Ep. 44: The 2025 Wimbledon Draw Show

Torrey (00:05.273)
Bye, you know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (00:06.508)
Yeah, exactly. What up people? Welcome to another edition of the best three podcast. I'm Alvin. That's Tory. It is Wimbledon time. Like for real this time, not just us BSing about the best days on the grass courts, but draw came out this morning and I'm happy to be with you, TH. How you doing?

Torrey (00:27.444)
I'm same, Alvin, same. Good to see you. It is always good to see you. And I'm loving this time of year as we talked previous, I wish the grass court season was a bit longer. Alvin, feel like the grass season is not only has this place in history, I feel like it shows a different skill set. You mentioned that last time, but I also like

The grass itself just looks so pretty. I mean, I'm talking Wesley Snipes. And white man can't jump. it's just so pretty. Anyway, I just had to say that because as I'm looking at my little background here and I was looking at some pictures earlier, I'm like, God, the grass looks good on me.

Alvin Owusu (00:59.586)
It looks great. It looks great.

Alvin Owusu (01:04.721)
It's pretty. It's so pretty.

Alvin Owusu (01:17.816)
Yeah, had Novak and Carlos were out there hitting, I think this morning, they put them on center court. It was like they were the first people to hit on center court. it's like, they're both like, I feel bad, I don't wanna ruin the grass or anything. And it was like, all you can hear is the ball and them talking. And they were mic'd up. So it was like, they're doing a little on court interview while hitting. was so cool. I think Wimbledon started doing it last year. yeah, the grass just looks like, it looks fake. It looks fake. Yeah.

Torrey (01:25.058)
Right.

Torrey (01:28.886)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:32.459)
Right. Right.

Torrey (01:43.189)
Yeah, it's so good. looks fake. That's that's exactly as a great way of putting it. I was talking to one of the guys and I was there, it's been years, but he was telling me that, and this is what bro Hampton where the, had the warmup for the junior was right. For the group for June, but he, but in public quality is there too. Right. So they have this huge field, right? They are growing the grass, right. For the next, whatever Sears determines next year is what it basically sounded like at the same time. So.

Alvin Owusu (01:55.64)
And the qualities are there as well.

Alvin Owusu (02:09.409)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (02:12.863)
I guess, because it gets so beat up, they literally just pick up the nets and move them over to the next set of courts. that whole, there's an expanse, which used to be eight to 10 courts, right? That is now, that just looks like a very poorly mowed slash, trounced, former grass court. And they literally pick up, move over and there go to the courts that were growing on the left and so on. So they kind of go back and forth and alternate, but people don't realize,

Alvin Owusu (02:30.72)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (02:42.134)
It's not like you can just drag and do the lines for a brass chord. It literally is real grass. And so with that said, we're looking.

Alvin Owusu (02:50.229)
Right.

Well, and that's the that's the reason why, like Wimbledon is not going to be able to just like add extra days because like every day they add is more wear and tear on the grass, which makes it makes the, you know, impacts the tournament as we get further and further along. I did see a video the other day where they are. They've acquired the golf course right by right by Wimbledon and they are they're taking over that lake and the golf course. They're going to turn into partially public park. And they're also adding like 30 more courts.

Torrey (03:01.131)
while we're in town the grass.

Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (03:12.158)
Okay.

Torrey (03:21.461)
Wow. Grash 2, I'm assuming. Yeah, wow.

Alvin Owusu (03:22.143)
Right, yeah, that's a big deal. Grass, yeah, yeah, so it's gonna allow them to bring qualifying away from Ruahampton on grounds, yeah. And that might actually allow them at some point, if they want to, to add additional days to the front end of the tournament. And so that kind of piggybacks to our, if the women were going to play five sets, right, now we have, like, women can't do it, they literally cannot do it. They don't have the.

Torrey (03:28.912)
all on the grounds. that would be nice.

Torrey (03:38.967)
Sure.

Torrey (03:50.199)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (03:50.988)
They don't have the time on grass to do it, but if they had more courts, then now we're having a different conversation. I got one right here for you. And I think the merchandise has already gone to print, so we can't really change it quite yet.

Torrey (03:55.671)
Yep. I'm looking for my Sharpie, Alvin. I'm just going to call this series Best of Five. No, there you go.

Torrey (04:06.231)
It has, it has. All closest I got in here is an Expo market, you know what I'm saying.

Alvin Owusu (04:12.211)
you can erase those. You can erase those. But you know, as we will, I think the people, the three people that listen to this podcast are here to hear us talk about our thoughts on the old Wimbledon draw. So if you're listening, sorry you can't see it if you're watching, it's right there. I just put it right there, the easy way. Let's start top half of Sabalinka's quarter. I think Irina Sabalinka's got herself an interesting little first week ahead of

Torrey (04:35.626)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (04:41.653)
agree with that?

Alvin Owusu (04:42.773)
Yeah, that's tricky. mean, not that anything is really overly tricky for Rina Sablevka, but what I'm looking at, Lulu Sun, who made her name last year at this tournament, she made the semis or the quarters. She made a deep run last year. Lefty, I believe she's left handed. Anyways, it doesn't matter. I'm assuming she gets past her, but now you've got, I mean, obviously the shark in the water there is Markheda von Drozdava, right?

Torrey (04:47.914)
Yep.

Torrey (05:11.338)
Marquette, Ivan Jozova, I mean, that's what I'm looking at. who has to, know, who have a tough one to get through, McClain and Kessler. my point being, McCartney, sorry, McClain's the brother. McCartney is a good player in her own right, you know what I mean? And so both those two could be dangerous running into Sabalinka. And, you know, not to be dismissed as a Marotkaano, you know, who's playing another bread wild card. So we'll see. It's certainly not the...

Alvin Owusu (05:21.035)
McCartney, McCartney. McClaid's brother, yeah.

Torrey (05:41.333)
It's certainly not a great walk over by any means. Personally, for me, for Sabalenka, I think I like that. I think the tougher her matches can be, the more forward she is down the road. I don't think she has the kind of game that, you know, she doesn't mean to take me days off and she doesn't play you much different either way. Right. Unless it's just a matter of she certainly has from what, you know, from what could be an easier quarter that I've seen a little down the road. She certainly doesn't.

Alvin Owusu (06:01.813)
Right, yeah.

Torrey (06:10.259)
have a walkthrough show up and shake hands kind of a affair.

Alvin Owusu (06:14.995)
Yeah, and I feel for McCartney, like all the hard work she's put in over the last few months to earn that seed, to give herself a little bit of space to work into a Grand Slam, like, and only to get a Wimbledon, exactly.

Torrey (06:19.242)
Yeah.

Torrey (06:25.171)
Right, only to get a non-seated former Grand Slam champion win. And it's like, thanks, thanks guys for being seated. Should almost be a lottery. Do you want the seat or not? And then the person says, I'll take my chances.

Alvin Owusu (06:32.927)
Right, yeah.

Right, yeah. Yeah, it's a market is like one of those if she's on, she's on and when she's on, you know it and you know, she's playing good ball right now. She'd made a good run at the French, came in the grass court season. She won. She beat arena last week, won her warm up event. So like, I mean, that's a that's probably the worst case scenario for McCartney. But, know, if you're going to if you're going to make a make a living at this, this is what you to go through. So.

Torrey (06:43.784)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Just just beat arena last week.

Torrey (07:04.019)
Yep, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (07:05.463)
Yeah, kind of moving down through here. think the rest of that, rest of the top half of that quarter, know, interesting matches there. Svitolina, I expect, I what are your expectations coming out of, you know, till the fourth round here? Do you feel, actually better yet, coming out of the third round? Like, how do you think that actually plays out with with Sabalinka space?

Torrey (07:12.308)
Yeah.

Torrey (07:20.351)
Yep.

You know, I was looking at that, you know what I mean? You so clearly you can kind of look at a, you you can, you know, you got your Von Drusova, you know, Sabalink, Von Drusova, Vatakhanu kind of winning in that third round. You've also got, you know, down on the, you're talking about the next quarter down.

Alvin Owusu (07:41.976)
Well, not even just like that space right there. I'm not really trying to make a prediction or anything, but I feel like I like Von Drusova kind of just, I like her. I like her coming through and I don't think Sabalinka, not to have recency bias or anything as they just played, but I feel like she gets through McCartney probably pretty straightforward. I feel like she's got too much game for Emma. That's the type of player with that kind of pop that.

Torrey (07:44.372)
Yeah.

Torrey (07:47.892)
Yeah.

Torrey (07:54.868)
I do too.

Torrey (08:00.755)
Yeah.

Torrey (08:07.304)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (08:09.799)
and that kind of serve that Emma like kind of levels up to like that's the, that's where she kind of gets blocked off. Right. that's a huge.

Torrey (08:12.615)
Yep, yep. And you can't discount the lefty advantage, right? And having won here before. So that's the big thing. I'm with you. I'm more... Listen, Sabalink is a 1-C-4 reason, right? She is certainly the player to beat. We don't need to give her any more accolades than she's already earned and has justifiably earned and has. She is the player to beat. Period and a story.

Alvin Owusu (08:25.205)
Right, right, right.

Torrey (08:39.352)
I got a point I want to mention on another matter closely related, this is her tournament to lose slash she's the front runner. I just feel Marquetta is a very dangerous matchup for her. If anybody could beat her in the top half, you know, without getting too far ahead of ourselves, it's Marquetta Vontrieu. So that's all I'm saying.

Alvin Owusu (08:56.841)
Right, yeah. Okay, so let's commit to this then. So after the second round, we'll check back in and we'll get eyes on that match and then we'll...

Torrey (09:05.607)
Yep. That's a match right there. That is a, that honestly really is a quarter slash semi caliber match in my opinion. And no disrespect to anybody else playing, just saying, but we're talking history. We're matchups. We're talking good on grass. We're talking, you know, everything it is. Wow. That is rock, paper, scissors, four out of seven right there. mean, it's just, you just, wow. There's a lot of things that match up there, you know, while

Alvin Owusu (09:14.327)
Right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Torrey (09:35.636)
know, that on and that Marketta likes what, you know, especially on grass, she likes what arena does and just can handle that ball. So that's and that makes it when you're ripping your big shot and your opponent has a nasty slice that brings that ball down to your knees, you're not going to not rip your ball, right? You're not going to not hit your shot and she's not going to not slice and hit the ball low. I mean, so it becomes a, you know, what do you change? You know what I mean? What do you change? You're gonna start looping now? I mean, Marketta's got a forehead.

Alvin Owusu (09:48.31)
Ha ha ha.

Alvin Owusu (09:51.872)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (09:58.934)
Right, exactly. Especially at a point in the tournament, the grass will still be pretty slick at that point.

Torrey (10:04.155)
Right. That's the point, Alvin. That's a great one. I was just going to say. And the lower, the better, the more slick the bounce, the better from Archetta. You know what I mean? It's almost better if she did play in the quarters or in the semi because the ball would sit up a little bit, get a little more traction. So, you know, anyway, it'll be good match to watch. I'm looking forward to it.

Alvin Owusu (10:14.731)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (10:23.957)
Yeah, same here. So let's move to the bottom half of that quarter. I think one of the matches that jumps off the page here, first round, Badosa versus one Katie Bolter slash Demon Hour. That's interesting. That's interesting.

Torrey (10:27.121)
Yep.

Torrey (10:32.365)
Yeah, Katie Bolter. It is. And will Paula be fully healed? Right? Is she is she ready to go? Right? That to me is always a question mark. And that's the only thing I feel for her is is she quote unquote, ready to go? You know what I mean? For this next round. So that's you know, and of course, you know, you got you grow roots and Madison. So this is a

This is the tricky section over here. know what I mean? That's another crazy lefty that could always do some damage. So you got some weird, this is not that straightforward, this whole thing over here. You know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (11:02.474)
Yeah

Alvin Owusu (11:06.795)
And that's the...

Alvin Owusu (11:11.799)
Especially for the seeds, what you'd ideally like to get out of the gates pretty clean, get a good feel for how the conditions are playing and work your way into the tournament. But for some of these seeds, like for Madison, for Paola, for our arena a little bit, maybe the second round. it's not, they have no time to rest, no time to wait, it's just right after it.

Torrey (11:23.824)
Yeah.

Torrey (11:33.391)
Right, right. Hey, Alvin, this Layla Fernandez matched up with Peyton Stearns. mean, that could be, you know, if she gets to Sigmund. I'm just saying, that's not a, that's not a thank you being seated match right there. You know what I mean? So.

Alvin Owusu (11:46.998)
I mean, Peyton against Laura Siegman, that's a dangerous one. Because Laura is, she is, she's frustrating. She's mercurial. I could, and Peyton, don't know that her game sound necessarily screams grass court tennis. She's more of a.

Torrey (12:03.312)
Yep, certainly has a big serve and big forehand, so again, heavier than it may need to be, but still, she's under six feet tall, if not a full six. Right.

Alvin Owusu (12:08.307)
Right, yeah, it's the heaviness of it that gives me some concern about how much time she needs to actually get that thing cranked.

Torrey (12:18.002)
just saying the cerebral crank. And I'm just saying, if she gets through Laura, I'm saying you look at her with a very feisty, very fast Layla. I'm just saying that's not a match up that I don't think, it doesn't necessarily scream, hey, thanks for being seated, match to me is all I'm getting at. With everybody else that we're saying, it just is, you know, it's just funny. We mentioned this in the men's, I know, was it? No, it was the French.

There was that one quarter, remember? There was like five former Grand Slam winners in that one weird corner. Remember that? I mean, everybody from, mean, it was, who was it? I forget.

Alvin Owusu (12:52.033)
you're just hanging out. Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (12:57.591)
Some of the older ones, I feel like Stan was in there. the women's, yeah, Panko, Benchich. Yeah, Ego was in there. I think Naomi might have been in there, yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (13:00.626)
No, I think it was the women. There were five. I think Panko. Remember there was that one. Panko was there. Benshish. think Vondrasova was there. They were all in that little one section. out of the... There was like five of them in one area. I mean, it was like, wow. I mean, of all the ones to be in, you know what I mean? We didn't know what happened, but... obviously good for Ega for coming through. I think that was her section. My point is this. It was a really weird matchup that they were...

They all happen to be outside of top 32. but, clearly, you know, clearly good, you know what I mean? So, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (13:32.661)
Right, let me ask you this. At any other slam, doesn't really seem to, this doesn't happen to me at any other slam, but when I'm looking at Wimbledon and I see anyone with a, is it the Captain Jack logo, the British flag there, I just assume, Union Jack, Union Jack, not Captain Jack, Captain Jack is Steven Jackson from the NBA back days.

Torrey (13:49.285)
Yeah. Union Jack. There you go.

Alvin Owusu (13:58.548)
Anyone with a Union Jack next to their name, I just assume that they're better on grass than everyone else, which is that, is that, is that it's surface bias. But yeah, but does it matter? Like, does it, does it matter? Like Carlos Socorra did not grow up playing on grass court and yet he is the two time defending champion. You know what mean?

Torrey (14:05.711)
little little surface bias certainly certainly more experience on it I'll tell you that

Torrey (14:16.207)
Yeah, yeah. I think you and I both know, Alvin, when you're using statements that start with two words, Carlos and Alcaraz, that's already a different conversation. And I would say the same thing if those two words are Yannick and sinner, you already know you're talking about something else. know what I mean? There's the midichlorians that are present in those two. It's just sith worthy. And I always say that to say,

Alvin Owusu (14:24.723)
Okay, fair. Fair.

Alvin Owusu (14:41.811)
or even...

Torrey (14:45.265)
I think your point is well taken so long as we don't include those two names or Novak's for that matter because of history, current level of play. And for those other two, they're bright, very bright future in this game as the current, you know, best for both of them. So now if you tell me, as I see the Union Jack against Layla Fernandez, yes, will, will Klugman be a very feisty, you know, opponent against Layla?

100 % she could be, know, Katie Bolter, we talked about her her and Badosa and so on. You start looking at that. I got to think that the English, Dan Evans just took out who at ranked what? 199 or something. think he took out Monfils or somebody. Was it last week? I mean, Dan's still feisty. I mean, Dan, he just knows how to play on the grass and Dan was a top 20 player back in the day. He just, my point is he's not terrible on the grass and he's probably, Dan's got to be mid to late thirties. So I'm just saying.

Alvin Owusu (15:37.097)
Yeah. Well-

Alvin Owusu (15:43.532)
Yeah, but maybe I take the contrapositive here and go, okay, there have been a lot of British players to play Wimbledon, how many have won Wimbledon? Right, exactly. like, it's just like we talked about this a couple days ago, like the better players generally win the matches. Like I even, mean, there's no, I don't expect Katie Balter to actually beat Paolo Podosa. Like, I think giving too much credence to the surface that they're playing on and Katie being from.

Torrey (15:50.298)
Yeah, not many, not many. Yeah.

Torrey (15:57.663)
Oh, 100%. Better players go win the match. You know what mean?

Torrey (16:10.262)
Yeah, but she certainly could make it tricky. And she certainly, Hey, I'll give you, I'll play devil's advocate on this one. So Lois Boisson failed to qualify. You don't tell me here's a run to the semi. Could I be playing better on clay? And she slides and moves very well on clay to be surface biased. And now to that same thing, failed to qualify in on the term. Now my point is, so clearly surface means a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (16:33.141)
lost their first match in qualies.

Torrey (16:38.948)
You know what mean? And so to me, I give, don't give them that love against maybe, but those is where that starts to even out and go in the way of the seed. But if you have anybody else that doesn't have a number or a queue next to their name, I would say there's a good chance that that's, that that's an equalizer.

Alvin Owusu (16:57.687)
Okay, all right, I'll take it. I'll take that, yeah.

Torrey (16:59.615)
So they certainly have the experience on the surface as the X factor, think is what I'm trying to say.

Alvin Owusu (17:06.391)
All right, mean, yeah, well, we'll see. Actually, it's something to keep an eye on. I think about it, I think about it, and we give more weight to it here than anywhere else because of the uniqueness of the surface. But it's not like the Brits play on grass. Once you make the Pro Tour, you're not just hanging out in GB playing on grass, right? You're on the same surface as everyone else is on. at some point, it evens itself out. Yes, please.

Torrey (17:10.382)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (17:15.833)
For sure, for sure. As I think you should, as I think you should, clay and grass to me for that reason.

Torrey (17:25.103)
Right, right, right, right. 100%, 100%, yep.

Right. Quick question before you move on. You didn't talk to your all time fave there. Number six. You didn't want to jinx anything? Got it. Fair enough. I had to, I caught it and I'm like, huh, he didn't take the bait on that one.

Alvin Owusu (17:39.07)
Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to. Yeah, I just don't want to. Like she's. Look, I mean, at this point, she's she's a top 10 player. She's won a Grand Slam this year. She's made semifinals and a lot of semifinals and finals and a lot of tournaments like she's a pro. What she should do is hold her proceed. And I don't want to let my my my fandom of Madison get in the way of how I evaluate.

Torrey (18:04.14)
Right, right, right, right.

Alvin Owusu (18:08.149)
the, this particular portion of the draw. Like I.

Torrey (18:10.671)
I will try to remember that when we get down a little lower with some of my face. Vis a vis. Right, right. All right.

Alvin Owusu (18:14.217)
Ask me next week. Ask me next week. Things get weird week two. Things get weird week two. Okay. All right. Let's let's move on to Jay Powell's Pauline's quarter top half. I had some notes here because there's an interesting match just hanging out down there at the bottom.

Torrey (18:25.709)
Yep.

Torrey (18:35.202)
You know, I'm looking at Amanda and Putin Sabra. You know, that's the one I was looking at. That's the one that got my attention.

Alvin Owusu (18:37.491)
and Putin save a that's yeah, that's, that's gonna be Amanda did not had a good warm up to this. Like she she took a bad loss, like something like one and one to somebody last week on grass or maybe this week and it's like, I don't with Amanda, I don't know what her game screams like what is her best surface like she's got some weapons but like mobility is such such a big deal here.

Torrey (19:06.893)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (19:07.625)
And she doesn't have like the biggest serve to offset the lack of being, you know, fleet of foot.

Torrey (19:11.884)
No.

Certainly, certainly not a bad serve. Her ground strokes are arguably stronger. I would, I would venture the guess to say provided she's there and can connect, you know, she's a, she reminds me a lot of Jessica in a lot of ways in this one, but I think she serves maybe even a little bigger than JPEG, but, but that's not saying a lot. JPEG didn't have a crushing serve, right? So certainly not an arena. I say it to say if she can get her footing, provide it healthy.

I see her ball penetrating though. And I think that's the one thing that I like about what she's Unfortunately, so does Putin save his ball, right? So that's a tough matchup. That's a match where they both are gonna be hitting lasers on that. I don't know. I see a lot of players in this whole section that are that I'm not gonna call it a weaker section. I gotta think Paulini, whose game I love, it takes a crazy early. I gotta think that

Alvin Owusu (19:49.728)
Right. Exactly.

Torrey (20:11.597)
You know, she may struggle a little bit on the surface with, you know, with the ball that penetrates the way it does. She may not be able to do the exact. If a girl doesn't have a spinning ball, will she able, will she be able to take the ball as quickly? Um, you know, I'm looking at least I'm looking at, uh, para her dad, Maya. mean, there's, there's so many players that hit a heavier, spinnier ball, right? That may not mean right. That's Ramcova that that might be a matchup. would favor her over her dead mind. And I love it at Maya's game, but on the grass, I don't know if.

Alvin Owusu (20:27.585)
Hadat, yeah, Beatrice and Ashmaia is tricky.

Alvin Owusu (20:35.915)
Really? Okay.

Torrey (20:38.636)
her ball will sit up a little bit and allow her to be penetrated through if you take it early. So that's Yenita Wickmire, obviously another good ball, good clean ball striker, know, who's experienced, in this long time. Whoever gets through that match with Putin, Saban, and Nissa Mova is probably going to run into her. No offense to Zarizuha, but I'm just saying there's so many, again, these girls that hit through the court pretty well. They're tall. Yenita's got to be close to six feet yourself. There's a lot of those girls that are this tall, long, crank.

Alvin Owusu (20:42.806)
Yeah.

Torrey (21:07.873)
and they just hit through the court, you know what I mean? you know, it's gonna, the lower half of that to me is almost all pretty tall. And then you got the upper part is a little bit short, it's kind of weird.

Alvin Owusu (21:15.317)
Well, it's it's it's interesting, like the the the hit through the hit through the court aspect of it, right? Like, there's a lot of these women that can hit through the court. But I see it as more of a you can't just because they can all hit through the court. But like, can they hold the middle? And can you keep yourself out of out of compromised situations in the corners? Because that's where everyone gets a little a little less than on grass, right? Especially when the ball especially when we're talking about ball flights that are kind of just kind of run it through.

Torrey (21:30.219)
Right. Right. Right.

Torrey (21:39.947)
For sure. For sure.

Alvin Owusu (21:45.1)
you know, fairly flat on the women's side. So like I look at someone like Linda Noskoma, right? She hits a big ball, moves okay, but like that, like we've talked about it before, right? Like her ball speed can almost be a hindrance to her on a surface that's so fast. that same issue with Amanda, right? And I think like Putin Seva is almost the right balance of, she hits it well enough.

Torrey (22:01.517)
That's what I'm saying.

Torrey (22:07.159)
Same exact.

Right, right in the middle. Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (22:12.311)
But she also moves well enough. like that's, um, and I think that's what Jasmine like has done so well on, on grass in the last, you know, eight, last 12 months, uh, finaling last year and then doing pretty well up until like today she lost to Ega. But, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's tricky. It's tricky. You kind of have to have it all in balance. Um, and I think going back to, um, going back up top to the previous section, uh, Von Droseva, like she counters that with having a slice that allows her to easily reset. Right.

Torrey (22:18.379)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (22:39.821)
Right. And, and what do you do? You go back cross court most of the time, which is to what her forehand and she can yank you off the court there too. So line or what she did very well a few years ago when she won it. again, to your point, she's, like that word balance. She's very balanced. She's got a very balanced attack. She's got a weapon on one and a counter on the other, which is, I think you need to have on the grass. And as I say, it's, it's,

Alvin Owusu (22:46.827)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (23:02.272)
Right, right, yeah.

Torrey (23:06.956)
You know, it's, going to be interesting to see. So again, this is a very quietly strong quarter based on game style. I'll even throw in their height too, Alvin. looks like the top four of five of the top eight. Got to be below five, six. mean, and then there's probably six of the next eight that are all six feet and some change. So it's, that'll be a weird kind of a matchup to just something, something to look for.

Alvin Owusu (23:30.999)
All right, we'll keep balancing here. Bottom half of Paulini's quarter here. see, do you know much about Sonny Cartel?

Torrey (23:40.821)
Yep.

Torrey (23:44.851)
I do not. So I saw her name go in the draw. I saw some Instagram posts on her. I didn't know really who she was. I saw some 12 year old her and 10 year old Emirati Kano thing from way back in the day. Up until the time I didn't know who she was. But again, I'm not English. I hadn't heard of her, but that doesn't mean much.

Alvin Owusu (23:55.135)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (24:08.299)
Yeah, I I caught a video of her training at, yeah, yeah, her name.

Torrey (24:11.693)
What I saw of her, liked, but again, she was hitting with somebody. I'm like, she looks pretty good compared to somebody. I mean, could have been her big sister, could have been local coach, I'm not sure.

Alvin Owusu (24:18.271)
Right. Yeah, she's solid, but I don't...

Alvin Owusu (24:24.183)
But I mean, Panko's no joke on grass. She she made it to quarterfinals last year. She's solid grass court player. Yeah, no more qualifiers.

Torrey (24:27.553)
Yeah.

Yep. Pingo is a solid player period. So I think we need to appreciate again, former Grand Slam champ as this is one I was referencing to earlier. They just are in that weird, this draw here while it should be Queen, King Nguyen. I'm going to tell you right now, there are three people that I think that could come through this one and their name does not start with a Q. So I'm just saying that this is a tough one from Naomi to Ashlyn to Yelena. mean,

Alvin Owusu (24:53.224)
Right, yeah.

Torrey (24:59.084)
to Schneider. there's, I mean, you can't not say she's not a, you know, she's not a possibility.

Alvin Owusu (25:04.363)
Yeah, if she gets out of the block, she's like a, she is very Von Drussova-esque without the big first serve. Let's put it that way. Crafty, yeah.

Torrey (25:09.42)
Right, right, right. So I'm looking at each, I'm like, oof. The only person who I've been a little bit disappointed in, she may be nearing that last round up, is my girl, Ange-Jabour, who's very solid on grass though, and has the touch and the hands and the volley. So just hasn't done much recently. And unfortunately she may just be between injuries and just getting a little older. But her game was beautiful to watch on the grass. It's just, unfortunately I think.

Alvin Owusu (25:23.659)
Right.

Torrey (25:37.567)
father or mother time in her case, mother time may just be catching up. When your game is that on the razor's edge of having time and whatnot and you get a step slow from age or dinged up, it doesn't matter. You're compromised a little bit for the younger versions of your competitor. But if I'm Quinn Wynn, am very, again, had these have had.

Alvin Owusu (25:57.473)
Yeah.

Torrey (26:02.38)
some good grass court results from what I'm seeing lately. She's got a nice, very good seed, again, and her, well, it's not a terrible draw. She will face a lot of these players a little later, but what's that? Third round possible, her and Naomi? No, it's that second round. See that second round. I don't know. I don't know if I like that matchup for her and Naomi. There's a player for Naomi to get into the match with.

Alvin Owusu (26:07.723)
Good draw too. That's a pretty good draw for her.

Alvin Owusu (26:18.273)
Second round second round her Naomi possible and then second

Torrey (26:28.341)
Queen win. mean, just King win. That's me. I don't know. Maybe you may see it differently.

Alvin Owusu (26:31.199)
Yeah, no, I'm just I'm just not sure about Naomi right now like I I just want to see her get out of the blocks Right. That's that's my problem. Yeah

Torrey (26:35.019)
Of course, of course. We're never sure. Naomi's not sure, right? But Naomi's serve is still big enough. Her returns are still good enough. And in a match like that, Alvin, I've seen this too often. College matches, junior matches, match on the tour. If you're not going to take it from me, I'm not going to give it to you, right? Naomi's a kind of a player. How many slams did she win? Two, three, four? Yeah, I keep forgetting she won that many.

Alvin Owusu (26:56.853)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (27:00.513)
Four? Which four?

Torrey (27:04.507)
She's still a good tennis player. if Queen Wynn is not, Queen Wynn is not gonna come in there and take it from her, which that's not necessarily her game style. Don't get me wrong. She's not gonna give her, it's not gonna be the one-armed bandit for errors. Just saying, I don't know if she has the serve big enough to go through Naomi. I don't know if she has the ground stroke. She's not necessarily known to come forward a lot. Very solid. There's not me weaknesses, but not a lot of weapons. And if I am Naomi and I'm...

Alvin Owusu (27:06.903)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Alvin Owusu (27:26.229)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (27:33.534)
Let's just say I've got my mind right. I don't know if I'm so worried about that. You know, I'm not worried about her going through me. And if she plays better, it's actually better for me. I count her pretty well. I just, I'm just telling you.

Alvin Owusu (27:45.816)
I don't think it's concerned of of Ken when going through her. It's more concerned of like, can Naomi put it together and like, win matches? would have, this is, get through the first round, one. Two, bring her, bring her, she's going to need her A game. Like, because her B game is, I don't know what it is. Like, but, like she's going, it's gonna have to be there.

Torrey (27:57.576)
Yep. Sure.

Torrey (28:06.549)
But her big game, she could self-employ. Let's be honest with that. But let's assume she's playing well. You have to think she could then take Zhang's draw, is all I'm saying. There's not anybody, and that's not a bad looking draw, especially for the next two or three rounds until you run into Pankow slash Schneider or whoever that was. That's all I'm saying. I don't wanna.

Alvin Owusu (28:19.575)
Sure, sure. And then it's not, that's not a bad looking draw either for her. yeah.

Alvin Owusu (28:30.825)
Right, right, No, I think we're on the same page then.

Torrey (28:33.352)
As you say, wax poetic on Naomi. We all know she can be very mercurial, very much depend on the day. However, we are still talking about a four time grand slam champ. And last I heard she's still hitting a pretty decent ball. Just as matter as long as she's got the altimeter right upstairs. Tough to beat.

Alvin Owusu (28:47.062)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (28:54.881)
Yeah, all right. I'm gonna clock in along here. Mirror, it's all mirror, is it all mirror? Is that what he's ever saying?

Torrey (28:56.585)
Mirror.

Torrey (29:00.17)
I don't know. It looks a whole lot like me.

Alvin Owusu (29:05.195)
Well, yeah, she shouldn't have an issue getting out of the gates, right? Like getting through the first two days looks fairly straightforward for her. It's the Barbara Krachikova against Alex Ialla. playing some good ball right now too. She's currently in the final of Eastbourne. She'll be playing in the final of Eastbourne tomorrow. So she's got a feel for this thing. She's got a feel for the grass.

Torrey (29:20.33)
Yeah.

Torrey (29:32.7)
Yep. Okay.

Alvin Owusu (29:34.167)
Babs, obviously, reigning champ. You can't, I mean, that's real. And she pulled out of the event this week, citing just kind of wanting to rest up for Wimbledon. And she hasn't played much prior to that.

Torrey (29:50.396)
Yep, so could be that's a match to watch right there. That is a definite match to watch. And you got the other roofs and in Carol and Dole hide. mean, that's there's a lot of I wouldn't say sharks so much. I would say barracudas, but still some barracudas in this one here.

Alvin Owusu (29:56.019)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (30:07.637)
Well, if you take a look down one more time, Petr Kvitova against Emma Navarro.

Torrey (30:14.536)
yeah, yeah, I hear you one more time. that one more time. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (30:17.417)
One more time, one more time. Ken, what are you?

In my head, I see is like 2010, 2011 Petra Kviteva. That's not smart, but that's all I see in my head.

Torrey (30:27.389)
That's what I'm saying. That's what I mean with the big serve and the smack forehand. I just don't know if, unfortunately, as old as that song is, is when she was playing her best. I love Petra Kvitova and I absolutely love her game. think she is, she's the quintessential Wimbledon player as far as for tall lefty and there's nothing, I will not say anything absolutely negative.

Alvin Owusu (30:48.865)
Yes. Yes.

Torrey (30:55.494)
The only thing I will state is a fact of age. And again, one more time, mother time has unfortunately moved a little closer and I just wonder if we have seen some of the, some of her best years already. I would like to focus a little more on some of the, you know, players that were, that are kind of right in this. Where, what about Emma Navarro? mean, while we're talking about it, you know, what about Emma? She has, I haven't.

She got stunned at what? Was it Ozzy or was it first round, second round of Ozzy and had a, or was it French? I forget now. First round, like one and one, wasn't it? Like something pretty bad, right? And so I'm looking at her, know, kind of hot off the snipe, somebody nailed me, had that tough matchup. She didn't get, you know, beat, she didn't take away with corn dogs, but she was still beat up pretty good. I'm looking at Freck, I'm looking at, you know, right.

Alvin Owusu (31:28.503)
think it was French, she had a poor first round French. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (31:48.395)
Freck Potapova, that's gonna be a good match. I think Potapova sprints like 40 in the world, like right outside of the seating, so yeah.

Torrey (31:53.991)
playing pretty good part of it. right out of seating. Haley Baptiste can make anybody play bad, know, on the grass and she's playing Soranis's stand. there's a little bit of, you know what mean? There's a little bit of, Kudamartov is always good. There's just a lot of, as I say, barracudas, you know what I mean? They're not, you don't see the shark fin up above the water, but it's...

Alvin Owusu (32:14.645)
Why are you so confident that Emma Navarro is just gonna handle Petra Kivineva? Like what is it, what?

Torrey (32:22.855)
I don't think she's going to handle Koviteva. I think if there's a good round to take, I think it'll be a first round. I really do. I think Pesce will come out and give Emma Fitz. I hope for Emma's sake, she's ready to return well and move well. I'm more, I'm just saying that it is as far as the draw is concerned, I could see each one taking each other out and that helping Mira. That's all I'm saying. I could see the domino effect of.

Alvin Owusu (32:47.649)
Sure, sure, sure, sure.

Torrey (32:50.652)
that one beat that one, that one beat that one. And there's Miras at the ends in the quarter saying, guys, thank you so much. That was great. Right. She just happens to be on the other half of that quarter that I feel where it could be very, very tricky for her is all I'm saying. If Freck and Kraychikova are flipped, that's trouble. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

Alvin Owusu (32:56.915)
Yeah, you could end up with a quarterfinal of like Mir and Andrea against like Alex Yala for some reason just like okay, what are we doing?

Alvin Owusu (33:08.439)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (33:15.335)
yeah, yeah, yeah,

Torrey (33:19.525)
That's all I'm getting at. It's like that would that make that one move makes that whole thing be a little bit different.

Alvin Owusu (33:25.921)
man I loved seeds, know, results make rankings, rankings make seedings, seedings make draws. It's not nothing and sometimes it's everything. Like it will get to it on the men's side, like how some of the little things that have occurred over the last two weeks have really had implications on the seedings of this tournament and then how you look at a player's chance to do well. So, Muhova versus Wang. Wang finaled

Torrey (33:32.252)
Yep.

Torrey (33:44.059)
Yep. Agreed.

Alvin Owusu (33:55.896)
whatever, one of the events last week, Mojave hasn't done much. don't like that combination. obviously I'm as big as, yeah, I'm as big of a Mojave fan as they come, but I'm a recent form over rankings kind of person, and that's not one I like at all. Like, at all.

Torrey (34:05.583)
At right now. Right.

Torrey (34:15.973)
Right, right.

tough time to play her, especially being the seed. And again, that could open up her situation. know what mean? A lot of the other girls there, you know, I'm looking at a lot of them are pretty good. Then you run into a Magdalene who's still playing good ball, running to qualify. she's again, she's on the other side. She's on the other side of that seed. So I'm saying that two, three, four rounds down are just, you know what I mean? It's tough. So again, I'm looking at a lot of this to say that's, know, again, all that tells me is my girl JPEG.

Alvin Owusu (34:22.582)
rate.

Alvin Owusu (34:31.913)
Magda seated? Jeez. Jeez. Yeah, Magdalene.

Torrey (34:49.122)
might have from what it looks like right now on paper. You know, she again, you got a, got, you got a Belinda Bench, it's right there. It certainly no slouch and playing, you know, atl zone, Alicia Parks, but I don't know. I just on, when I look at all these players, I'll shout out to Katie Volleymats. I just don't know if there's enough firepower in this section right here to really threaten Jessica Pagula. Just, you know.

Alvin Owusu (35:14.979)
So I'm glad you used that word firepower because I keep thinking about Alicia and she's been bubbling, of percolating lately. And I feel like for a player like her to really capture the attention and also vault herself into the conversation, she has to make a run at one of these slams. And I feel like with her big serve and her big forehand, she's got that firepower. Because she mess around and beats.

Torrey (35:23.812)
Yep. Percolate. And I like that. Yep.

Torrey (35:31.675)
Yeah.

Torrey (35:35.11)
100%.

Alvin Owusu (35:42.143)
like a Jessica Bacula in the third round. Like if she gets that far like.

Torrey (35:45.702)
If she can do that with Belinda, I think she's got a shot. And that's my point. You got to go against somebody that solid to show yourself, let alone others that you can do this. And I think, you know, much like Gow has been bubbling on the percolating on the men's side, but hadn't had a lot of results, right? know, Alicia's not that old. She's a good, good, good little player, tall player. Can she, right? Can she put it together to your point and serve notice?

Alvin Owusu (35:48.274)
Right, exactly, exactly.

Alvin Owusu (35:56.256)
Right, yeah.

Torrey (36:13.356)
I think that's more my concern is, and now you have to do it against a couple of good players back to back. Let's say she gets through Benches. Now let's say she plays Magdalene. Those are, thank you, right? And so this is adult swim now, right? This is adult swim. You now have to come with it. No freebies, no mental implosions, no, can you do it six more times? You know what I mean? Okay, that's a good set. Can you do it six more times? And that's to me where a lot of these younger players aren't ready to do the thing.

Alvin Owusu (36:22.879)
Adults, those are adults. grown women, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (36:37.611)
Right.

Torrey (36:42.884)
that long, which is why I say, look, Magdala Annette is that person where Jessica Bagula is that person for five and up. Magdala Annette is that player for 20 and in, so to speak, 25 and in as well. Hey, this is what that level means. Now you can do it, you can do it. I don't think Magdala Annette has a crazy high ceiling of top five, but she's top 20 all day. know what I mean? She's 25 on a bad day. You know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (36:58.741)
Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (37:09.003)
Yeah, she's tough.

Torrey (37:12.269)
I say that to say she knows what it takes to get there. She's, you know, and I've mentioned that for the benefit of Alicia Parks and I hope she gets there. and, the very least has a good showing because what you really want, I see a Belinda Benches who's older, I think she's got a little one now. You hope that the younger player at least gets it and takes it three, maybe wins a match just so they have there now that new torch bearer. I don't want to pass the torch, but just so you feel like they're ready.

Alvin Owusu (37:35.169)
Right, yeah, yeah.

Torrey (37:39.557)
You know Belinda may not have too too many of these slams left, right? So at some point you hope that you hope that Alicia gets it while they're still playing So in three or four years, we're not saying yeah, Alicia Park She had going for their full while she was percolating but never really did you know pour a full pot of coffee? know, you want her to be able to come through and that's a great great first round for her a player of note solid player a little older season but

Alvin Owusu (37:43.019)
Sure, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (37:56.658)
Right, right.

Torrey (38:07.703)
Again, it's a great match progress.

Alvin Owusu (38:09.749)
Yeah, all right. Let's keep popping here. Moving on to the next section. Well, it's the other Kudama Tova. It's not the better Kudama Tova. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm less concerned about that. Ega's playing a good ball right now. She's playing JPEG tomorrow, final of Bad Hamburg. So not that that will have any implications of what I think she'll do in this particular match or the next. How does Katie McNally keep ending up in the main draw of Grand Slams? Like, who does she know?

Torrey (38:13.103)
Kudermatov and Svantec, what do think about that one? That was, that's the sister, yeah, right, right, right.

Torrey (38:23.683)
Yes, she is.

Torrey (38:27.383)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (38:39.639)
Dude, she's like 250 in the world. Like, what are we doing? How does this get, I said this in Australia. I think I said it again. She just keeps popping up in the first round of Grand Slams. I don't understand. No shade. Like, I got no beef with Katie McNally. just, no, I'm not mad. I'm curious. I'm not mad. I'm just curious. Someone in the comments, let me know what's going on and how this keeps happening.

Torrey (39:01.006)
Fair enough, fair enough. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (39:10.519)
Because the ranking doesn't back it up, my friend. I'm sorry, it does not. So what are we talking about?

Torrey (39:12.622)
Fair enough. Fair enough.

Katie, good luck to your girlfriend if you're watching. Good luck. Make her run through the quarters just to spite Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (39:19.809)
Great geology. please, yeah that would please, please. I'll shut down the studio, please. My goodness, I don't understand.

Torrey (39:33.924)
I need to, I need to wax poetic on this one here, Alvin, and I'm going to go to your girl down at the bottom of this quarter. Your girl were backing her. I opened up my, uh, you know, of course I'm getting all these darn tennis feeds now and Bleacher Report had this full on shindig on these players path to the final. And there were two players that it went on about. The one player noted, understood, and quite frankly expected.

Alvin Owusu (39:54.519)
God.

Torrey (40:03.043)
Arena Sabalinka. I was expecting Coco Golf to be the second Alvin. She is the French Open champion, the star on the rise and who beat Arena Sabalinka last time I checked. But unfortunately it was your girl, Atlanta Rebecca up in there and they were talking about her like it's just her tournament. Alvin, I tell you, I was a little upset. I was offended that they had already.

And I believe in their little proposed matchup situation, they had already kind of got Coco going out in the quarters. And I got to tell you, Alvin, I'm like, I don't know if you guys have ran that memo by my girl. I just, I just want to put it out there. No shade on Rebecca.

Alvin Owusu (40:37.973)
I mean.

Alvin Owusu (40:42.519)
Yeah, the whole path to the final thing is silly, right? So like when you look at it, like, yeah, I mean, we'll just do it live, that's fine. We'll do the path to the final. It's very straightforward. Like they just kind of show you who they would be projected to play based off of their ranking if things were to follow suit as you go along. It's worthless, it's worthless.

Torrey (40:59.043)
You and I both know that, but Alvin, if you would go back to that screen. Do you realize Ega's there and Coco? I'm just saying Alvin, I'm like, come on now.

Alvin Owusu (41:11.093)
Yeah, it's it's it's silly it's silly let's not let's not give bleacher report there They're new to this not true to this. So let's not give them too much too much space

Torrey (41:17.731)
Now, hey, you heard that right here. I just felt it was disrespectful. I don't care about being the controversial. I'm here to talk about this. They weren't Stephen A Smith. I'm saying they went past a couple of very solid current slam champs, I might add, in the mix and just acted as if they were, yeah, but no big deal. And I'm like, mm, y'all might want to go back and put an actual tennis person on your staff before you put that kind of stuff out.

Alvin Owusu (41:40.792)
I mean, okay, so to my comrades at Bleacher Report, I know a few of them. Okay, because Bleacher Report is owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, TNT Sports. So, tennis coverage in this country, the way we cover tennis from a media standpoint, We do it so that people end up having conversations like this, right? It's not tennis people having conversations, it's people cutting.

Torrey (41:59.541)
Right.

Torrey (42:06.05)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (42:10.753)
content to fit on your screen with buzzy catchphrases so that you involve yourself with the content. So from that standpoint, they did the job, but you gotta block it all out. There are not that many people talking about tennis in a way that matters. Basically the reason why we're here is because outlets like that do things like that. It's, whatever, it's not.

Torrey (42:13.516)
Sure.

Torrey (42:35.21)
You got that right. I don't know if I'll be opening up Bleach Report again over at Tennis Master.

Alvin Owusu (42:40.567)
Yeah, it's whatever like don't get me started. You're bringing up or scratching scabs here. Yeah Collins, Collins potentially Collins and Kostya in the second round. That's.

Torrey (42:43.328)
HURT HURT HURT

Torrey (42:53.619)
I like Marta Kostik and a lot of things on the grass. She's another one, hard, flat, good ball, clean. lot of players in this round. We're back in it to obviously JPEG. There's a lot of, JPEG's another one, Siontek. There's a lot of players that bring a clean ball in this whole situation here. I'm just looking at.

Alvin Owusu (43:16.567)
It's like, yeah, it's like round three. it's, by the time it's round three, it's time to go to work. Like it's time to go to work.

Torrey (43:20.906)
man, I would even say, I would say first round on every round and this one could be, you know, I'm gonna say shout out to Heather Watson. mean, always, I mean, always my favorite black bread over there. However, I would say to you, right, wild card for sure. I hope she runs the tournament at some point and become, she was the voice of WTA there for a little while, right?

Alvin Owusu (43:37.207)
It's a strong wild card if you've ever seen one. That's a dub C for life right there.

Torrey (43:48.322)
with her commercial, but I see that to say, there's a lot of take out some of the qualities who I don't know and wild cards. There is a lot of good players, a ton of more barracudas on this round too. And you heard right here, the Tita Long on somebody, what I mean, I should say sharp, not long. And there's, this is not a, you know, when you've got a Maria Sakary playing Blinkova as a first round match, that's not a, that's not a bad first round. You know what I mean? That's not.

Alvin Owusu (44:11.649)
She, and Maria's playing, Maria's playing pretty well right now. She beat, she beat Putin Seva a couple days ago, like, playing well.

Torrey (44:17.89)
Yeah. So my point is, and she's a former what, top 10 give or take. top, at least 10 or 12, right back in the day. So my point is, and she's probably down in the 60s, 70s right now. My point is, and no slouch. So my point is you've got players like that, that are not seeded, that are not playing qualities. Just saying that this could be, and that's a second round likely for a backhand. I'm just saying that's not a, know, Kostya would play Collins and she's a low 20 seed.

Alvin Owusu (44:24.133)
definitely. yeah, yeah, yeah, you just have to...

Torrey (44:45.569)
this whole thing and then that match would go into play a McNally or Sviatik. The whole thing is just.

Alvin Owusu (44:48.855)
probably eager.

What do you mean McNally or Suatek? Get out of here. What do you mean or? What do you mean or? the hell do you? Come on. Come on.

Torrey (44:55.169)
No, no, no. I said that they played the winner up. I think we know who has the favor now. I'm saying that's who Marta would play is what I'm getting at. I'm saying there's not a lot of days. You said third round. I think he said before.

Alvin Owusu (45:01.396)
I don't think, I don't know, I think Katie's gonna be there. Yeah, okay.

Alvin Owusu (45:11.895)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, first, agreed, agreed. Yeah, it gets good.

Torrey (45:13.665)
That's all I'm I don't know if Collins gets out of the Spiontik match with a total of six games should Eagan be playing well. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that it's not easy for law. She gets past her wild card, which that might be a tough one with another Union Jack next to her name.

Alvin Owusu (45:30.465)
Okay, fair.

Alvin Owusu (45:34.487)
You know what? That could be fun because depending on how the schedules of play work out here, third round will be on Friday, which is 4th of July. We will be together at my house for the Wimbledon party. we might do something live. We'll be in the same place, same place, same time. You never know. You You never know. All right, let's keep popping. Ah! Lost my place. All right.

Torrey (45:46.239)
Right, right, that's right. And we'll be checking that out.

to do something live right there. I like it, I like it.

Alvin Owusu (46:01.944)
And we're down here to the very end of the women's draw here. Kuko Goff's, half of the, Taylor, yeah, Taylor put strong showing there. Okay, here's one. Joint versus Sam Sanova. Joint beat Emma Radikanu quarterfinals at Eastbourne, I think. Maybe he's round of 16. She's now playing Alex Yala in the finals.

Torrey (46:05.855)
Yep, Cothackina, Begu, Sophia, Taylor. Hello.

Torrey (46:31.125)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (46:31.201)
playing some good ball. She's handy on the grass. And again, Sam Sanoff is no joke. That's going to be an interesting match. Like that's one for the tennis nerds right there.

Torrey (46:43.24)
Agreed. I agree, I agree. I was gonna say the same thing for Kenan and Townsend first round. You know what mean? For the fans that have not watched Taylor, some of you may or may not. Taylor doesn't take many ground strokes. At one point she was taking none. She was just starting off at the net, which already puts you off a little bit. She literally started the net, takes about two minutes of violence, gets a couple of overheads.

Alvin Owusu (46:50.429)
Taylor's gonna be serving in Bali in her ass off his inches.

Torrey (47:11.326)
and then goes into returns and serves. Which is one of my favorite, hey, no, no, no, we don't need on ground strokes. We're not doing that today. But you go ahead and hit, I'll be right here. So to me, that's a tough match for Sophia. To me, I'll be honest, on grass, I got to give the love to Taylor and I'll be honest, going through that next round, I would love to see Taylor play Coco in that third round. That's just me.

Alvin Owusu (47:12.375)
That's such a flex. That's such a flex.

Alvin Owusu (47:18.539)
You hit the ground strokes, I'm hitting volleys.

You can work your ground jokes. I'm a hit ballist. I'll make sure they bounce on your side.

Alvin Owusu (47:33.29)
Yeah, maybe.

Alvin Owusu (47:41.335)
That's an interesting little section. mean, Jesus, Coco's got Diana Yastrinska in the first round. That's not a joke either. Goodness gracious.

Torrey (47:43.795)
And end.

Yep. Not a joke match. then, and then Vika, should she get through the qualifier? mean, so that's a, you know what I mean? And then, and then a potential, you know, Kenan slash Taylor Townsend third. So I'm telling you, that's a, that'll be, that'll be a solid, you know, again, and then we have him looked up at the newly minted Ozzy over there, you know, and Kazukina. So anyway, I, I think personally, I think more of the fireworks for me anyway, are on the lower side of this, but

Alvin Owusu (47:51.775)
boy. boy.

Alvin Owusu (48:07.959)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (48:16.331)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (48:16.639)
You know, it's clearly, it'll be a fun matchup to watch. And Coco, you heard it right here. I am still salty at Bleacher Report for not giving you, not giving you your due, not giving you, and you know what that just means? Hey, you got more, what did my boys say in, what was the football move, Adam Sandler? Tackling fuel, right? You've got more tackling fuel to get to.

Alvin Owusu (48:41.067)
Tackling fuel. There you go.

Torrey (48:45.919)
improve your point yet again. Would love to see you in the all white raising the hardware at the end of this whole thing. So good luck. I think that's a good match. It's always a fun thing to see how this draw shakes out. you know, you see, do you see, just so we're mentioning this because you have her back at us at the top of screen, what would be, what say you on that round of 16 quarter matchup between a possible.

Alvin Owusu (49:01.665)
Well,

Torrey (49:15.919)
a possible Rebecca Assume she gets past Ega and Coco.

Alvin Owusu (49:21.163)
What?

Torrey (49:23.455)
Which is a huge hit. This is completely hypothetical because I don't think she can pass the ego.

Alvin Owusu (49:26.423)
I mean, I don't even feel comfortable walking past Ega versus Rebecca. But if we.

Why don't I just end up here? I feel like my view on Elena Rabacana, when I talk about it, it makes perfect sense. When you watch her play tennis, it makes perfect sense. Like I've said, I feel like she's one of the top four players in the world rankings outside, like the other rankings out. I'm very high on her game. Right, I mean she won the damn tournament in 20, or 2022, was it 22?

Torrey (49:43.817)
Right. Right.

Torrey (49:52.5)
Right.

Right, and grass in particular, I would say.

Torrey (50:01.694)
Two or

Alvin Owusu (50:03.894)
So I'm not blowing smoke or anything, she's legit. She had Ega Denderites at French Open and just kind of like Ega did her thing. So if she were to get past Ega, I've said this kind of thing before. If Coco were to get to a point where she Rebekah, then Coco is doing something very right because I don't feel great about her on grass.

So, but if she gets that far, then she's worked something out and then I have to maybe it's a toss up at that point. I don't know. Because she's one of the best returners on tour and obviously her speed helps her here. But that's a tough ask. mean, Elena just hits you off the court. Like, I don't care about your speed, I'll just go through you. So I don't know, I don't have, I have nothing, have nothing.

Torrey (50:35.76)
Right. Right. Right.

Yeah. Yep.

Torrey (50:50.706)
Yep. Yep. I actually like her pace against Coco. I like the pace because that doesn't, because Coco will have to produce a ton herself. That's kind of where I'm looking at this. And I like the backhand as the countering measure on that side. We don't have to get to it. I think, I think that's Yontek. We're back in the match and the round of 16 is going to be.

deal. So anyway, good. is a good start, Alvin. don't like to play, you know what I mean? Right. There's no reason to play Kreskin or whoever here. We just want to call it out as we see it. This is some good stuff.

Alvin Owusu (51:18.197)
Yeah. Yeah, all right. No, we don't need to. We got time for that. We got time for that. We got plenty of time to do that.

Alvin Owusu (51:31.595)
Yeah, all right, so let's take a little break and then we'll come back and we'll get after the MINS half here. Yep.

Torrey (51:36.816)
After the man, done.

Alvin Owusu (51:54.199)
I'm on the website, yeah. I didn't even feel like going through the screenshots and everything. It doesn't lay out nicely to easily swipe through, so I'm just gonna...

Torrey (52:00.561)
Right, no, I agree. I was just laughing that you got it this clear and ready to go. Yeah, no doubt.

Alvin Owusu (52:06.983)
And we're back. All right, let's, I'm still Alvin, that's still Tory. We just tackled the women's draw prior to this, so if you're jumping in the middle, go back and listen to that. But now here we are, men's draw. Let's go. Top half of Yannick Center's quarter.

Torrey (52:27.389)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (52:36.125)
Anything, anything of note that jumps out to you?

Torrey (52:41.297)
Not really, not really. I would say Nishioke is probably one of the, I love his game style. Got great returns. We saw him play Ben Shelton here in the Atlanta Open a year or so ago. Took down Ben, I might add. Loves pace, loves returns. One of your fellow lefties, Alvin. I just, to your point, Grigor is still to me the

One of the most complete one-handers out there. He also leads in most retirements slash withdrawals at a slam. And so that's his first round. I'm hoping he's healthy. That matchup to me could be a solid, but I look forward to seeing it. Obviously, know, the draw, you know, Shephavlova versus Navonid, that's another matchup that could or couldn't be. That's why they're in that section, right?

Alvin Owusu (53:19.243)
Yeah, him and Thomas, Thomas Mahatch are battling for it right now.

Torrey (53:41.344)
once you, know, no offense to my main man, Nardi, but his countrymen, unfortunately has just been playing some good ball. Not his best surface per se. However, not as, but I don't think there's a bad surface form is my point. And I'm just saying it's he, he, he casts along. What's the term Paul on the, on the, on the draw with his, with his presence. I don't really see, I don't see many of these guys Demetra included Tommy Paul, perhaps included.

Alvin Owusu (53:49.943)
Probably his worst surface, I would say.

Torrey (54:10.722)
really bringing a lot to offset what Yannick can do. I would love to see a Tommy Paul and Yannick center match up, but I just, don't see the other guys in this draw, the way I'm looking at it, that have a lot of ways to offset the current, the current number one seat.

Alvin Owusu (54:28.555)
Yeah, I mean, I think we'd be, be grasping for straws if there was anything here that made us think that Tommy and Yannick wouldn't just kind of matriculate through. I mean, Dennis.

Torrey (54:32.028)
100%.

Torrey (54:36.944)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As tough as it will be. And as you know, Alvin, Wimby, a seven five is a routine set, you know, for the men, right? Because you're gonna hold. You hit your target, you're gonna hold. I mean, there's just not a, you know, it's just a matter of when you don't hit that target. When you do have that one game with three second serves as opposed to only one or two. That's what you really, and lot of the guys that aren't as solid have to learn that. The other guys realize, buddy, I'm not aiming for the line, I'm aiming for that.

Alvin Owusu (54:45.407)
Right, Yeah.

Torrey (55:04.44)
a little bit inside because it's gonna be hard for you to get the wallet back anyway. And so it favors the huge server or the big server with a good return or the phenomenal returner with an okay server that can make first serves. Those are the, tends to be the three, you better be pretty well entrenched in one of those three buckets.

Alvin Owusu (55:22.049)
Yeah, yeah, so speaking of which, going down to the bottom half of this quarter, Ben Shelton, I think it gets interesting on the other half of this section.

Torrey (55:26.042)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (55:32.592)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. My main man, Lorenzo.

Alvin Owusu (55:40.487)
Yeah. Here's the, no, here's the thing. Here's the thing. And I don't, because this is the draw show, like we're not, we're not, not, you know, guessing what's gonna happen off in the future. We're gonna come back and talk about these matches, you know, these matchups as they fall. But to your point, someone like O'Reilly Opelka makes things interesting on grass, very interesting.

Torrey (55:42.34)
I'm baiting you, you're not taking the bait out of it.

Torrey (56:02.522)
Yeah, very difficult, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:08.479)
Like if we come back next Friday and we're previewing Shelton versus Opelka, I wouldn't be that surprised. I wouldn't be surprised at all. That's what a big circle of duty is here at the All-Winxin Club. that's a tough place for you to be seated there, Brandon Nakashima.

Torrey (56:16.198)
Sure, No, I agree with that.

Torrey (56:30.66)
I I agree. Tough one for him to be seated. And I'll be honest, even for the, for the French matchup there, Umber has got a little bit bigger serve than Gale. and, that's not a matchup being also being tall on lefty. I don't know if Hugo that's not a, well, both him and Ben are both lefty. I just, I just like, again, and I don't want to gloss over Fuscovich and other guys like him. you know, there's, there's a GoFan and other guys that are, old school, you know,

that are elder statesman in the draw. just would like, I think Ben's got a pretty good situation here to be 10. And if your better seed is Lorenzo Mazzetti, who's a good player, don't get me wrong, just send me the French. I don't know if, I'm really happy if I'm a 10 and he's my seven and I'm in that section is all I'm gonna say. There are worse, there are much worse matchups. He could be in a 10. You could be on the one.

Alvin Owusu (57:20.607)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, makes sense.

Torrey (57:29.389)
or the two side or with Novak in the middle, right? So, and he's, he didn't have either one. And so I like this whole situation for his quarter at least.

Alvin Owusu (57:37.239)
Yeah, okay, let's keep popping here. Coming on down, this is where it gets interesting. Oh, Jack, oh, Jack, and that's the one we talked about earlier this week. That's a.

Torrey (57:42.875)
Yeah, Jack, whoo, Zilich, Bublik, you know what mean? Men's sick, mean, there's a, you see what I'm saying? Now things start, they start, this this quarter here, buddy. They did not do Jack any favors.

Alvin Owusu (57:58.796)
So this is where it gets interesting, right? As a four seed, you're a little protected, but you're not protected against flyers. And I would say Alexander Bulbuk is the flyer. I fully expect those two to meet in the third round, and I'm looking forward to having a talk about that, if and when that happens. If and when that happens.

Torrey (58:11.099)
I

Torrey (58:21.59)
If it when it happens, are, are. Did Chillis not win a Wimby,

Alvin Owusu (58:26.581)
Chilich won, no he finaled Wimby, he lost the Federer maybe like 2017, 2018.

Torrey (58:29.486)
Final Wimby. Yeah. I was about to say, I could have sworn I him in the final. One in the open, right? That's what it was. One in open and Final Wimby, that's what it was. I only say it to say, again, maybe a bit long in the tooth as well, but make no mistake, that's not a great matchup for Jack on grass. Again, just saying, if it was anybody else.

Alvin Owusu (58:35.711)
No, he won US Open. Yeah, he finally won. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (58:51.073)
So that's the combination, right? Do you have the tools, do you have the weapons, and then do you have the experience of working your way around the grass court? Because you don't get much, you get two, three weeks on it at most a year.

Torrey (58:53.828)
Yeah.

Torrey (58:59.416)
Right. That's.

Torrey (59:06.17)
That's, that's my point. And so even Bublik playing a Jaime, is it how many Jaime, how do I pronounce it? And with Menard. Yeah. Jaime is a great player and a very solid, uh, player on most services. Clearly I would think the clay is a little more his preference, right? So I don't think if he and Bublik would be fairly close, say on the clay, I don't know if he has, uh, it, I don't know that make the same matchup on grass. So that's again, just shout out to Jaime. been playing some really good ball lately.

Alvin Owusu (59:11.767)
I mean, we're going to say Jamie, but it's high. I think it's high me.

Torrey (59:36.35)
Then you go to a like a Silic who, Silic has obviously a little bit closer to retirement than he is starting to. We get that. I'm only mentioning it to say. That's it. If he's serving well at all and earlier he's going to be more dangerous than late because he may not be around late. I'm just looking at that is still a tough second round with a former finalist. That's all I'm saying. I'm not putting any more on it or not. And then you got Minsik who's now inside where he wasn't outside before. He's now inside the top 20. You've got, this is a...

Alvin Owusu (59:54.433)
For sure. For sure. That's...

Alvin Owusu (01:00:05.1)
He's got a really nice little path there. That's cushy.

Torrey (01:00:05.261)
This is a tough, nice little path, right? He's got a pretty good draw there, if you think about it, Alvin. I mean, no offense to Drawn and Etchvery and others, but he's, right, and he's got a massive serve. know, and a solid four. I mean, I'm just saying this, don't know what his grass court history has been. He hadn't played much, but he's 20 years old, so 19, right? So my point being, he's,

Alvin Owusu (01:00:13.535)
in Kabali, but yeah, but like not grass court, like, you know, not the kind of players that can hurt him. Right, exactly.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:27.543)
like maybe like 18, 19, something like that. He's young. Yeah.

Torrey (01:00:32.023)
This could be a good thing for him to kind of get his legs on him. He's nothing but a younger chilich, you know what I mean, as far as game style.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:39.799)
No, too shy, too shy. All right, let's keep popping. Top half of the next quarter. So this is the one where we, yeah, but like this is where Novak falls, right? So I think that's the interesting thing that I've been really enjoying over the last few months, last few tournaments, Grand Slams is like, where does Novak land? There's not a top four seed. So like who between Sinner and Alcaraz, whose week is he ruining?

Torrey (01:00:46.211)
Yep. Couple of Alex's here. Yeah.

Torrey (01:01:01.486)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:07.639)
And two tournaments in a row, it's center now, so he's on top half. That's a nice start for Novak. That's a nice start.

Torrey (01:01:08.525)
Right. Yeah.

Torrey (01:01:17.273)
I would, I will, I would be whatever time this match is, and I'm glad I got most of the week off next week. I am so looking forward to assuming Dan Evans gets through his fellow countryman first round. Novak Dan Evans. That would be a match for me. I think England will show out, will show out strong for, for Dan. Dan loves it. Dan's not a, Dan's not a young player. Novak's not a young player. They probably play each other half a times. And on grass.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:28.503)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:01:44.588)
could be closer to Dan's last one. That would be a great match to watch. And well, you know what I'm saying? I'm talking, I'm talking as far as being in England, being, being the hometown favorite, that's a good match. Plus you're playing Novak is what I'm getting at. So I'm looking at it through the other POV. you banks playing Alex Mickelson, would it be another good match? want to see you just to kind of see how that match goes. Again, assuming both, catchman, which is not a, not a bad play. That's, that's a tough round for Alex, but

Alvin Owusu (01:01:48.641)
Closer to Dan's last one, everyone closer to Novak's last one.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:54.859)
sure, yeah, yeah,

Alvin Owusu (01:02:11.199)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (01:02:12.734)
I'd love to see Alex and Chris play that'd be a good one. My hatch has not played, hadn't had a lot of great results for a guy that's seeded 20, you know what I mean? And he could come up against and know, and how do you pronounce my man's name? You told me this before, Jamure or whatever his name is more. So when he gets, assuming he gets past him and plays, Halas, that's, I'm just saying that's, you know, that's.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:32.49)
Ximher. Yeah, Ximher.

Torrey (01:02:40.62)
That's a weird matchup for Demon R if that match goes all the way through because Mahatch absolutely cranks the ball. And Demon R obviously counters. But to your point, all rows go through Novak. But there's a lot of little minefields in this one. I think it should be fairly. It should come out fairly the way it looks. But again, there's some fun matches to watch amongst this one.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:47.051)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:05.675)
Just an interesting thing in this about Dan Evans, right? Got the wild card, because his ranking's not high enough for him to, yeah, but it's a weird thing because he was in the top 50 a year ago, and this is what got him. He went to play the Olympics last summer, because he wanted to play with Andy, but he was, no, he wasn't hurt. He was the defending champion at Washington.

Torrey (01:03:13.591)
Sure, I think he's like, why does that 200 up? We're not mistaken.

Torrey (01:03:26.999)
Mmm. I got hurt.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:34.057)
So Washington happened at the same time as the Olympics. he didn't, like all the points, all 500 of those points just fell, came off. Yeah, and you replace it with a zero. So like, and he knew that going in, right? But like that's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Andy had a great showing at playing doubles together. But like, now you're stumbling, right? Like one more bad tournament and you're in this position right here, which is unfortunate. So you look at like that decision. So like two sides of the same coin there, Dan Evans decided to go to.

Torrey (01:03:35.735)
Ooooo

came off. Wow.

Torrey (01:03:44.663)
Sure.

Yeah, isn't that tough? Isn't that tough?

Torrey (01:03:53.055)
Yeah. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:03.372)
the Olympics and risk that. Francis decided not to go to the Olympics and was able to continue to to kind of get the game together and pick up those points. He did really well at DC. I think he won it. So, yeah, just so, and now we're here, right?

Torrey (01:04:17.055)
Right. Missed out on the lifetime of an event, but got his ranking inside the top five or six, wherever it was, right, to your point. So, no, you're right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:24.329)
Right. Yeah, it's so that's yeah, it's just one of those things where like, you know, there's, there's, I don't talk about that anymore. I want to talk about this. I want to talk about this right here. I want to talk about this. Taylor Fritz, GMP, first round. Let's go. I am here for this. Nonsense is nonsense, straight nonsense.

Torrey (01:04:31.499)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:04:46.284)
Man.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:48.247)
Put this in my veins. I want this so bad.

Torrey (01:04:51.223)
I can't even call this one. I can't even call it.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:53.259)
And so this is, okay, so right now I think Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz are separated by like 10 points in the rankings. And that's your difference between a four seed and a five seed. And not that that would have had an impact here, right? GMP's unseeded, that's just luck of the draw, right? But that also has, you know, now we got Medvedev kind of creeping down there as well. So it's not nothing.

Torrey (01:04:59.881)
Right.

and a five.

Torrey (01:05:07.701)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:05:14.817)
This whole draw, this section, when I looked at it earlier, is absolutely rough. Jordan Thompson's not a bad player on the grass. You start looking at, know, Seth Eulens is not a bad player at all. Alex Popperin, good player. David Isfrakina, good player. Your boy, VanderSloot. VanderZhansloot, I keep butchering his name. Altmaier, GMP. There's a lot of big boys in this one here, Alvin. Right, y'all.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:24.009)
Right. It's yes. Yes.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:35.083)
Vendors and slop. Yeah, a lot of big dudes who, yeah, even Diallo, Diallo young fella out of Canada. He's top 50 in the world right now.

Torrey (01:05:44.663)
That's right, that's right. That's my boy, my Canadian brother. Yeah, you got, and now you got, and Taylor, Taylor 65, I just say there's a lot of big hitters in this section here. GMP being probably the tallest of the group. I'm just saying there's a lot. This one here for, just coming back from Andrea, think he didn't pick up one of the grass court tuneups.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:49.399)
Think it went to Kentucky? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:57.687)
A lot of big boys.

Torrey (01:06:13.769)
Last week, did he win? How low or whatever?

Alvin Owusu (01:06:14.625)
yeah, yeah, he won, did he win Halle? Yeah, this week. He won Halle and then he got to the, he's playing in finals, he was playing this morning in the semis, but yeah.

Torrey (01:06:18.909)
I thought it went out.

Yeah, I Hallow was maybe a week before. My point is he's playing good and good for him because he needed that because he'd been out.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:27.039)
He's one of the best, he's one of the best grass-cooled players on the men's tour, like hands down. But this problem, this is a different problem.

Torrey (01:06:31.137)
To my point, to my point, I like his chances, but, but how, how some ever, this is a different situation. I mean, that, that could be a five-set match just off the serve alone.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:43.287)
So GMP ran through the draw last year, up losing to Musetti in the quarters in five sets. But that's the kind of, that's what he can do. Especially here, that's what he can do. Taylor has been known to mess around and lose in the first round of Grand Slam before. And this might not, this match has nothing to do with him actually.

Torrey (01:06:52.171)
Right.

Right, and Mab's ran out of Right?

Yeah.

Torrey (01:07:06.76)
Yeah, well.

Yep, right.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:12.405)
That's the thing. It's not, doesn't really matter how well he plays. It's like how, God, that's a tough.

Torrey (01:07:18.038)
How well will the others play as well? And to your point, do you think Meti gets to the quarters? That's my question.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:25.793)
To the quarters? Look, I'm not comfortable. Okay, you remember our boy Eubanks beat Metty, right? To get into the quarters of Wimbledon a few years ago, two years ago now. GMP is a better version of Eubanks. So.

Torrey (01:07:36.458)
Yep. Yeah.

Torrey (01:07:46.592)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:50.615)
If it's GMP versus Medi.

I don't know if it's GMP, if it's Medi versus.

a bit of a shakina. Okay, yeah. just, it's, there's a lot that hinges not only on this particular match, like its implications in this. Yeah, like, mean, this is a weird one. This is a weird one.

Torrey (01:08:04.628)
Yeah, I understand. I see your point.

Right, between Diallo Altmeyer and Fritz Giampi. You're right, you're right. No, you're right, you're right. I personally think Jordan Thompson, should he get through, I think Jordan Thompson could be rough on grass just because of his ability to come forward and he's, again, and he knows. So again, it'd be fun to see.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:23.873)
Right.

And that's the interesting part about the grass. Even though it's been slower, they've slowed it down so it's a little more neutralized, but it's like all these players, you give me this same draw, but it's at the US Open. It's like, yeah, this is fine. Yeah, I got Fritz and Mehdi in the fourth round, no big deal. Yeah, I got that, that's easy. Even at the French Open, is probably, I could read it pretty straightforward. But here, it's like.

Torrey (01:08:30.645)
That's another reason why I love it.

Torrey (01:08:41.699)
yeah, you're taking bets.

Torrey (01:08:52.789)
which is why I love the grass because it's such a different game. know? Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:57.993)
Yeah, it's a different game. It's a different game. But yeah, I got nothing to say. We'll see how it plays out. Let's percolate on down here.

Torrey (01:09:05.577)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:09:15.839)
Surrenderloam and Borg just forgot that they weren't playing grass court season. These guys, somebody should have given them a memo. It's not clear.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:17.951)
else

Alvin Owusu (01:09:26.525)
It's yeah, right. Exactly.

Torrey (01:09:29.043)
Mackie and Katchanov could be a good max there. I am Renderneck and Zverev. That could be a bit of a dice situation. How far do you give my boy Sasha in this one here? I just gotta call it out and go right there. There's never been a bigger player to not take advantage of his bigger serve. And I get flashbacks of him playing

Alvin Owusu (01:09:38.481)
That is a... Yeah...

Torrey (01:09:59.028)
Dominic team all over again at the U S open, not coming forward on those massive serves he was hitting in that tournament. And, and, and he hasn't improved or changed. And that was what five years ago or seven, how many years ago was it now? When the one is 2018, 2019, 2020. That's right. That's right. Drapes over the seats.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:05.919)
Well, I'm going to say.

Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:15.462)
2020, 2020, so, because was empty. it was 2020, weird one, yeah. So, right, so the interesting part here is Baratini, oft injured, I don't know how he is right now, but if he's fine, that's a pretty good draw for him. Ethan, Ethan's good play, I'm proud of Ethan Quinn. Like.

Torrey (01:10:39.42)
Yeah!

Alvin Owusu (01:10:40.307)
His whole, his foray into pro tennis was, I know, questioned by many after one year at Georgia and winning the national championship and kind of had to, I guess, had to turn pro, I think was the, he felt like he had to turn pro and people questioned that decision, but now he's making good on that. Direct entry here, had a good run of French Open, like he saw him play in Dallas when I was out there earlier in the year. Ethan's looking good, but Baratini has finaled this event.

Torrey (01:10:55.143)
Okay.

Torrey (01:10:59.145)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:10.379)
Veritini is a proper grass court player, like proper, like slice backhand, big serve, big forehand, like if he's good to go, right, if he's good to go, like that's.

Torrey (01:11:14.356)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. 100 % crafty. know, yeah, no, 100%. Mateo Mateo is no slouch by any means. As you say, tough matchup, Rheetham, but you know, and then that and that bumps into Zverev, Karen Obispo, right? So yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:30.091)
That's the, that's right, that's my point there. As far as Verov, like that's the, I think that's the tricky one for him. If Berettini is good to go and they meet, then that's a handsome match. It's a good match. Good, good Grand Slam match. that's about it. I think we can bounce forward. I think we can bounce forward.

Torrey (01:11:45.255)
Yep. Yeah.

Torrey (01:11:52.275)
Yep, Holger and Jerry, could be, know, Nico's always a fiery spark plug. You know what I mean? Big server at that. I mean, I gotta be honest. If I had to call out an upset McQually over a seed, it looks like Nico, Jerry, and Holger, Runa. I mean, I just, that's what it looks like.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:56.051)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah!

Alvin Owusu (01:12:13.035)
Yeah, it does. That's what it feels like, right? you you feel you feel like you could be Nico, okay

Torrey (01:12:17.095)
I mean...

Torrey (01:12:21.959)
First round two.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:26.527)
It's three out of five, it's three out of five. It's three out of five, like I don't, is Holger, is Holger, you know, he moves well, hits forehand well, but like is he grass court, like a tune? I don't think so.

Torrey (01:12:26.599)
Just saying. Five sets.

Torrey (01:12:38.867)
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know if off of serve alone and in my case for lack of a serve as big anyway as whole Garuda has, I just like that one. No, more to say, that's just all opinion. 100%, 100 % and that's my point. For the same reason again, on a hard court on Clay, before I talked about Francis, Batista good playing Cam Norris.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:53.431)
It caught both of our attention, like I guess they're for a reason, right? Yeah.

Torrey (01:13:07.879)
Cam Norrie will take that match because it's grass and he's lefty and he's Cam Norrie.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:08.417)
Do the good one.

Well, okay, let's, let's, not so fast, my friend. So I s-

Torrey (01:13:15.538)
Okay, fair enough. I was only making it to say I'm talking both size, I'm talking both the surface preference, and I'm talking in terms of the matchup of the game. That's all I'm looking at.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:27.991)
Yeah, I think Batista gets, he is Spanish and flag only. That man hits about as flat as they come. And Cam's best shot, Cam's backhand goes right into, I mean he likes to hit it pretty flat. I don't know, I don't know. I see what you're saying, but like.

Torrey (01:13:38.32)
No question.

Torrey (01:13:49.5)
Cam, Cam, Cam shovels that backhand as low as it can go. I mean, almost puts you in the deuce court corner. He puts you as wide as he can. And when I tell you it's got a tad bit of underspans on that backhand flat, just saying. And the lefty carve is there. I'm just saying. I only mention it to say, and I love Roberto. I just don't know. I'm talking height. I'm talking serve. I'm talking, you know, match up who may favor the grass better.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:52.415)
He does. He does.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:09.376)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:14:18.858)
in I was talking about Nico and Holger I'm just saying when I look at those two things I'm thinking myself hmm I don't like that I don't like that matchup for a Batista good I don't like that for Holger Rueda I just don't I just don't like that it there's there's very very trouble that that's Titanic going through icebergs to me just saying yeah Lechka I mean you got your boy Brooksby playing Greek sport I mean Yow

Alvin Owusu (01:14:31.425)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:37.239)
Well, I mean, this is like my favorite section, like quite candidly because like, yeah, Lehechka's are great. He's a really good, really good grass court player. Showed it last week at Queens, he finaled, lost to Carlos in three sets. And then Furnley versus Fonseca, again, Brooksby versus Greeksport, like, and even learned TN, like against Basavoretti, like, yeah.

Torrey (01:14:49.883)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:14:57.542)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:15:02.32)
Yeah. I get a best of ready. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:05.687)
That's gonna be a that's a fun little section. Like it's just fun. This is fun

Torrey (01:15:09.554)
It's a ton of great matches this one here for others that aren't as this one here. This is, I would agree with you. This is definitely one of my favorite sections and a lot of characters. I mean, a lot of characters rounded out by none other than Mr. Francis Tiafou himself. So I would love to see Francis have a, that should cam get through Batista a good, that would be a tough match for Francis either way it goes.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:12.011)
Fun?

Alvin Owusu (01:15:27.009)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:38.047)
Yeah, in a sharpening match. Yeah, I could see either one of them popping into the third round there. Quite honestly.

Torrey (01:15:39.184)
Roberto or Cam?

Right, right. Just a tough matchup for Francis. And again, as he always does, he finds a way to make a match that look routine without 140 mile an hour serve or without, right.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:53.976)
Well see that's the thing, there's nothing routine about this. Like you got Cam Dory potentially in second round and then potentially Hetchkin in third round. Those are guys who know their way around a grass court. Now so does Francis though. No slouch, he had match points against Carlos here last year, went five sets. I'm not worried about Francis on grass but.

Torrey (01:16:02.012)
Right, right, right, right.

Torrey (01:16:10.256)
Yeah, yeah. No, not worried about him at all. Like I was gonna say, I almost felt like when I root against him, I'm like, I do it selfishly to see him go through, go farther because I hate that guy. I don't know about him. was, meanwhile, I'm like, give me 50 on Francis getting to the quarters. mean.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:20.704)
Alvin Owusu (01:16:26.443)
The old reverse jinx, yeah. Throw them off the set. All right, let's keep bouncing. your favorite there, Andrey Rublev.

Torrey (01:16:33.996)
Oh, my man. You heard it right here. I'm going to say this right here. There are three players in this draw that are in operation, put up a shut up. You heard it right here. I got to say it, Alvin. I saw it when it came out. First of all, shout out to Fabio Fagnini, my main man. You never know if he's playing or tanking, but that's a whole nother talk show. Maybe one of his, I think he made an announcement. Maybe one of his last tournaments. Andre.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:37.653)
When's Andre going home? When's Andre going home?

Alvin Owusu (01:17:00.407)
By hook or by crook, either way.

Torrey (01:17:02.892)
Right. Andre Rubeleth, Stefano Tsitsipas and Felix Agier-Aliassine. You heard it right here. I got, I'm putting them all three on the hashtag put up, shut up. Your clock's ticking. And you have been such good players. I would just love to see some semblance of you've taken the next step. The only fourth player that isn't in this section is one.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:06.679)
I should leave.

Torrey (01:17:32.3)
Alexander quote Sasha in quote there and those because he gets the pass not only because he's not in this quarter, but because he has made has had a final or two and a couple of good semis up until this point in time. Felix has not Rubelov has not Stefanos has not and I just have to say that to say I feel like these guys are trying to still kind of get to where they are were or what have you.

I gotta say it, I've been holding my tongue back for a while. And these are some great players that have had some higher ceilings. I think Stephonis was what, three in the world? Two, three years ago? I mean,

Alvin Owusu (01:18:11.703)
Yeah, so that's the difference between these three and Sasha. also I'll give Sasha his credit. Like, yeah, maybe he hasn't won a Grand Slam, but he's not right in the 20s. He's still three in the world. These guys were all top 10 at one point, and they're slowly getting usurped by the younger generation, and Sasha's very much still right there. I'll leave, I don't say kind things about him often.

Torrey (01:18:25.444)
That's all I'm saying.

Yeah!

Torrey (01:18:40.334)
Yeah. for sure. In the next tier that he'd two tiers up that he deserves to be in.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:40.353)
but I will hear and I'll say let's leave him, let's leave him out of this conversation.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:50.859)
Yeah, Sasha's talking masters and these guys are talking 250s. We're just talking different, different, different. Yeah.

Torrey (01:18:55.128)
Right. They're certainly, right. They're on different planes, literally. But to my point, I still would hope that Rubalev, just so can see more Safin, hangs in there a little bit more.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:09.815)
Okay, so let's say Stefanos and Andre meet in the third round. How does that feel to you?

Torrey (01:19:18.692)
would like to see it. Who do I think, who do I think, who do I favor? God, that's tough. That's tough. If it gets that far, I give the tip to Rublev due to coaching. Will it get that far is my question. Burgs is no slouch. Manorino is no slouch.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:36.725)
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You just said you would give Rublev the tip on coaching because Morat Safin is his coach, but let us not forget that Safin Ositsabas is coached by one Goran Ivanishevich. So, Wimbledon champion himself, former coach of many-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic. So do you wanna take it back? Do you wanna think about it? You just said it. Okay.

Torrey (01:19:44.164)
Yeah, if it gets that far, if they both get that far.

Torrey (01:19:55.085)
I think.

Torrey (01:20:01.049)
Nope, nope. Let me tell you why I don't. I don't think Titsy's got an issue here. He's got an issue with other things specifically. He's got to find his confidence again. I don't know if Goran's going to be able to give him that. Rublev's crazy. And I think Morat can get him on crazy long or to channel the crazy. If I thought that Titsy has an issue with containing the crazy.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:19.487)
Not in good way.

Torrey (01:20:31.435)
I would give his going even as his coach who is also on all time faves, the nod. I'm only speaking to this. I think Tizzi has to go back and retool all of the game or start hitting first serves on first and seconds and start being absolute Fernando Gonzalez or, or, Vufrinco in the back something. He's got to quit running around. He's got to tag.

And he has got to strike quick and often and come forward like there's no tomorrow. I just.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:02.807)
Well, who you're talking about, that's not Stefanos, it's the best. He ain't striking quick and he ain't coming forward.

Torrey (01:21:05.795)
That's my point, which is my point. He's got to completely change. And that's why I think no matter who you have, he, at this point in time, I think his resurgence. Has to change. Alvin, we talked about this and we're giving him way too much airtime, but I'm going to mention this one little small point. 18, 19 years old, there was a German player by the name of Boris Becker who came out and all he did was serve in ball. Then he kind of took a

Alvin Owusu (01:21:10.711)
Okay

Alvin Owusu (01:21:28.471)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:21:33.966)
I'm going to say a final hiatus. He also has little bit flash in the pan a little bit, right? He didn't do anything but on Wemby and so on and so on. Three or four years later, under the tutelage of obviously my main man. I just forgot his, I just had his name on the tip of my tongue. Romanian. It'll come back, but it has a great name, Alvin. Eon Tyriac. He's playing with, coached by Tyriac. He came out three or four years later. Obviously still playing.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:51.026)
It'll come back to you.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:56.599)
Okay.

Torrey (01:22:02.432)
Alvin, he was the most consistent, had the best backhand, had retooled the serve. He looked like a completely different player. One, I know he won US Open three or four years later. I mean, when I tell you the guy became a model of fitness, he had every stroke, right? Now I say that to say there is a, now that was 30 years ago. I understand we're talking about it's not easy to do nowadays, but that was a player that completely morphed in his case, matured his game, well rounded his game. I feel like.

Tisciopas has to go the other way around. He has to now develop a second weapon and a more of an aggressive game style and really play a little more to the surface. Wimby is one of those. Australia could be one of those. And obviously the hard court. Do I think that's going to get him in trouble on the clay? Of course I do. But do I think that will help him on the grass? 1000. He's got a good serve, Alvin. He just, and he's a one-hander. You got to be able to come forward on the grass. And I feel like you can't be a one-handed Sasha Zverev.

which is what he's trying to do and run around. He just can't do it.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:05.866)
I hear you, I hear you, but where I'm going to, where my divergence starts is when you start talking about Stefano Sitsipas and multiple Grand Slam winner Boris Becker in the same sentence. They are cut differently. They are different types of people. Different types of people. Okay, so there's a reason why at some point it is what it is, right?

Torrey (01:23:20.493)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:23:25.069)
We are on the same page on that one for sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:33.333)
It is what it is and that's where I am with Stephanie Sitsipas. It is what it is and it's okay fine, he's not going to change. You know what he keeps changing? Coaches and rackets. He's changed coaches and rackets more times in the last three months, right? And it's like, why don't you change? Why don't you keep changing these other things, you change.

What did Michael Jackson say? Take a look at yourself and make that change.

Torrey (01:23:57.165)
Yeah, yeah, man in the mirror.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:00.822)
Man in the mirror, that's who I'm talking to. I'm talking to Stefanos in the mirror. But I've wasted so much time talking about Stefanos since the past, I'm done, I'm done. We don't have to move on, we're done, that's it. That's the whole draw. We somehow got through the whole thing in 90 minutes, both men's and women's. I mean, have you seen the man? He's just, he's got a two next to his name, but he walks like he's the one. He's just so, he's so light right now. He's so light.

Torrey (01:24:02.743)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:24:07.339)
Yeah, we gotta move on.

Torrey (01:24:14.829)
Carlitos way.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:30.507)
He, I mean, obviously crushed the clay court season, took his infamous trip to Ibiza after the French Open, said he took it easy, said he only went hard one night, and then shows up to Queens, just bags another championship, and he's like, okay, fine, I'm gonna all show up to Wimbledon, let's get into it.

Torrey (01:24:35.255)
Yeah, really did. Yeah.

Torrey (01:24:47.339)
Yep and now he's got a little arm candy with your girl Emma now. Looks like that man may not be a thing. Yeah, that's more your speed. You know that. No, no, no. You knew about the whole, you were talking about slash demon orb, know. That's what saying. I know you know things. That's who you are. You're Alvin Uso. You know things. mean.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:53.609)
Yeah, are we gonna talk about that? I feel like that's something we don't talk about but like are we gonna are we Is that a thing? That's not my speed. That's not my speed.

Alvin Owusu (01:25:08.297)
Okay, yeah, I mean I know things, but it doesn't mean I wanna, I read things. I know things, I do know things. I know enough to keep myself in the conversation, and lots of different kinds of conversations. That's not my speed.

Torrey (01:25:22.509)
I just wanna say this one last piece. Manorino could be a very spanner in the works to borrow the English expression. And I see the same thing for Mr. I could see the same thing for Mr. Shroof and for Mr. Felix, Auger, Ali Asim. And I just say that just to say that both those two guys, they get passed would be.

a minor miracle in my opinion. And that's weird to say for a couple of guys that are seated in this situation. I just, it's gonna be tough. mean, Felix could have a tough time with Duckworth. I mean, that's, know, as a first round.

Alvin Owusu (01:26:02.104)
Yeah, I mean if we get to next weekend and we're looking at Alcraz versus Manderito, I won't be surprised. Like I won't be surprised, not here, no not, I won't be surprised at all. Because that nonsense, that crafting nonsense, he'll eat that up on the grass court.

Torrey (01:26:08.286)
Right, that's all I'm saying. Right. Or Bergs. Or Bergs. no, buddy. He never met a player he didn't want to make look bad and very, very crafty matchups. So anyway, long story. I'll look forward to Carlos's round with Fabio. Fabio, back in the juniors, you never knew if he was tanking, slapping.

or just putting you, putting you through the paces. You never had any idea. And I have never seen a person hit the most effortless big ball in my life than Fabio Fagnini. I mean, he, I remember standing next to him one time and he hit the score a couple of times. They're about the same age. And Alvin, I swear to God, it looked like he had a, he had a badminton racket in his hand. That's how light the thing was flying through the air. It was just.

Alvin Owusu (01:26:47.221)
Yeah, it's a joke. It's a joke.

Alvin Owusu (01:27:04.118)
Hahaha

Torrey (01:27:06.155)
It was a lightsaber. I he was literally, boom, boom. I it was just, I watched this guy like, what? What are we talking about? I mean, his routine was big. I mean, and then he went bigger. You're like, God, like you heard it. You're like, ooh, you had a little shutter. You're like, God, it's a big ball. And it just, and he made it look easy. So I'm not gonna say there's a chance that Alcara's, you know, loses that match, but you heard it right here. Fabio.

Alvin Owusu (01:27:10.303)
Right. That is the kind of sound if you wouldn't attach a sound to his forehand, that's what it would be like.

Torrey (01:27:35.467)
You know, if Fabio, it'll be an entertaining first round match at that. And I actually kind of liked that for Carlos, because I think Carlos will get into that. Carlos likes to battle Alvin. And I will say the one thing I love about him, he likes to battle. And I just...

Alvin Owusu (01:27:50.549)
What do mean define battle in this in this instance? I mean, I know what battle means, but like in this particular instance, what are you what are you saying?

Torrey (01:27:56.032)
He likes to compete. He likes to compete and he likes to, he likes when the match is a bit of a challenge. He darned to apologize for that match against who he played. What was it, Tommy? I mean, he loves, he loves the match to have some fireworks. I mean, he enjoys it. Just saying. Fireworks, he likes the match to be contested. He likes the fact that

Alvin Owusu (01:28:16.213)
Yeah, okay. Well,

Torrey (01:28:24.886)
You're looking at him. He knows he's on stage, Alvin. And if it looks like the villain, quote unquote, in a James Bond movie has the upper hand, he starts.

Alvin Owusu (01:28:28.372)
Yeah

Alvin Owusu (01:28:36.247)
So I think that's the maturation of Carlos Zácaras that I've seen over the last few months is that he sometimes would get himself into playing with the crowd, which can sometimes let his, he's always there for the show, which can impact his floor. And I think his floor has slowly risen.

to where he doesn't get into that as much anymore. He seems like he's okay with routinely beating players that he should routinely beat without needing to go full circus, right? And I think this match on paper screams full circus, but it also screams, this should be two, two, and two, right? And I think the new Carlos, right, with a few highlights, but not like six, four, three, six, six, three, six, three. Yeah, yeah, listen. Yeah, he seemed squared up to like,

Torrey (01:28:58.874)
god, yeah. Right.

Torrey (01:29:06.204)
Right. Right. Right. Right.

Torrey (01:29:15.39)
Yeah, with a few highlights. Right.

Right, not a eight, six, and a fifth situation. Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (01:29:27.799)
try to win the tournament in two weeks. like, I don't think he's gonna waste, he's not gonna waste energy on Fognini for the sake of putting on a show. He's gonna win the match and you're gonna.

Torrey (01:29:35.09)
No, no, no, no, no, no, really. No. And Fognini is going to play ball to keep up. Don't make the mistake. I'm only saying it. Period. As, as the tour does, I was only saying if there's a better shop maker at his age, that's the first round match. was like, I don't know if there is one. And it's just to say who's a non-C Nazi, a former player. you're Alvin, you know things that's, that's my next gift to as a t-shirt. What is the fifth set situation? Isn't it?

Alvin Owusu (01:29:39.915)
To keep up. To keep up.

Torrey (01:30:01.876)
A max of 12 games, if I'm not mistaken. it something weird like that still?

Alvin Owusu (01:30:05.432)
Yeah, did they shorten it? I know they shortened it to 12, but did they shorten it again? I don't think so, I think they're 12. I think they're 12. I think they're still at 12.

Torrey (01:30:08.009)
I thought they shortened the fifth.

Torrey (01:30:13.099)
That's what I wanted to find out. Last I heard, I thought it was 12, but again, and those of you who put us, catch us up to speed if we're still a few years behind viewers and listeners. Yeah, because I think that's what it is. My point is it ain't, I mentioned eight, six and the fifth, I'm like, I thought it was still 12. Anyway, shout out to John Isner.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:25.975)
Yeah, I'm not even looking up. Someone in the comments let me know what that's supposed to be. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:35.223)
There may still be 12. Yeah.

Torrey (01:30:37.771)
for every time that rule comes up and the reason why they had to change it. You know what I mean? So him and Nicholas Mahoot from back in the day. God. That was, That match took three days, Alvin, three days. Can you imagine coming back the third day? Hey, who you playing? Still playing Nicholas. I mean, can you imagine? And we're still here.

Alvin Owusu (01:30:42.539)
Godly that was a that was a that was a that was a week. That was a weird one. That was a week. That was a week It was a week

Alvin Owusu (01:30:56.279)
Same guy, same guy. Ah, still in that match that I, it's Thursday, we started on Monday, we're still here. Yeah, but no, we don't need to be here anymore. Let's go wrap it up. Put a pin in it. We'll check back in. I think we should plan to check back in after round two. Let's let some matches happen here, unless something crazy happens, we can talk about it, but I feel like a post-round two check-in is where we belong. So let's plan on that. Cool? All right.

Torrey (01:31:13.631)
Yeah, yeah, agree.

Torrey (01:31:22.911)
Yep, yep. I look forward to seeing you in a week, my friend. It's gonna be great. And I'm looking forward to it. Get me a glass of the Pimps. And I'm looking forward to it. Yep. Crumpets, crumpets. That's a proper, I love it. Even that word, I love it. I'll be there to put a spanner in the works as they say.

Alvin Owusu (01:31:26.847)
Yeah, Maybe we'll just record it live.

the pimps will be ready to go. The pimps will be ready to go. Strawberries and cream, pimps, the whole deal. It'll have crumpets. It'll be a nice little, it'll have some tea. It's a proper Wimbledon shig dig. It's gonna be proper. Yeah, yeah.

There you go. There you go.

Torrey (01:31:52.745)
So we'll look, as always Alvin, appreciate you.

Alvin Owusu (01:31:56.149)
Absolutely, that's three. We're out.