to lose. She still didn't take. We need a match where Coco continues to counter and then takes into and not let the other player come down. Don't get me wrong. It's a good match.

Alvin Owusu (44:39.941)
Well, under what circumstances does Coco take though? That's not her.

diashawk (44:47.328)
counters, holds, holds serve, and makes Arena break down without the set, without the lead, without all of the momentum. Arena had the match, Alvin. You and I both know that. Arena stubbed her toe. And we can't get out of here without realizing that fact. Coco took a...

Alvin Owusu (44:48.113)
Yeah, she counters.

Alvin Owusu (45:10.825)
No, I refute that. I refute that. It looks like it. It looks like it.

diashawk (45:14.646)
Refuted all their law. Refuted all their law. Tell me the first set wasn't 100 % in Arena State.

Alvin Owusu (45:19.581)
Tell me why we don't play just one set. don't care. my God, we're talking, stop, stop, stop, stop it. What a, no, we, she pushes, she pushes, you have to play the entire match. And Coco forces her to a point where she cannot continue at that level for the duration of the match. And I'm sorry, the match is not over.

diashawk (45:22.518)
You're talking to the guy that likes five-set tennis and I'm talking to the that wants to...

Number two, Alvin, go ahead. I want you to finish. This is my point. She's improved, but you can't.

diashawk (45:41.122)
yeah!

Alvin Owusu (45:48.678)
until we shake hands. So I don't care how we start. I don't think Coco cares how we start. It's about how we end. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not carrying her cape. Like I'm just saying, I'm just saying. I watched this match today, Matt's dying over here, cause he is a Sabalinka person. And I'm like, I'm here for tennis. I'm here for tennis and tennis is better off for this match. And I think it is a, I cannot.

diashawk (45:53.928)
I'm a Coco Golf fan. You're not hurting my feelings.

I am.

diashawk (46:10.814)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (46:18.117)
allow us to say that there is a best way to win a tennis match or that.

diashawk (46:22.911)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, And by no means am I saying it best. I am asking, you asked me who her problem was. And I'm telling her problem is still Irina Sabalenka. And should Irina Sabalenka not stub her toe, Irina Sabalenka is hard to deal with. And I'm saying it's also the same for Irina Sabalenka. The two are now becoming a rivalry, Alvin.

And Coco had to win today to make it a rivalry. Until you win that second, you think, yeah, you got lucky that one time. Now it's a rivalry. I'm going to go further. Alvin, you can win a match through your own skill and just clear ball striking and play. you can, I am bet, I am beating you is the term I want to use. And I can let you loose.

Alvin Owusu (47:06.301)
I am better than you.

Alvin Owusu (47:11.654)
Okay.

diashawk (47:15.241)
For two thirds of the second and third set, Coco let Arena lose. I will not debate it with you. We can agree to disagree, but from my perspective, that's what happened. I will also say she did better than the last time where I thought Arena hold, or Arena cage, she just did. But here's the thing. She did what she had to do today.

And she showed the holes in Arena's game. Now, the third time they play, Alvin, we are seeing the beginnings of what could be Chris and Martina all over again. And I love that because tennis needs that. the players need that. Mack and Borg, we mentioned in last podcast, you need these rivalries because these rivalries push you. Do you realize Alvin, midway through the Chris Martina rivalry, Chris started coming to the net.

and Martina started staying back. These are the kind of adjustments I'm talking about that people don't fully understand because they knew they had to against this type of player. Now, why am I saying that? Because that's the progression. That is the full avatar status. You got to do it all. And I really feel like that's where we're going. I know I'm getting philosophical on you, but.

Alvin Owusu (48:34.413)
No, I'm just, I can't let go of this.

There is the federal way to beat people, the beautiful way to beat people, with the big forehand and the good serve and the nice fluid movement. We all have this vision of the way tennis is supposed to be played. I think if I had to be very specific, I have an issue with the phrase stubbed her toe. It's not a race, it's a fight. She didn't stub her toe, she got a shirt pulled. You're not running this race by yourself. She didn't trip.

diashawk (49:02.024)
What?

Alvin Owusu (49:08.017)
She got, she got hawked out. take, take the, after the 4-1 lead, after the 4-1 lead, we went 17 games to nine. That's a comprehensive beat down. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what it looks like.

diashawk (49:10.19)
Where?

diashawk (49:20.474)
I will agree with you on the fold and I will agree with you on the term. But even the mighty Fed himself didn't beat down people all 20 grand slams. He put you in tough situations. He held serve. He continued to put and as he even so eloquently said in his, in that graduation commencement speech,

I only won 54 % of the points of my career. So I want to make sure we don't get off on a matter of semantics here. Fed, as great as he was and my favorite player of all time, did not beat people all the time. And I would also say Fed was benefited by Nadal being his foil because he had to progress, finish, and fully develop the things that he wasn't as good.

at and I'm only mentioning to you this is the start of a great rivalry. I'm not saying that this was arena's match to win. I'm simply saying that arena now realizes that she has offense that's incomplete and I'll also say with that same in that same breath Coco has defense that now needs to be able to finish and do so sooner and not let players run up for one 40 love leads on her and act like she can come back routinely because

Alvin Owusu (50:41.189)
Yeah, coming back is not a strategy. It's not a strategy. It's a nice to have.

diashawk (50:43.827)
Coming back is not a strategy. Had Rina come forward, we'd be looking at a different score. And I think her camp knows that. Both camps know that. And more importantly, we as viewers, as fans, are going to be the recipients of better tennis down the road. And I am putting them in the category album with two of the best of all time. I don't like Chris' commentating at all. But you darn sure will know I will give Chris Everett all her props as a player. One of the best of all time.

period and I will then which qualifies my statement as Serena being the GOAT because of how much better she was and for how long she was that good with so many contenders without going backwards. These two ladies are single-handedly keeping the rivalry which makes tennis so great on the women's side alive and I'm glad that Iga's back in the conversation. I'm glad Boisson came up and threw a monkey wrench in the mix. I am so glad that

Paulini is there. I'm so glad that other players who starting to come back are looking happy. Roda Cano and Naomi are comebacks. We are playing. It's a fun tournament. Yes, and I already know.

Alvin Owusu (51:49.565)
Hey, I was happy to see Justine in an Ardyn. Justine at the trophy presentation. That was so cool. I was like, look at her.

diashawk (51:58.994)
Two or three slams, four or five slams, PlayerStar become legends. And Coco is well on her way now. Arena was already kind of leading that charge. But as you said, Alvin, you so eloquently said this, we're watching history in the present. And it's a great thing to see. And I'll be honest, I'm a little bit excited. And I don't know the last time I've been this excited to watch pro tennis. I'm excited for the game is right now.

And for a long time, I couldn't say that.

Alvin Owusu (52:28.541)
The closer I've found in the last probably four years of extensive, like really locking in and being a week in, week out type of, as a fan, one pays attention to the game and all of it. It gets better the more you pay attention. Like we, lot of fans, especially in the States, to tune in for the slams and you're looking for the names that you know, but the stories are in the names that you don't. The stories are in the Ludmilla Samsonova taking or back in a

diashawk (52:57.17)
Right. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (52:57.969)
you know, deep in the third and Strasburg right before that gives you an insight into what you could expect. And then when she pops up in the round of 16 of the quarterfinals, you're like, who is she versus, yeah, I kind of saw this coming. She looked good last week.

diashawk (53:05.987)
Right. Right. Magda Lynette in the Australian. mean, you get these players that you're like, dude, you know, who is she again? And all of a you're like, whoa. And to my point, and it's continuing to get better. I want to make one quick shout out to Anton Dubrev and to Matt Bailey. Right. I want to give, because both of them have been with their players now for several years.

Alvin Owusu (53:13.008)
Absolutely.

Alvin Owusu (53:25.209)
the rock. Anton the Rock.

diashawk (53:32.989)
And I'm going to throw a little dig at your player Rebecca now, you know who's been through probably more coaches that she's through You know what I'm saying? They have had consistent coaching and and and direction at the ship Emma Watakano immediately after her Win at the US Open many years of many years ago now She departed ways with coaching staff and thought she was this that in the third now you heard it right here

Alvin Owusu (53:37.339)
Leave her alone. Leave her alone. Leave her alone. She's growing up.

diashawk (54:00.869)
five years or so running, I think with Irina. think Koko, I think Daley was with Koko even during her first win at the open with, when Brad Gilbert was at the helm. He was still part of the team and now he's been there. Each of these players are reaping the benefit of consistency. And one thing I know, one last quick trip to Coach's Corner, parents, leave your player with a coach long enough to get everything you need from them.

before you shove off for greener pastures. There is some consistency that is there. The player understands the coach's terms, understanding the way they're looking to play, and the coach understands the player. Their ups and downs, how best to get the information out, what terms to use, what they gravitate to, what they don't, which comes through a little bit of trial and error.

The quicker you change, and I know many a parent to just hop, skip, jump, and be a jump rider, so to speak, in the coaching situation, because they feel, oh, that coach must be good. That coach is not a player who's pretty good. But go back. That player was with that coach for probably three or four years, maybe more, and what you're seeing now is the culmination. You're not seeing last week. You're seeing the culmination of a lot of years of development. Stay patient with it. Your kid's not as good as you may think.

and he may be benefiting from consistency. If there's been terrible this, that, and the third, and you need a change, the coach has been consistent, therefore, because this is not fair at all, fair enough. But even then, look for some things that are good and find some things in that coach. That's my last point.

Alvin Owusu (55:44.585)
Fair enough, let's quick look forward. We got five weeks of grass court tennis. We got three weeks, three weeks of lead up, two weeks of Wimbledon, we got five weeks. I like to call it silly, not silly season, like, ain't no one training on grass. Three, two warmup events. yeah, I saw some clips, Drapers on the court. Yeah, everyone's on grass right now. If you're not still playing in the tournament, you are on grass right now.

diashawk (55:53.637)
Total. Yep. Right.

diashawk (56:04.545)
You can bet your butt the English are.

diashawk (56:11.722)
Right. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (56:14.174)
But grass is no one's, know, no one's making a ranking on grass like some people can make one on clay. Let's put it that way, right? So with that being, exactly, exactly. So with that being said, you know, you get one, maybe two, or up events depending on, you know, how soon you're out of the French open. Some people will be playing next week. I love the contrast between, you know, well, today and tomorrow.

diashawk (56:23.534)
Right, fair enough, right, no, right, right. There's some boosters of the grass, of the grass, for sure.

Alvin Owusu (56:42.75)
on our televisions, the courts are red. Come Monday, you turn on tennis channel, the courts are be green. it's, it's, it, here, right here. We're not, not, we're not too far away. I took that picture, by the way. That was right before Francis, not Francis Felix was getting ready to play in 2019 when I was there. So I say that to ask, as we look forward to Wimbledon on the women's side, is there any,

diashawk (56:45.4)
Yeah.

diashawk (56:48.898)
My background screen will change as of, as of today. Don't sleep. Yes, sir. I saw you. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (57:13.148)
What can we carry forward here? Like what can we carry? I feel like this is like the F1 equivalent of racing at Monaco. Like it don't make any sense. It's a whole, it's its own problem altogether. Its own set of whatever. You can't really train for it. It just is what it is. It's a shooter's paradise if you will. Is this the one that, is this the time where Irina knocks this one off? Like she's been sick or injured or.

diashawk (57:29.68)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (57:41.55)
Not allowed to play in the last four of these three of these

diashawk (57:47.632)
If history in this year has been any indication, Arena will be in the final once again. Will she win it? I'm not sure. But one thing's for sure, she will likely be in the final. Or darn, you're close. I will say this for Arena Sabalinka. And again, I don't misunderstand your words that they were harsh and they were a little dismissive of what actually happened. I understood what you were trying to say. I will also say that she's a bit of a realist. She's rushing for credit a lot. She's going to say it what it is.

the Bella Russian notwithstanding. She's Russian. see what saying? I say it to say.

Alvin Owusu (58:18.59)
Belarus, Belarus.

diashawk (58:25.485)
Her serve's big, her forehand's big, her returns are big, the grad skips, that's all you need. I'm not so sure. Right, you said she was paradise and she's played Thompson, Curry, Gumbau. I'm just, at some point, with the little touch of Jokic, I don't know how she doesn't get to the final. Whoever beats her, if they beat her, will have to have the best returns of their life.

Alvin Owusu (58:27.592)
That, that'll do it. That'll do it. As I said, it's a shooter's paradise. That's all you really need.

Right, yeah.

diashawk (58:53.295)
They will have to take advantage of an off day of serving. They will have to take advantage of her being a little dinged up. the, and, and, if, you know, as the great Adam Guski, shout out to Adam, put up goose said, hope is not a strategy. You have to hope that she's off. You have to hope that she's dinged up. You have to hope that she is not playing at her best. And if that's the case, buddy, if hope is your strategy going in, buddy, you know, that's a, that's a 80, 20 arena all day against the field. saying, I'd say 70, 30, but just saying.

Alvin Owusu (59:22.578)
Yeah, I'm with you. It would take a, I mean, we haven't had a consistent champion at Wimbledon in quite some time on the women's side, right? It's been a roulette of champions. So I say typically the profile of a Wimbledon champion is someone who can serve big, forehand big. Krijikova last year, different.

It's different, but she's very depth at the net coming forward, so on and so forth. But anyways, yeah, I'm pseudo excited for it. Whatever whatever grass is grass. And then we.

diashawk (59:51.458)
Yeah.

diashawk (59:55.062)
Yeah, great hand. Who are you most, give me the top five that you are most looking forward to coming off of how well they're playing. Right. I think we both appreciate a player like Boisson as good as her run was. A, she might make the tournament because the rankings too low and B, game doesn't really match up well on the grass. Let's be honest.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:21.287)
Sure, yeah. So on the women's side.

diashawk (01:00:22.862)
So who is the different platformers I'm giving her love? Women's side, who you like?

Alvin Owusu (01:00:27.309)
Arena for sure. Former Women and Champion, Elena Rabacana. Give her that one. Dark Horse, she won the tournament. You said Big Serve, Big Forehand. That's Rabacana's special right there. It took a gutsy effort from Ega just to keep her from progressing in this tournament. So that's like, we got a problem here. It took a four time French Open Champion to take her out of this event, right?

diashawk (01:00:29.528)
Done.

diashawk (01:00:42.786)
You're right. I just give credit.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:56.187)
Don't stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me.

diashawk (01:00:57.454)
She's still giving her coach who's there for the tournament's credit. That's my coach. Who's watching back from Jill's tavern.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:08.093)
my God. Madison Keys is a dark horse, right? She showed that she can do it when it takes more than we thought she had. And I'll show you, and I think like I said, Shooter's Paradise, this is right up her alley. I don't know if I trust it for two weeks, but I always say that about Madison. My heart.

After that...

diashawk (01:01:38.377)
My only problem by the way is you say her as Dark Horse Australian Open Champion, the biggest serve on the tour and the biggest forehand on tour Shooter's Paradise, she's on paper with just stats and skills minus WK Thermos. She might be the favorite.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:52.434)
The, I say she's a, no, I say she's a dark horse because if she has an off day, right, there's no, the gap between her A game and B game is a lot bigger than arena's. That's what, that's my.

diashawk (01:01:59.413)
Right. It's you're right. You're right. Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon riff versus a crack in the pavement.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:08.559)
It takes it'll it'll take seven per damn near perfect days for her. Four and five. I mean, I guess.

I guess you have to put Pauline in there. She did final the event. But then you could put a lot of people who have finaled the event. I don't know, after those three, I don't really feel that confident about anyone else potentially having a better chance of doing well at Wimbledon than anyone else. That's what I'm saying. I can't say Andreva, I can't really say Coco. We do start going hard, low to that forehand.

diashawk (01:02:29.963)
Yep.

diashawk (01:02:40.269)
Okay.

diashawk (01:02:47.895)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:51.697)
That's a whole different set of problems, right? And then kick serve won't kick. It won't kick. I was thinking we should have Bobby come and join us to talk about what it really takes to play at Wimbledon, because I haven't played at Wimbledon, you haven't played at Wimbledon, but Bobby has gone into this and the belly of the beast.

diashawk (01:02:51.757)
Yep. Cake's a roll cake.

diashawk (01:03:09.1)
I did a few at a ringy park and the ball hit back to me off the feed went sideways and I was like, lumpy. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:18.587)
Yeah, it'll fry your hips up. But yeah, think it's a whatever after that. could say, watch this, you could say Jessica Pagula should do well at Wimbledon. Ball stays low, she stays low. I would probably put her right there at four. And then if I have to go five.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:50.631)
Let's get Radekhanu weird. Let's throw Emma in there. Bye bye.

diashawk (01:03:58.376)
of why not is a great word and a great expression. I'm with you on that.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:59.848)
Why not? Why not? What's at you?

diashawk (01:04:08.297)
Arena number one.

We're into number two. Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue, and dialogue. Number two is Madison. Just because of matchups. I'm not talking history. I'm not talking anything else. I'm talking how they're playing right now. I would have to put in there.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:14.406)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:22.994)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep.

diashawk (01:04:33.974)
The returns and the on the rise are ridiculous. So you can't not say EGA. From where I sit, I would have to say.

JPEG for sure and JPEG and Eagerness are three in my book, Walking In. I would tell you Alvin that Rebacchina begrudgingly makes my five and I would also tell you that

Alvin Owusu (01:04:59.646)
Hey, there you go.

diashawk (01:05:09.387)
as much as it pains me to say it. As much as it pains me to say it. There's an outlier out there, the likes of Osta Penko, the likes of, you know, I'm trying to think of who has a, this is gonna throw you off for a weird one here. I don't rule out an older,

stronger player who has can have a tournament a strong tournament of their life like van joosova or a or a what's what's the what's what's my tall my tall left that hadn't done anything since she came back kvitova you know i feel like they have the chance to make a run so my point is i i give that that rounds at my top five big sir big forehand can lace in the corner can volley

Alvin Owusu (01:05:56.008)
Former Wimbledon champions, both of them.

diashawk (01:06:05.235)
That's what I'm getting at. I really feel like it'll be between arena and the field. Let's be honest.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:10.026)
let me throw one more in there. Talking about Shooter's Paradise. Amanda Anisimova. That's my actual dark horse. That makes sense.

diashawk (01:06:18.171)
100 % Amanda. Amanda would be there for sure. I just haven't seen her do much at Wimby because she hasn't been helping do that. But to my point, but Ega's got enough return, enough slams in her belt for me to reconsider her. To my point, if I had to round out the eight, Amanda definitely makes my ideal, my dream quarterfinal situation for sure. For sure. And I'm so happy that the names that are now

Alvin Owusu (01:06:24.644)
Sure. mean, hell, neither is Ega. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:40.712)
Fair enough, fair enough.

diashawk (01:06:46.559)
filling out that eight would be great or going to be great in our, I say great, they're all great, but are starting to be so contentious that it's truly going to be a bit of a tug of war, an eight way tug of war. You know, all obviously what, you know, you got to go through, you got to go through a ring. Let's be honest. I mean, you just go through her and Hey, you heard right here. Coco is not out of the, out of the mix. She's continuing to develop, got a back end return this all day. so showed a lot of

Alvin Owusu (01:07:03.442)
Yep, yep.

diashawk (01:07:15.965)
Not just speed showed a lot of great returns off that side. To your point, the kick don't kick on the grass. I get that. Hazard is a slice. She's showing some tactics she's never showed before. You know, we'll see. The only thing hurting Coco, my opinion, is what hurt Madison Australia. She won the French. That's the biggest thing hurting her. It is a little bit of a, a little bit of an exhale. You know what I mean? And that, it's a very short lead up. So,

Alvin Owusu (01:07:29.374)
We'll see.

diashawk (01:07:45.333)
go into Wembe, you know, still celebrating the French doesn't bode well.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:50.76)
Okay, well, we'll leave it there. We're talking about women as if tomorrow's not basically a national holiday. Happy Center versus Alcaraz in the final Grand Slam for all that, for all that, that do observe.

diashawk (01:08:00.298)
Oh my god. Oh my god. How great was the French for the women to lead, end with this kind of a match, you know, and then tomorrow to finish off with the cherry on top with Alcara's incentive. This has been a great tournament.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:14.11)
I don't want talk about it. I don't want to about it. I don't want talk about it. Nope. Nope. We're gonna wrap it up. We're gonna stop right there because we'll come back and we'll talk about it tomorrow. I'm Alvin, that's Best of three. Peace.

diashawk (01:08:25.3)
Peace.