Ep. 46: Wimbledon 2nd Round Review

Alvin Owusu (00:09.066)
is the edition of Wimbledon where we talk about the third round upcoming, second round in arrears. TH, how you feeling?

Torrey (00:17.902)
Good Alvin, how about yourself?

Alvin Owusu (00:19.754)
Pretty good man. Pretty good. Got up early this morning actually hit some balls Bright and early hit the ball. Well happy

Torrey (00:26.072)
Does Wimbledon put you in this mood where you want to hit balls?

Alvin Owusu (00:29.578)
I mean I always want to balls, here's the problem. This is what always happens to me. I feel like I try to channel whoever I most recently saw. And it's not good, it's not good. I walked out this morning and I just happened to catch, I was like third set of Mincek versus Garon and like I'm out there hitting forehands and thinking I'm Jakub Mincev and I'm like bro we're not even, we're not even, no. Like no, I need something else. I tell you my back hit my, yeah, let me tell you.

Torrey (00:38.604)
Yeah. Terrible. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (00:52.75)
It's a lot of similarities, Alvin, but then there's not.

Alvin Owusu (00:58.908)
Let me tell you, let me tell you. Yeah, and you know, we gotta focus on the things that bring us together, not the things that divide us.

Torrey (01:02.136)
You both have red blood cells. mean, you know what saying? There you go. You and Jakub Mincic might be as far away from a couple of players as I've seen in long time, but I hear your point. that's great. You're slicing my, that's great, that's great. I'm happy for you.

Alvin Owusu (01:16.404)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it goes, so it goes. My sliced backhand was looking good today though. Yeah, sliced backhand was looking good today. Yeah, it was a good feeling, it a good feeling. The guy I played with today actually, we played one set, got into a breaker. I ended up with a breaker, but he dusted me up pretty bad last time we played. So it was nice to let him know that like, hey, hey, hey, that wasn't normal. Like this is, this we are, we are peers. We are peers, don't get us twisted.

Torrey (01:33.74)
Yeah, so you got a little red on him. Yeah, right, right, right. You caught me on the bad day. Right, right, right, right, right. Back to the rivalry. That last little mishap was just that. Totally.

Alvin Owusu (01:46.483)
Exactly, exactly. But you know, today is the third of July, which means tomorrow's the fourth of July, which means I'll see you tomorrow at my spot, bright and early. Breakfast at Wimbledon and Allen's house. It's gonna be a fine shindig, fine shindig. most of the listeners won't be there, so let's maybe give them what the people came here for. Let's, I'm thinking we start with the women. Tomorrow.

Torrey (01:52.235)
Yeah, bright and early. Looking forward to it.

Yep.

I'm looking forward to it.

Torrey (02:07.222)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:13.576)
Is it tomorrow that matches tomorrow? believe we've got Arena Sabalenka versus Emma Radikanu. So I mean, Arena, she's doing what she does. Shook off French Open, she's here back in right form. She's right where we all thought she was gonna be. Emma Radikanu on center court at Wimbledon is like, she reminds me of like untucked shirt Kyrie Irving. Like it's just different. It's different. Like she fits.

Torrey (02:15.518)
I think so. Yeah, man. Yeah.

Torrey (02:23.595)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:42.344)
that space so well, like she embraces that space so well. I think her match against Von Drussová, I mean, I was dead ass surprised that she played that well. Yeah.

Torrey (02:55.469)
I was too. And no shade on Emma. I don't think Marquetta played the match that she's capable of playing. I take no shade against Emma. Emma's playing good ball. We talked about Emma four months ago. She's playing the best tennis of her life right now. Better tennis, dare I say, than when she won the open a few years ago against Leila. She's playing her best tennis right now. Here's the story. I don't take that against her. I don't think Marquetta was the sharp. That's not to say any sour grapes. Emma won the match. I'm happy for her.

Alvin Owusu (03:12.906)
she's a better player, by far.

Torrey (03:23.826)
It wasn't the match I was looking forward to seeing. That's all I'll say. That's true.

Alvin Owusu (03:26.858)
But that's the Mark Hanna von Joseph experience though, right? She will give you a feast and then she will give you famine. And you know, that's kind of what we got. And Emma took advantage of it. That's her job.

Torrey (03:33.43)
A little bit of fam.

Yep, yep, agreed. And hey, and played solid. I think she was prepared for that feast and was ready and good for her. And I look forward to seeing her in the All England crowd getting behind her in that match against Arena tomorrow for sure.

Alvin Owusu (03:50.661)
Yeah, that one's gonna be, do you think, you won't find many places where Irina Semeninka is not the crowd favorite. Fans love her. I would say she probably got it against Coco a couple years ago at the US Open. And then I feel like here, I the British cow is a little more, they're a little more reserved. She's playing against a Brazilian or something like that, like Fonseca style.

Torrey (03:58.134)
Sure. Sure.

Torrey (04:05.408)
Yep. Great.

Torrey (04:15.37)
Yep. Yep. They like all tennis crowds and they will fan. They will favor the other dog because they want to see more tennis. Right. But in my, she's certainly going to be the all England favorite tomorrow for sure. I am looking forward to a good match. I'll have to be talking about this before. My only worry that she plays so well against Marketta that tomorrow may, may not be. That's my only thing she played. I thought she played very solid. mean like darn near for her game flawless. And I'd know if I know anything.

Alvin Owusu (04:27.817)
Yeah.

Torrey (04:45.108)
after 30 years of coaching this game and often on the next four years of playing it, is you don't play phenomenal twice in a row. And that's all I'll say.

Alvin Owusu (04:52.83)
Right, yeah, yeah. It's gonna take, it's not the best matchup for Emma, obviously their record proves that out, mean, hell, Sam Link is not a good matchup for many people. But under these conditions, this feels like the best opportunity for her early in the tournament, home court, know, a little, yep, yep.

Torrey (04:58.687)
Right. Yep.

Right.

Torrey (05:09.228)
Sure, early in the tournament, right? Graz is still a little slick, footing is still a little suspect and Emma's playing well and has a crowd favorite, 100%. Couldn't be a better situation. Like I said, if she had just routine her and not played that well, I'd feel a lot better about Emma just saying, and that's, it's just gonna be a Herculean effort. That's all I'm saying.

Alvin Owusu (05:20.074)
Do you think?

Alvin Owusu (05:28.296)
What does it look like? So what does that effort look like then though? Let's say we get back together in a couple days and M.R.O.N.K.A.N. is in the fourth round and somehow beats Sableyka. What do you think would have had to happen for that to... Okay.

Torrey (05:38.476)
Twisted ankle for Arena Sabalinka. I mean, I don't want to put it out there like that, but I mean, something would have to have happened to Arena physically for that to happen. There's just not enough MPH on anything she brings to really affect. She didn't have Cocoa Speed. She didn't have Madison serving forehand. She didn't have, you know, Sviatik's rip backhand return on the rise and so on. And so I look at that to say she's a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (05:52.093)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (06:04.261)
Right, yeah. Where do the free points come from?

Torrey (06:08.092)
right? If any, and they will not be in copious amounts. I promise you that. that's all. And that's not to say that, you know, that's why they play the match, right? We'll look forward to it. So bottom line, it's a good match. And for the all England crowd, I'm looking forward to it. Good for them to have a legitimate contender, you know, in the sense of the word, not necessarily a...

possible champion but a contender for this thing if things were to shake out and unfortunately she's drawn the number one seed in the third round so but she's gonna be around for a few for a few moments to come and I look forward to that too.

Alvin Owusu (06:40.446)
Yeah, know, to, know, probably a lot of time people hear this, this will not happen, but the order of play tomorrow on center court looks fantastic. You've got Fritz versus Davidovic-Vakina, Strouff versus Akharez, and then followed by Sabalinka versus Radikanu. So that's a nice little ticket right there.

Torrey (06:47.114)
Mm.

Yeah, good

Torrey (06:54.076)
Great match, great matchup, great matchup right there. And I hope we get Pritz some little playing time. thought he's playing some solid match, albeit five sets in his matches, but he's playing some great tennis. I'll know you get to him later.

Alvin Owusu (07:04.582)
Yeah, we'll come back to him later because I want to talk about I want to take my hat off to Taylor Fritz because he's earned my respect in spades the last few days. Kind of moving down here, when I see Mertens versus Svitalina, that's just a pros match right there. Like that's a pros match. That's just like.

Torrey (07:09.929)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Torrey (07:16.714)
Yeah, yeah, Elena. Yeah, that is that is that is and and hey, keys and sigma not not to not not too much different, but you're exactly right. Zetelina and Merton says that's a solid old school. Oh, skew, wooske, peaceke, we skew match right there. These girls been around for a while and they and this is you know, they might have I don't know what their years are apart in the ITF back in the day, but they probably could be too far apart from way back and the and that's just a great matchup to see both of them playing. They probably have.

Alvin Owusu (07:33.448)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (07:38.634)
Right, right.

Torrey (07:44.381)
growing up together on the tour a little bit, you know what I mean? So that's a great matchup right there.

Alvin Owusu (07:46.057)
Yeah, for sure, for sure. I like that, I like that one a lot. That'll just be fun. That'll just be a nice match that you can get into, like no one's gonna get overpowered. That could be a two and a half, two 45 kind of match. I like it. Lots of play making. Both ladies, Merton's had a little bit of a tougher set against Ann Lee, I guess was today or yesterday, I can't remember. And then.

Torrey (07:52.104)
Yeah.

Torrey (07:56.081)
Right. Yeah.

Sure, And with lots of playmaking, you know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (08:14.984)
got herself in right order, then ran through her one and two in the next two sets. And Svitolina hasn't really been tested, so I like that they're coming in really fresh, ready to go, chopping up the bit. We're getting into moving time in the draw. Sierra against Buksa.

Torrey (08:18.878)
Hmm.

Torrey (08:26.365)
Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (08:39.398)
That match is less about the two players playing in the match and more about the disappointment in the players that they left in their wake, quite honestly. Katie Bolter, just at this point she is what she is, I guess, because this happens to her a lot, actually. She has a tendency to start hot and then kind of fade. Yeah, because she doesn't really possess the weapons to

Torrey (08:54.237)
with Beth.

Torrey (09:03.337)
Right. Not finished. Yeah. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (09:08.958)
consistently put together offensive tennis that allows her to plot her way through matches. then Donna Vakic, she seems like she's searching right now. She had a great year last year and now trying to live up to that ranking. I think she got into the top 20, whether she's or bronze medal at the Olympics. Made a nice run at the, was was Wimbledon last year actually? I she got to the quarterfinals or semifinals, something like that.

Torrey (09:13.991)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (09:37.962)
having to follow that up and we're not having the best results this year. Split ways with her, I guess, assistant coach Pam Schreiver and for whatever reason. And here we are, I don't know. I don't have, I don't really got, I really got nothing.

Torrey (09:41.278)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (09:52.905)
Yeah, I got nothing really to add for any intensive purposes. I'm looking a little more forward to quietly sneaking through the draws, my girl, Amanda Nisamova. That's one I wanna check, catch. And she had, the fact that she's in round three without much of a hitch is always a good thing and still healthy and still looking good and be able to carry this little American flag a little farther in this tournament in the wake of all these.

upsets that are strolling about, you know. Yep, is.

Alvin Owusu (10:23.24)
Yeah, and she's in a nice part of the draw too. Like she's the high seed there. The only other seeded player in that section is Linda Nosková, which Nosková, if they were to both advance, right, that's an interesting match. That's a hitter's match. Like Linda's no joke. So that is, no, they're separate quarters, different quarters. That's Osaka Palyachenkova coming up from the bottom there. So that's, you know, let's.

Torrey (10:36.05)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

And with the winner of that play Madison, if Madison gets through, that Madison's or is that Osaka slash Palat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right, right.

Alvin Owusu (10:53.096)
What thoughts on thoughts on Naomi so far? I mean.

Torrey (10:54.056)
We're back in it, yeah.

Glad she has those raggedy things out of her hair. I'll say that. I don't want to put that out. I have to say that from the French. I that was the worst thing in the world. And I'm glad she lost. So that means we won't see it again. I think Naomi is playing through the draw like I thought she would, like I hope she would. We talked a little bit in the pre and the draw episode. You even said it, if I'm not mistaken. After the first week, Naomi's still here.

And we talked, we both mentioned that then that's a good term for Naomi because the more she plays, the better she gets. Right. And so the fact that she's already halfway there is a great thing. The girl has one as you keep reminding me for grand slam. So it's not like she cannot play good tennis at clips. You know, it's could she return back to that clip repeatedly. And I think the longer this goes, the better. think the this draw for her sake. And again, she's now she's playing on the business end of this whole thing. I think she.

Alvin Owusu (11:31.454)
Right. Right.

Torrey (11:54.982)
has dodged enough bullets and enough of the shrapnel that has fallen around her. She might just find herself a way to weave, bob and weave into some non-seeds that really can't hurt her. Naomi has weapons, she has speed, she has feel. There's not many things she doesn't have. only thing she gets, sometimes she gets a little bit, she gets a little bit shaky in between the ears a little bit. And if there's no one to really push her to that level.

You know, Naomi Osaka is legitimately, legitimately a top five in the world ball striker. Is she a top five in the world competitor right now? I'm not so sure, but you can't name me another player in the top five that can out hit, out serve, out move comprehensively than a Naomi Osaka. So you can give me one or two that has one or two things over her, including the current top four or five. But for all of it, my point is still,

Alvin Owusu (12:29.514)
Huh.

Alvin Owusu (12:44.447)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (12:49.31)
It's-

Torrey (12:51.803)
You give her three, four rounds more in this tournament, could she be a player to defend? 1000%.

Alvin Owusu (12:52.231)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (12:57.514)
Okay, so I think now we're starting to get a little more serious about what she's gotta go through, right? So she beats a qualifier in the first round. I don't wanna say lucks out, but Sinjaka takes out Junction Wen, so she gets Sinjaka in the second round, is effectively, if you can't serve big enough and you can't hit big enough, like Naomi, you can't hurt Naomi. That's kind of been the MO here. So probably a chank of a,

Torrey (13:19.642)
Right. Can't hurt him. Can't hurt him.

Alvin Owusu (13:26.644)
good player, plays well on grass, like experience, she's top 50 in the world, like she's no joke, she's been out there forever, and she can be tricky. She's not going to go through Naomi, but she will present Naomi with enough opportunities to have to take it. To have to take it, she's not going to beat herself. So I think if she gets through that match, now you're talking about like,

Torrey (13:27.622)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (13:36.218)
Yep.

Torrey (13:45.54)
Yep, I agree with that.

Alvin Owusu (13:53.896)
Diane Perry or Sunny Cartel. Now we're like, okay, we got some opportunities here.

Torrey (13:55.131)
Yep, yep, yep. And that's what I'm hoping Naomi sees it as, as opportunities. I think you and in my opinion, for whatever it's worth, Naomi Osaka would almost would have preferred playing QW just so she could have gotten through that match. So it means something, right? It's what I think. And I'm hoping she looks at it the way it is and say, Hey, she was gonna have to get here and I'll play who's in front of me. I'm a veteran. I've been here before.

Alvin Owusu (14:14.121)
Huh.

Torrey (14:23.55)
And you know what, this upstart may be little queasy getting this far into the situation. You know what mean? And there's, got a qualifying pair, you got a lucky loser in, in who's my girl in Sierra. You got a few people still hanging around that may be overextending their welcome. And you're like, Hey, it's, it seems like the right for the kit, right for the picking for me. It's how I would see it if I'm, if I'm, if I'm a nail mail sock.

Alvin Owusu (14:45.787)
It really is, it really is. she's got a nice, like, if she can get through this match, which I anticipate she will actually, because I watched all of her match against Sinyaka, but like once she got into it, like she was able to, she was in there, like she looked good. And I feel like, you know, if she gets past this round, the next round should be a little bit more straightforward. And then you've got probably either Anna Samova or, I don't know, I don't want to look that far ahead. It's not really, it's not prudent at this point.

Torrey (14:53.85)
Right.

Right. Yeah, she was in there. 100%. Right.

Torrey (15:08.599)
Right,

Torrey (15:13.67)
Yeah, that's a little far. But to your point, she's one those players, Alvin, to me, where it's not so much her opponents, it's more her. If she gets through, that's a big thing for her. That's what I'm getting at. I don't mean to say this, there's no disrespect. Most of the field isn't a four-time Grand Slam champion. So you're not talking about a player that...

is trying to prove they can. She's already been there, done that. She's trying to regain the platform she had before. So that's what I'm trying to say. Her getting through whoever it is, is more confidence in the Osaka tank. That's more what I'm

Alvin Owusu (15:45.019)
Yeah, I'll push it forward a little bit and say like the thing that we haven't and the thing that she hasn't been able to do is get far enough into these events to play the players to see the top level, the absolute top level.

Torrey (15:59.846)
Enough times to get sharp again at that level.

Alvin Owusu (16:03.179)
Right, and if she's making this comeback, not just to be back, but to be a champion again, you gotta go against the best. And she just hasn't gotten far enough. Right. Yeah, I, every Grand Slam has a story, and this one, the first few days were just carnage everywhere for anyone with a number next to their name. And so now we're kind of moving into that space and like, what's it gonna be? Like, what?

Torrey (16:08.901)
Right, to beat the man, you gotta beat the man. In this case, to beat the woman, you gotta beat the woman. mean, and you gotta see it. You just have to see it.

Torrey (16:21.935)
Yeah.

100%.

Torrey (16:28.714)
How's it gonna shake out? Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (16:30.174)
how's this gonna shake out? What are we gonna be talking about next week? you know, that there is a storyline there to be written. not necessarily pulling for stories here, but that's an interesting one. Like Naomi Saki on the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam would be great.

Torrey (16:33.925)
Right?

Torrey (16:38.724)
Right.

Torrey (16:45.529)
Yeah, it is.

Right. Very, very great for tennis to be honest with you. I'd much rather be her at this point when that section of the draw than Emma Navarro and Barbara Krichikova. I mean, that match there, I'm like, oof. We got carnage around and then you got what would have been a good match anyway, match it up. And I just look at things like that and I'm like, geez, wow. That means playing some good ball, you know? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:12.874)
I mean, Emma's playing well right now. She tuned Kudemirtova, the good one, not the other one. She's playing well. I mean, this little section right here is interesting. You got Andreeva versus Baptiste, throwing knives all over the place in that match. And then Kujikafu against Navarro. Babs, man. Barbara Ward, she's just decided, I'm here again. Let me show you how this is done.

Torrey (17:28.387)
Yeah, yeah. yep.

Torrey (17:38.371)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (17:40.914)
and she's gotten six sets under her belt in two days. I feel like now she's kind of settled in. Like she won the damn thing last year. Like she's not a joke around here.

Torrey (17:49.081)
Yep. Right. Start starting to get her footing. Again, as I say, if I had the choice to being Emma or being Naomi right now, I'd much rather be like being Naomi just on how the draw has fallen for her and things have opened up in that path. And I look forward to that match against Barbara and Barbara and Emma. That'll be a good match tomorrow. That'd be a great one to watch.

Alvin Owusu (18:11.05)
That'd be a fun one to watch. That'd be really fun to watch. Andrea versus Baptiste is not going to be fun to watch. I don't want to watch that. No, no, no, no, no. Throwing rocks and knives at each other. Yeah, not gonna hit. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of slice foreheads.

Torrey (18:20.013)
Free the player. Exactly free. Lotta, lotta stink, lotta attitude, lotta slice, lotta just, I mean, mumbling under the breath. That one is gonna be an absolute, let's just say, let's just say not easy on the eyes. You know what I mean? It's my take on it. I hope it is, but I'm not, if I'm a betting man, I'm not taking that bet.

Alvin Owusu (18:40.008)
Yeah... Yeah...

Alvin Owusu (18:49.854)
Yeah, that's, know, and Haley's having a nice little event here. mean, Victoria Mboko is going to be a player. think, I think everyone is aware of that. She's not going to be lucky losing her way into Grand Slams much longer. I assume she'll be, she'll be, you know, properly in Grand Slams for the rest of, for a very, a very long time. The girl can play. Haley's just a little too experienced right now for her.

Torrey (18:53.848)
Yeah.

Torrey (18:58.242)
Right.

Torrey (19:06.904)
Right, Yep.

Torrey (19:13.157)
Right. And on the grass, mean, had that been hardcore, I think it's much different story, but on the grass, it just completely suits Haley's game. So we're back in the Towson and you've got Kazukina and Simsonova. What do you got? Those two matches there are what drew my eyes.

Alvin Owusu (19:17.012)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (19:26.238)
I mean, hell, we got Ega versus Danielle as well. is where it gets, is where, Towson versus Rebacchina.

Torrey (19:30.666)
for sure. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (19:37.714)
I mean, very similar players, tall girls, big serves. Atlanta's look great. I just feel like it's...

Torrey (19:40.366)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. Both can bring it with the serve. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (19:54.027)
feel like Alaina's just better on grass. she's a better, hell yeah, mean she's won a Grand Slam and she was top four for a while. Like she's better. yeah, that'll be a fun one in a different kind of way. Because Claire Towson's kind of been one of those players that she's been in the conversation for a while but not really living up to, I'll say quote unquote, living up to the potential that she showed a few years ago and now she is.

Torrey (19:55.972)
I agree. Or maybe better overall. Let's be honest. mean, let's just call it the obvious, right? Say the quiet part out loud. 100%.

Torrey (20:20.971)
Yeah, yeah. But or hitting ceiling, whichever, whichever may be the case. But this is a great, a great surface to showcase her serve and her shot making ability, you know, and a good opponent and quite frankly, good for a back end as well to return serve, right? And have some of these bigger players watching that, watching the McNally's, this Viontik match earlier. I just still realize how and don't get me wrong, McNally's got great all court game, but you just realize if you don't have a big enough serve, the

Alvin Owusu (20:29.501)
Right.

Torrey (20:50.852)
but the stronger returner holds the advantage. And so it'd be good to see in this match with Towson and Rebecca, you know, who both concern to kind of at least test the returner a little bit. You know what I mean? So there's about, there's a bunch of returning types out there. Jazz and Paolini being the prototype, right? Of that play that can just absolutely rip you a new one with the return, but necessarily can't serve you off the court either. They're just banking on your return not being.

as effective as their return. And they're served holding one more time than yours, where these two girls are, which used to be the model of the WTA, now it's not so much. The underdogs on top a little more, shout out to 50 Cent, is a little more out there with that type.

Alvin Owusu (21:35.366)
I came across this video today and they were explaining some of the things about Wimbledon and one of them had to do with the surface itself, talking about the conditions. And so every day they measure the hardness of the surface. kind of long story short, from the beginning of the tournament to the end of the tournament, the surface gets about 25 to 30 % harder.

Torrey (21:44.832)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (21:49.026)
Oh wow, I didn't know that.

Torrey (22:01.551)
I can see that. Higher, for sure.

Alvin Owusu (22:01.675)
which means the bounces get higher. So when you start to think about players who would do better with a higher bounce.

Torrey (22:11.478)
Right. That explains a lot of our last 15, 20 champions to be honest with you, you know, no offense to pass champs, but that shows you how, you know, back in the day where it was more of a, as you call it, a server's paradise back in the day where now, because the serve, the ball just didn't come up. seemed like back in the day. And now I feel like.

Alvin Owusu (22:28.842)
Yeah. Well, they changed the 100 % perennial rye in 2001, so that was kind of the thing that muted the speed in the beginning, but then dries out, increases the rise in the end.

Torrey (22:36.546)
Hmm.

Torrey (22:42.654)
Right, right. Which in the second week allows for more ground shore rallies. Right. Were they speaking of it in a negative way as in they may go change back? Is the con got it? Sure.

Alvin Owusu (22:48.242)
Right, exactly, exactly. Nope, was just the video was just kind of like detailing some of the process that the grounds crew goes through over the course of the 12 month period and how they have to rip everything out at the end of the tournament and re-soil, re-side the whole deal. was just, when that part came up, I was like, you know who that would really help? Someone like an Iga Suyatek who doesn't typically get there, but if she were to get there,

Torrey (23:12.117)
Yeah, right. Yep, it becomes more suitable to her given skills. Sure, for sure.

Alvin Owusu (23:18.035)
Right?

Exactly, exactly. that's just like a little, okay, something to consider. Something to consider.

Torrey (23:26.242)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Put it back and put it put in the tickler file and realize that for later. I'm with you. 100 percent.

Alvin Owusu (23:34.346)
Yeah, you wanted to talk a little bit about, I guess we're almost down here to the end of this draw. Not really, I haven't seen much of Danielle's tournament at all. I don't know where she is with her tennis. mean, I she's, I mean, she beat Camila Osorio and then she took out a qualifier.

I don't know where her game is right now, but she's here and her and matches are typically, you know, highly competitive, if you will, and involved and engaging. So at least that'll be fun. That's a nice little section right there. Like the winner to play against the winner of Towson Rebecca. Yeah, I mean, probably Ega, probably, probably.

Torrey (24:03.04)
Yup, yup, yup, yup.

Torrey (24:11.638)
Yeah.

Torrey (24:17.407)
Yeah, I would say a very strong probable. You know, just because she's playing well right now and looking solid and to be quite frank, had it not been for McNally's volleys and all court game, stealing some points and crucial points and momentum, Egas passing like she's literally got targets on the court and her returns are always solid and their serves pretty good. I felt like Katie played as good as she could have played and to take it three, right? To take it three. And I felt like

Alvin Owusu (24:20.404)
Probably, yeah.

She's playing well right now.

Alvin Owusu (24:42.556)
Right. And we stole a set. She got a set.

Torrey (24:46.657)
I felt like Ega, watching that match, Ega shifted gears in the second set, like, okay, let's go to level two. And started just, I mean, just started hitting that inside and backhand on the deuce like, like there was no tomorrow. I mean, it was just like, oof, you just knew that there was an extra, an extra 10 miles an hour, an extra eight foot of depth. And she was inside the court an extra foot and a half. And it was just like, you know, now you got my attention, you know, and,

Alvin Owusu (24:53.022)
Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (25:13.194)
Yeah, I turned that match on and I was like, I saw the first set score and I was like, Jesus, am I gonna have to issue another apology to Katie McNally? Foot in mouth, the whole deal and then, yeah, Iga just turned on the burners and like settled in and it's like, okay, now it's one way traffic and Ziggy texted me, he was watching the match well and he's like, yeah, she just doesn't have enough ump, she can't hurt her. Yeah.

Torrey (25:20.072)
Yeah.

Torrey (25:29.568)
It

Torrey (25:33.792)
You're right, can't hurt her, can't hurt her. And let me say this again, one of the better backs I've seen Katie McNally play in a long time. And that's not to say that she's not a good player on the grass. Her volleys that are coming forward were superb. I mean, she played, she made a couple of, I'd probably say she made probably 10 to 15 open court volleys that Sir Pete Sampras would have been proud of. And be like, wow.

Nice. mean, just had the hands, the feel, the feather on the low backhand volley, open court. She just, just so, nice to see and incompetent the grass itself. The grass gods, you know, thanked her for her performance today, but she played against one of the best pastors of all time. And so that's just, that's just a tough matchup. So anyway, that's what I saw.

Alvin Owusu (26:03.156)
She's got that. She's got that for sure.

Alvin Owusu (26:15.976)
Right? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (26:20.278)
I'm kind of moving on down to the last, the bottom half of that quarter here. Kazakina versus Sam Sonova. I feel like I watched Sam Sonova play against Rabakina in, as a grass court event, maybe right the first one right after the French Open. And I thought to myself, no, sorry, was, whatever. It was either right before the French Open or right after the French Open. And I thought to myself, she's due.

Torrey (26:26.236)
Yes, Sim Sondwa. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (26:49.128)
Like Ludmila is due to pop one of these. And I feel like coming out of this, you know, the bottom half of this quarter, she could slash should be right there. Like she's got everything. She's got everything except for like maybe the willingness to be bold in big moments, which will often bite you in the butt. But yeah, that's just, that's.

Torrey (26:49.408)
Mm.

Alvin Owusu (27:16.82)
That's my take on that particular matchup. I like to think that she takes care of Daria, Kazakina, again Kazakina, fantastic hands, super heady. I just feel like once she gets to a certain limit where she doesn't have the pop, right, yeah.

Torrey (27:30.079)
Same thing, not right, the ceiling, the glass ceiling is right there. I just don't see the pop a lot like a McNally, but maybe a little more ground stroke heavy, but a lot, but if anything, maybe a little stronger off the ground and not as, and not maybe not as good around the net, but still no slouch. If there was a 60-40, she's a 40-60, right? In that scheme of things. again, I'm with you. Ironically on this surface, I would give it to Samsonova, you know, just because of her.

just a little more firepower, a little flatter of a ball and a little bit more, just a little more penetration and almost because of her lack of transition that I've seen and I haven't seen Daria play a ton, but I would gotta think the matches I have watched, some Son of Us depth power and if she's coming forward at all to close out, that will give Daria some fits.

Alvin Owusu (28:17.437)
Yeah, agreed. Jastrzymska, had a tough one today. deep into the, she ended up winning, think 10-8 in the match breaker in the third set. Fist of Fire. I feel, I'm gonna keep an eye on her. Just keep an eye on her. That's it, that's all I got.

Torrey (28:29.791)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (28:39.935)
Yep. Yep. I agree with you on that one. I agree with you on that one. You know, you gotta look at who has she played, played so far and we're in this tournament. The carnage has been so much the highlight that other players have kind of been, I used the term earlier, Bobbin and we even a little bit to kind of avoid, you know, some of these upsets. And now we're getting into the real business end of the actual round three, round four and round 16 because now you're left with the shock.

who's weathered the storm, right? And who can actually kind of play through in these moments to your point about the surface hard enough and maybe bounce getting a little bigger. So, but a lot of the people you would have matched up, you would have thought you'd be matching up against have now changed. And so the other little small factor here, Alvin, is many of these players are not seated. So you haven't played them before. So now you get that little element of, haven't seen this player in a while. I don't know this guy to match on this, but I haven't played him. And so that could be an interesting, especially if they're

Alvin Owusu (29:30.854)
Right, yeah.

Torrey (29:38.642)
you know, if they're starting to actually turn on, you I'm looking at Coach Areta and a few others that you haven't seen this player before, you know, how is Belinda gonna take care of that? She hadn't played, probably played Elizabeth that many times. don't know if Elizabeth has gotten that far into a grand slam before up until this point in time. So how do you scout what you haven't seen, right? So those are some things that I look at and I'm like, that could be just the, you're not sure. You know, we just saw what happened with Lois Boisson in the French.

Alvin Owusu (29:56.36)
Right.

Torrey (30:07.294)
I don't think anybody had seen her play before, both between her being hurt and not making some of the main draws. So she's a complete, the English term, spatter in the works, because you don't know. So I think there's a little bit of that still hanging around in terms of that could just trip you up a little bit if you're not having one of your best days. And so that's gonna be nice to see.

Alvin Owusu (30:29.908)
Yeah, all right, let's pop over to the gentleman's singles. I mean, I don't wanna talk about center. We'll talk about him later. We'll talk about him next week. He's like, what carnage? I'm the carnage. I bring the carnage.

Torrey (30:35.048)
Sure.

Torrey (30:40.367)
Yeah, was almost an automaton today, wasn't he?

Torrey (30:47.006)
I wouldn't watch them. I wouldn't watch them. What happened? Anybody lose? Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, like I'm in my lane. You know what I mean? Right. When all that happened. Who lost? Seed's having trouble? Oh, wow. That's a shame.

Alvin Owusu (30:50.804)
Yeah. Yeah. Huh.

I was hitting on center court. What do you, what's going on?

Yeah, exactly. Geez. That's cute. Offner taking out Tommy today. mean, this is the grass court of things, Like, guys like rank the bucks 65 in the world, right? And looked like he had been here like every year. Like this is normal. This is normal. Yeah, I got this. This is fine. Not a problem.

Torrey (31:24.282)
All day. Right. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (31:29.026)
like just looked like he belonged, like I'm beating Tommy Paul because I should be Tommy Paul.

Torrey (31:31.762)
Yeah. Right, right. A lot like Rinne Kinesh did against Vera. You're right, looked very comfortable. Looked almost too comfortable, you know.

Alvin Owusu (31:43.122)
I mean even Runicrash, Runicrash, I buy it because he is like, mean Runicrash is top 50 player, like he's good, he has been here.

Torrey (31:48.891)
Right. Right. No, no, no doubt. My point is, but being number three in the world, like he should is what I'm saying. I was going up a level, but same mentality that Sebastian had against Tommy. Look, I'm going to yard right here. And this is why I love Wimbledon so much because it, it favors the player with that type of game. Not so much the ranking, not so much the history and not so much, you know, what you did, Hey, ain't nobody got time for that. You know what mean? What?

Alvin Owusu (31:55.721)
Yeah.

Torrey (32:18.461)
can you do on the grass? And again, I thought that was, it was a heck of a match. You know, I feel bad for Tommy, you know, I feel bad for this wellness American being in the draw. But again, you know, Sebastian, Sebastian was like, hey, check please. You know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (32:35.729)
It's the polar opposite of what we saw for eight weeks on the clay surface, which I'm not gonna complain about it because balance is a good thing. Balance is good thing. Yeah, yeah, mean we just had this chalk women's and men's semifinal matchups, all top four seeds made the semis on both sides. Is that what was? No, where is it?

Torrey (32:42.471)
Yeah. 100%.

Torrey (32:51.493)
Right. Brought balance to the force, Alvin. Wimbledon is bringing balance to the force.

Torrey (33:03.536)
Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (33:05.961)
Was that the record that was broken? Something like that. Something like that, it didn't really matter. But now here we're in the space where it's the complete opposite, crap's falling from the sky. Yeah, and like you said, this is the surface where to a certain extent your ranking does not matter. It is game style compatibility. And Sebastian has it now. Grigor, I'm just.

I just want Grigore to finish the tournament. I don't care how he does.

Torrey (33:35.738)
Yeah, and not add to that very shady stat class he's leading in right now.

Alvin Owusu (33:40.755)
four straight Grand Slams and he is, that he is not finished. Not finished. I just want him to finish. Gurgor, just finish the tournament. Just finish the drill. Please, please my brother, please. That's what we all need.

Torrey (33:43.388)
Yeah.

Yep. I'm with you. I'm with you. Just finish the drill, right? I'm with you. And he did well. I wanna, if I can, skip down to another senior citizen plan, a plan of senior citizens, so to speak, with Dan Evans and Novak. And I don't wanna spend much time on it. I wanna say this.

Alvin Owusu (34:05.542)
Ooooo

Alvin Owusu (34:11.261)
Okay, okay.

Torrey (34:13.733)
And Alvin, I'm a one-hander. I love my slice. And I watched Dan out there today and I've seen Dan play some good tennis. I'm a fan of Dan Evans. One of my good friends, his buddy's back in England, used to coach, worked with Dan Evans. So I got Will Wright, my buddy, you remember Will, Will's buddy, worked with Dan for a number of years over in England. You heard it right here. Love Dan Evans. And I was expecting a few more fireworks. It looked like.

Alvin Owusu (34:29.897)
Yeah, I'll shut the wheel.

Torrey (34:40.636)
Dan was trying to bring the slice backhand back from 19, you know, from the 1987. He was, and I'm telling you, and Novak not only saw him one and raised him one with a certain volley, but it looked like Dan, I think it's Dan's 41, I he's one looked up, I he's 41. Number 39. I'm pretty sure, Dan's, I think Dan's a year, who was a year too old of the Novak.

Alvin Owusu (35:02.013)
No way he's that old. No way. No way Dan's that old.

Torrey (35:08.88)
but maybe 40, I looked up the other day, but you heard it right here. Novak looked like he was 27th. Again, in this match, just saying.

Alvin Owusu (35:18.089)
Okay, maybe Dan's game style just made you think he was in his 40s, because he's 35. He's still old though. he is

Torrey (35:23.228)
35. He looked, he looked 45.

Alvin Owusu (35:28.003)
Yeah, he's, he is, he is definitely one of the, he's a sixth oldest player of the draw or something like that. there's, there aren't many older, there aren't many older. God, yeah, Novak just flexed on him. was bad.

Torrey (35:38.821)
dude. No, Novak made it. Novak made him look like you might want to consider making this your last one.

Alvin Owusu (35:47.859)
Call it a day, Danny. Just call it a day, Danny.

Torrey (35:49.477)
just saying, hey, thanks for playing. That's all I'm saying. And that leads me to my next older player who looked about as frisky and about, I've never seen Marin Csillac had that go to footwork and I've watched Marin Csillac play a lot of matches. Alvin, his footwork looks better now than it looked when he won the US Open some years ago. I was like, I was like, who is Marin been working with on the footwork because he absolutely

Alvin Owusu (36:10.345)
I'm getting goosebumps. Mare looks amazing. Amazing.

Torrey (36:19.159)
I thought it would be a tough matchup. I knew that we talked about that. I just told you I didn't like that matchup. I didn't like it at all. I said I had to go with game style and I had to give it to Chillich, but I was deep down hoping Draper would just prove, know, kind of give the old middle finger to all the all England club and all that for the shady draw they gave him. And I'm gonna tell you right now, he did good to take it four. He did good. Chillich was playing that well. my God, he's playing that well.

Alvin Owusu (36:36.691)
He had nothing. He had nothing for him.

Alvin Owusu (36:47.049)
Chiles woke up and he was like, you know what? It feels like 2017 out here. Let's play some grass court tennis. Like, Jits looked like he owned the place.

Torrey (36:56.472)
man hitting his backhand big, which he always does, hitting his forehand clean, moving forward, going behind the guy, served well. Even when he wasn't serving huge, he managed his first serve better, hit his spots. he wasn't, the old chiller was banging, was just hitting, was bringing heat at all times. And this new chiller had a lot of good kicks, had a lot of good shots, was going to the body a lot, a lot of kicks to the backhand, but he was owning the forehand, owning the forehand. And I...

Alvin Owusu (37:01.712)
Served great. It just...

Alvin Owusu (37:06.227)
Hitting spots.

Torrey (37:23.8)
You're right here. I have never been so inspired to see a player on the older side play that good tennis. was, I absolutely was, I was impressed. I think is the, is the only word I can say. I'm impressed doesn't fully speak to the emotion that I felt watching it.

Alvin Owusu (37:34.825)
Well put.

Alvin Owusu (37:43.093)
I mean this is a place where there's so much value and experience on the surface. Older players can, if you've played one more than 10 times, you're much better off than someone who's played it twice. That's just kinda, I mean obviously he's a very capable grass court player, he's played this event before. But he was out there, I've got all of this under control. I have all of this, I have a plan.

Torrey (38:03.63)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (38:11.882)
I'm gonna execute this plan. The guy on the other side of the court really can't hurt me. And it looked like that for...

Torrey (38:17.754)
But to do that at 36, almost 37 years old, Alvin, that's what I'm saying. We're not talking about 31. We're not talking about maybe 32, 33. We're talking about 36, almost 37 years old. Alvin, the guy plays ball, buddy. mean, the guy just, he looked eight years younger, Alvin. Just saying. I mean, I could not, I just.

Alvin Owusu (38:37.384)
Yeah, yeah, I'm with you.

Torrey (38:43.245)
As an elder statesman myself, I appreciate the footwork more now than I ever did because I realized how much energy it takes out of you. But to see the elder statesman just out move the younger, the young whippersnapper. I'm gonna have to tell you, I was just, I was taken aback and I was also brought back to an old element of it's footwork, Alvin, it's footwork. At the end of the day, it's footwork. Either you can move or you can't. And that's what I saw today. know, just, it's just that simple.

Alvin Owusu (39:11.102)
Let me ask you this, as you bring up footwork. I heard a coach once mention that we should be working on our footwork every day. So what does that look like? So let's say you're not a junior player who is under the coach's guidance four to five, six times a week. Let's say you are an adult player or you're a recreational player, whatever it may be. What does it look like to work on one's footwork and even if you're not on the tennis court?

Torrey (39:21.216)
every day.

Torrey (39:39.514)
I different for different stages of your game for sure. I'll give you a good example. We had this come today and in group today, I've got a small high performance group at the, at the country club that I'm working at. And I've got a few, got one players, not quite a 10 UTR. Got a few players that are, you know, eights, seven, sixes, good players, by the way, good players. And it's not, not necessarily top national, but very good. got a couple, I got two of the players are.

are going to clays this weekend and so on. So I got some good players. They're not there. They're certainly not certainly very good. I don't know if they are possible champs of the Supernat, but certainly good to be in the draw and doing well and good luck to all the players this weekend. I had a young lady who I'm working with, young girl who I've been on her case strong album because you remember my main man, Jeff Clark from back in the day. And Clark was one of those players that didn't move.

Alvin Owusu (40:09.774)
nice.

Alvin Owusu (40:32.075)
yeah, yeah, Georgetown's finest.

Torrey (40:36.181)
Alvin, you know, I I rode him like Roy Rogers road trigger. I I rode him strong and we finally got Jeff to buy into moving. Well, I had the young female version of Jeff Clark and it was so funny to me because I had, she's about 13 and so I had Alyssa watch these three other players. I have a young girl who's very, very talented, young player. Michael Spruill who's 14 and I had.

Alvin Owusu (40:43.274)
You

Torrey (41:03.577)
Another girl, young girls going to clays this weekend, Shaili Dodia. And I was helping her to watch. Okay. This is a 14. This is a 15 year old. This is a 17 year old. And I want you to see the difference in their, we were talking about volleys. I said, the better player will volley better. But they, this reason isn't the volleys. It's their footwork. I said, if you can land four steps before you make a volley, you got great volleys.

We're talking about a split step. If you're good enough, a double split step, a little hop back, hop forward, and then be able to land your feet and be able to let your body become the wall, right? You know that, I know that, but to do it is hard, right?

Michael's a very athletic 14 year old, uses her hands too much all the way out. Very good out, out wide. Doesn't always take the steps she needs to, but she can make some good shots when she hits the wall well. And then Shailie got to the volleys. Shailie's been up, she's mid seven, not quite a hot, not quite a eight, a UTR and very good doubles player. And you just saw precision at the net way more than you saw it before. I started going back to my old roots of

footwork, because I was, as you remember, more of a footwork and conditioning and street fishing coach. And I started saying, you know what? I've got to get back to this more because at the end of the day, I just have to demand that more. You talk about long winded answer to answer your question. Simple answer. Move more. Take, if you can take four steps, take it. If you can take six, take it. The only way you know you can, you have the ball.

You're inside the court you've taken six steps. The only way you can defend is you've taken four steps in stride. And if you had to take two or three, you're probably slicing or in the words of my main man Walter Sopcich, you're out of your element and you are not quite in the mix. Adults take more steps. Juniors take way more steps. And if you're a pretty good player, you already know this, don't get lazy. Don't let your stroke.

Alvin Owusu (42:56.874)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (43:02.218)
you

Torrey (43:09.899)
have to make up for your bad footwork. And I think that's really what it comes down to. I've watched Center now for the last year, Alvin. And I'm convinced the one thing he does better than everybody else is footwork. You take the footwork away, you take the footwork away from Yannick Center, he's a hunter in the world. With his footwork, he is a tough matchup for everybody, including Carlos. And Carlos might be the complete package.

Alvin Owusu (43:21.896)
He's always in position. He's always in position.

Torrey (43:37.833)
I don't think that Yannick has that many true, true weapons. I think his footwork gives him the best possible look at every shot and therefore he has weapons.

Alvin Owusu (43:45.972)
Well that makes a lot of sense that that allows him to the repeatability, right? That he doesn't have these horrible days because you can always bank on footwork.

Torrey (43:50.719)
Repeatability, for sure, for sure.

Alvin and he has it in spades and Alvin I'm telling you and the guy's footwork just never takes off a point. Answer your question footwork. Second answer footwork. Third answer.

Alvin Owusu (44:14.132)
Footwork, that's footwork, that's footwork. know, and interesting, not related to that, but you brought up Center. We've talked about this a few times, you know, with players, how players are, how the men's game's adjusting, how it's changing, right? know, Casper and Stefanos have mentioned that the game is changing, it's changed while they've been on tour, right?

Torrey (44:14.241)
Footwork. Move more.

Torrey (44:36.66)
I agree with that.

Alvin Owusu (44:37.674)
And I've always liked to bring up like, Alcara's he's 21, 22, whatever he is, but he won his first US Open four years ago. So there are players who are now on tour who grew up in juniors when he was first sitting in the scene, got a chance to watch him and start to pull from the pros and that's what they're pulling from, Guy Alcara's, you see it in Fonseca, you see a lot in Minsic, you see it in Feast to a certain extent. Actually, yeah, guarantee you see it in Feast.

Torrey (44:41.878)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (45:07.614)
The guy, the qualifier that Alcaraz played in the second round, Tarvit. I saw a lot of, mean the guy's young. I saw a lot of, I've been watching Alcaraz on TV for the last four or five years of my life as an impressionable teenager. It's just like a poor man's Carlos out there, sliding into backhands, tagging him. Now playing Carlos, yeah. so I'm like, but I say that too, we always talk about like who is coming, like what's.

Torrey (45:19.851)
Right, right. Sure.

Sure, Now playing Carlos. Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (45:36.884)
how much runway do center and Alcaraz have? Like is anyone gonna challenge them? It always happens. Just wait. Someone who you have never heard of is going to pop up. They might win Orange Bowl this year. And in two years, might be giving Alcaraz fits in the second or third round of this event. Like it happens fast.

Torrey (45:43.851)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

Torrey (45:55.914)
Sure, happens all the time. It happened for Alcares, right? It happened for Nadal. happened, Nadal was that player with Moya and so on and so on. you you're absolutely right. And that's what's so fun about the game. It's heartless in that way. Like it doesn't give you any extra credit for being a veteran at the same time. If you're putting in the work, it rewards you. You know what I mean? And it's, no, you're absolutely right. And I was happy to see Tavet get through his first round. was a big moment for him and his family.

You know, obviously at the same time, now you go play Alcaraz. You know what I mean? It's like, oof. You know, and at the same time, it looked like Tarbet was happy. That was, and he even said, matching my life. Like he thought that he won the lottery. You know what I mean? And that's what even made it more special because those of us, you know, that know and appreciate that you'll play your whole life to hope you get a chance to play.

Alvin Owusu (46:38.088)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (46:51.579)
on the big stage against one of the world's best. And if you really love it, man, and I was so, I was happy for him, know, just so happy that he had that moment, whatever he does in tennis, he's had, you can't take that from him.

Alvin Owusu (46:53.876)
mean, he's...

Alvin Owusu (47:04.938)
I mean, British kid, I think he was 17, 18 years old, something like that, qualified, won a round, and now he's playing against Alcaraz on center court at his home slam. Like, yeah, you take that. You take that 10 times out of 10. Yeah. Since we're down here, Chucky's got Struff in the next round. That Struff is the...

Torrey (47:14.495)
Yeah. You take it all day. Take that all day.

Torrey (47:24.403)
That darned struff. Told you, told you that was going to be a tough matchup for Felix. I knew it.

Alvin Owusu (47:31.752)
Yeah, Shreff is just solid. Like he's just solid. That's what beats Felix. Solid will beat Felix.

Torrey (47:34.398)
Hey, solid. And that solid beats Felix, That's unfortunately the MO, it? That's the, Anyway, I do. Because Felix is that player that I just kept hoping would continue to improve and turn the corner. I have a confession to make. I have the same sneaking suspicion about Arthur Fees and I'm just fighting it with everything I have in my being.

Alvin Owusu (47:44.958)
Hate to see it.

Torrey (48:03.19)
that I just hope he continues to punch through. Felix looked unbeatable when he was coming on the scene, had some great wins, was coming through. You just thought he was gonna continue to put it together, come forward, get bigger, get better, take moments when he had a chance. And unfortunately right now it looks like he's going the other way. And again, he's had a great career. But, and not say that we're putting dirt on the coffin. You know what saying? It just seems like the ceiling has been reached and he's going the other way. That's all I'm gonna say. But I...

Alvin Owusu (48:05.802)
Huh.

Alvin Owusu (48:11.19)
I was there, I was there.

Torrey (48:29.973)
You hate to see a guy with as big a service as he is as good of a mover as he is to go out. What was the second round? I guess the guy like Shroof because it just says that, you know, he doesn't command that level of intimidation. Uh, can't hold serve as well as he would like to think he can with this biggest service he has. And from uncle Tony and who, the Canadian federation, it just doesn't seem like anyone's been able to get through to Felix. He's taken from the Sasha's Vare of school.

of tennis, I'm going to call it tennis game management. He's still hoping for the mistake. He's not going to take it from you. He's going to want you to give it to him a little bit. He'll play big at big moments, but make no mistake.

Alvin Owusu (49:07.199)
Hmm

Alvin Owusu (49:12.971)
And the difference being that he's also not as steady as Sasha. I guess Sasha can game manage against the vast majority of players, because he won't miss. But Felix, his rally tolerance isn't as high as Sasha's. that's a bad, if you're waiting for someone to miss, and you tend to shake forehands every once in a while, then like, ugh.

Torrey (49:21.053)
Right, because he won't miss balls. Right, he won't miss balls, 100%.

Torrey (49:31.679)
and you miss.

Torrey (49:35.256)
But it's not even the shake forehand. I on grass you're gonna shake a forehand. You know what saying. I'm talking about Felix's inability to take one, to just hit the step up and come forward, to hit the big four. He'll come forward when he has to and he has good, again, he has good volleys, Alvin. And we're not talking about a guy that doesn't have volleys. He has everything. He has everything. And that's what's so frustrating to watch is you're like, come on, bro. He's tall, Alvin. He's 5'10".

Alvin Owusu (49:38.441)
I'm not even talking about on grass. I was just talking about like in general.

Alvin Owusu (49:54.805)
He has everything. He has everything.

Alvin Owusu (50:03.786)
He has everything except for, but he doesn't have it. He does not have the makeup of a true champion. that's almost everything at that point. Yeah, I don't even know if he thinks, does he come across as a tennis thinker, if you will?

Torrey (50:05.199)
Everything and I'm like, if I had hair I'd be pulling it out It doesn't have everything

Torrey (50:18.653)
Yeah.

Torrey (50:28.005)
I'd even say maybe an over thinker, but certainly not, certainly not a guy that's going to take it from you and serve you off the court. He'll hold serve because you'll miss a return. He won't serve you out and serve for the match as often as he should for what he has. And that's all. Yeah. We don't need to give him too much, too much air time. It was unfortunate. And quite frankly, I was just, I was disappointed. Not disappointed in the match. Disappointed, Shroofe's a good player. Shroofe's a very good player. I was disappointed that Felix did not

bring a little bit extra to the table for what it is, especially at this stage in his career. You know what mean? Let's face it, you are going the other way around. And a year from now, Alvin, going out too many second round slams, you are 60, 70, 80 in the world. You're no longer a seed. And now you got to make up some serious ground and some 500s and knock off two or three seeds in a 1000 just to get back to where you were, let alone, and no one wants to lose. No one's trying to lose. Look at that. We all understand that.

Alvin Owusu (51:11.275)
Yeah, it's Yeah, it's you. You're that guy. That's 35 who's

Torrey (51:27.431)
But it just seems like Stroof would have been a good win for him to kind of sharpen up his tools to go for the next one. And unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

Alvin Owusu (51:32.744)
Yeah, for sure.

Not gonna happen. wanna give an opportunity, I wanna talk about Andrei Rublev for here for a second. I know I said I wasn't gonna talk about Andrei Rublev again until I, I said I wouldn't talk about him until he warranted talking about, he has warranted speaking about, He's playing Mannerito third round. But less about that, more he was giving an interview on tennis channel after his match against Lloyd Harris. Love Lloyd Harris' game, by the way. I'm glad to see Lloyd back.

Torrey (51:40.487)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (51:44.689)
It's okay to bring up in a positive experience. It's okay to talk about Andre.

Okay, and he's wanted something. I love it. I love it.

Torrey (52:04.167)
Yeah, yeah. I think I caught some of this with, and my girl Martina was there.

Alvin Owusu (52:11.133)
Okay, yeah, and he was talking about what has helped him kind of like, yeah, and he said Murad has been the biggest help in helping him with some of the mental issues that he's been fighting with over the last few years, and he says Murad's extremely hard on him, strict, yeah. so it's like, we talked about that when that partnership was announced, and it was like, you mentioned it was like Big Brother, Little Brother kind of situation, but like,

Torrey (52:12.327)
Same one, yeah. And what Safin's doing for him. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I saw that.

Torrey (52:29.125)
Yeah, strictly cold. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (52:36.445)
Yeah.

Yep.

Alvin Owusu (52:40.145)
it seems like it's more like uncle and nephew, like in the best possible way. So like that's, know, forget the results, like it seems like they found the right kind of like, the right like Carlos and Juan Carlos, right? Like this is the person that I need in my life to keep me in line and help me be the best version of myself.

Torrey (52:43.165)
Yeah.

as possible since I know exactly what you mean.

Torrey (52:51.997)
Chemistry for what's going on. 100%.

Torrey (52:59.675)
right? Exactly what I need right now with where I am in life. You could not be more disciplined than Juan Carlos Ferrerro. Vahealy beat Juan Carlos Alvin back in Indian Wells some years back. I remember watching Juan Carlos at Brian Vahealy, USDA Brian Vahealy beat Juan Carlos back in the day. I got to think it's I'm going back Alvin. This has got to be like four or five give or take in that range.

Alvin Owusu (53:15.455)
Brian Behaley, USDA president Brian Behaley? yeah, I like that guy.

Torrey (53:28.954)
Maybe, maybe, maybe 03, 04 in that range, but I'm dating myself. But I remember watching the guy the year too later now, Scos at the US Open playing. And I remember him playing a tough four or five set match. again, trying to get there early, to beat Serena to court P5 over there, which never happened. And who's in there already on the bike? Juan Carlos Ferrerro. I told you about that match when we walked by and Juan Carlos was doing two on ones.

Alvin Owusu (53:57.375)
Doing two in one's, yeah.

Torrey (53:58.628)
And then we came back and there was two new guys ready to two on ones because the old guy, the other two got tired. This is the one Carlos on an off day, get ready for the final against, against South by the way. And I just say that maybe it was a semi the bottom line. that was all four. But I say it to say there was nobody more disciplined, nobody more in shape. Right. And so how about a person like that to be in Carlos's corner? So that's my point. Sometimes, you know, you don't even realize that level of, Hey,

I think Lindell did that for Murray. Let's be honest. You know what I mean? As far as, so that level of professionalism, here's things you can control. Here's things you can do, know, forget what happened to me. Here's what I learned from it, you know, and here's what I'm gonna help you do. And if I had to go back and do it again, I'd do more of this. You know, I don't think anybody was in more finals and lost a few than Ivan Lindell. And no one was in better shape. He was one of the players like Martina with the women. He was one of

Alvin Owusu (54:29.043)
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (54:52.788)
we brought fitness to the game.

Torrey (54:53.115)
players in the men's tour that brought fitness to the forefront, right? So anyway, I had to say, I'm happy for Safin. Martina even said, well, he wasn't the trick with himself. So he's being a trick with you. And I think she was one of the few people in the world that could say that to Safin because she knew it. And she wasn't putting it in a bad way. By the way, love Martina, love her insights, love how real she can be. Wish there was more Martina and less Tracy Austin and others, you know what saying? Don't be started.

Alvin Owusu (55:08.765)
Right.

Torrey (55:22.561)
I love Martina and I love how she brought it up and loved how Andre was speaking so, I'm gonna say, solid and positive about his new coach and mentor. And I thought that was, it was just a great moment, I thought, and it's helped Andre. Andre, she asked him, Where were you looking for help? He says, everywhere. It was like, and he said, it was never the tennis. He said, I love the tennis.

Alvin Owusu (55:48.066)
Search it. I'm searching

Torrey (55:51.599)
He says, but it was just me. And I was in the dog's place. Right.

Alvin Owusu (55:52.992)
That was also really nice to hear, that he truly loves tennis, which I think is something that is lost and overlooked a lot. If you're gonna make this, you're living, and you're gonna go through the ups and downs. I he's been a perennial top 10 player for a while, but if you're gonna be able to get through these bad spells, these tough spells, you do have to truly love this game. sometimes you can see that that's not always present with players. But it's just fantastic to hear him speak.

Torrey (56:07.845)
Right.

Torrey (56:11.686)
Right?

Right.

Torrey (56:21.905)
Oh, I almost shed a tear when I saw him in there and be comfortable being vulnerable to say it. You know what I mean? I was so proud of Andre when I saw that moment and I was gonna mention that to you. Again, I like Mehdi. I love Mehdi. I've loved his dry humor and all the things he brings to the table. I've always loved Andre Rublev and always felt like if he just got a few things right, he could turn the corner and.

Alvin Owusu (56:23.115)
from a place of passion about the sport.

Alvin Owusu (56:31.608)
yeah.

Torrey (56:52.216)
I've coached kids like, much lesser, but I've coached kids like Andre that you just hoped that they got their mind right, they were gonna be all right. And just, he is the quintessential kid that I've coached that I just hope they get their mind right. Right, you know what I'm saying? You would be four tomorrow and you'd have a shot to be number one. And that's a big ask. Maybe mine was 14 in the country. And verse four too, but same thing. Shout out to my boy, Morgan, if you're watching.

Alvin Owusu (57:01.515)
Yeah, just at 14 in the world you just get your mind right

Alvin Owusu (57:18.783)
Yeah, that's exactly who I was thinking of too. That's exactly how I was thinking of. Yeah.

Torrey (57:21.506)
You know what I'm saying? Because Morgan was my Andre Rubeloff. You know what I mean? He was my 14th in the country. You know, right there. And you know what? I've had beers with Eric. We're talking now. He's in a good place. So shout out to Eric if you're watching.

Alvin Owusu (57:33.983)
Yeah, I ran into him at the Atlanta Open last year, the year before. Yeah, was good to see him.

Torrey (57:37.553)
There you go. So like I said, I say that, you exactly what I'm talking about. Those are the kind of players where, you you saw them fight their, you know, their demons. You saw them go through whatever it was. You saw the game, you saw the potential, you know, at 14, what can you see? You know what I mean? You can't see himself. And he's in a good place right now and happy for him. And he's just a great person now and happy to see that he still loves to play. anyway, long story. thank you for bringing that up. That was a great point about.

Alvin Owusu (58:04.799)
Let's.

Yeah, can I just, bouncing back up here in the draw. Okay, so at some point in time, the Yalfonseca thing that we've all been talking about has to manifest in a grand slam. Right, is this it? Like he's got a nice little path here. He's got a nice little path. think Nico Jari is a, yeah, I think Nico might, Nico's got sort of the best match of his life, I think, to get through this one. And he's got.

Torrey (58:15.972)
Yeah, it's starting to Yeah, starting to materialize it.

Torrey (58:31.034)
Tough one. Tough one, four.

Alvin Owusu (58:37.951)
This is where the qualifiers who are making this run into the third round, fourth round start to take on a little bit of like, okay, the match count's starting to show. mean, granted, he's gotten through the last few matches. He went five with Holger, made quick work of learning TN. So maybe he's okay, but he hasn't been under this kind of pressure. Mr. Frontsec is bringing pressure.

Torrey (58:41.999)
Bye.

Torrey (58:46.916)
Yeah.

Torrey (59:00.814)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (59:04.617)
He was coming in like a banshee against Brooksby.

Torrey (59:09.393)
Had to, first of all. Second of all, Nico Jerry has been here before. I like this matchup in general for the, this is gonna sound crazy. There was an old cartoon series called the Thundercats back in the day. Lionel had to get through all of the other Thundercats to approve his.

Alvin Owusu (59:10.451)
Yeah, I love to see it. That's what the service calls for.

Alvin Owusu (59:27.627)
Yeah, I remember Thundercats.

Torrey (59:36.609)
metal, right? To be the leader of the Thundercats, he had to get through. He had to be stronger than Panthro, he had to be faster than Chitara, so on and so on, right? I say that to say, this is a great match for Yao either way. If Nico gets him, it shows him what he needs to work on. And if he gets through Nico, it shows how far he's come. It's simply a matter of will he do it now or will he do it next year? I'm quietly hoping for Nico because Nico, again,

Like a Chilean Felix has had his chances and he's hit his ceiling and now he's on the other side. But it's one of those matches where I look forward to Yao learning from it either way. My problem album, and this is my problem with sports in general, and I hate to take this quick tangent. We are so quick to dawn, pin the hopes of the new upstart that we don't appreciate

all that that player has to learn.

take on and quite frankly, repeatedly execute often before they're ready to do so. Where it's quick to give a shoot contract to the young next upstart before they've really proven themselves. Now we got a young player who's starting to, in a sense, earn the hype that he or she in this case Yao has been given. And we got to understand the other guys aren't going to just give it to them.

Yes, it has to be taken, but in that taking is the, is the learning and I'm not expecting him to dismantle Nico. I'm expecting him to play a great match and learn from it so he can be a better Nico next year to get to that level of top 20 and, so on and so on. You get what I'm saying, Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:10.293)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:23.381)
I... Yeah, I...

Alvin Owusu (01:01:28.883)
Yeah, I hear what you're saying. just don't think that Nico Jari, I think we're giving a little too much credence to Nico Jari. He's not like perennial week two Nico Jari before he got hurt or something. He was a good player.

Torrey (01:01:34.766)
Torrey (01:01:38.772)
No, no, no, we don't disagree. But 10 years ago, Nico Jari was.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:44.235)
Not that good, not that, I mean, okay, okay. I hear what you're saying and I, so here's the thing. Okay, okay, yeah, okay. The better version of Nico Jari is like, he'd be her cats and he ripped Hubie a new one at French Open, right? So this is what I'm saying. Like, I hear your point and I,

Torrey (01:01:46.772)
Alvin, Alvin, how good is Yow? I mean, you act like Yow is a semi-finalist.

Torrey (01:02:06.084)
I would say he's more of a Hugo and Bear to me.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:09.515)
I hear your point and I don't disagree with you. I just don't think it's Nico Jari I think the problem the the learning that's going to come would be if he meets a cam nori in the next round like now that gets interesting because cam cam will run all day He'll hit that side spin. Whatever backhand slide that thing all over the court He's very comfortable on the grass home home home town kid rides his bike rides his bike to Wimbledon

Torrey (01:02:20.59)
Okay.

Okay.

Torrey (01:02:35.042)
Home cooking, sure. Jesus Christ. Frickin' camp. He's English. He's English all day, isn't he? Good Lord.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:38.453)
He says he enjoys it, just rides his bike to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think everything that you said, just push it forward around. And I think it applies to, it applies to Camdory. I think that's a...

Torrey (01:02:51.246)
Oh God, I can't believe I just heard that come out of your mouth. Cam Norrie for president. You heard it right here, Alvin. You heard it right here. You heard it right here. I love Cam Norrie. Played college tennis here in the States. I love Cam. Shout out to my boy, Corey. If you're listening to this, I love the fact that we're even talking about Cam Norrie in this whole space right now.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:58.379)
He's not my president.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:19.081)
Hey man, Rodity pumps them out man.

Torrey (01:03:21.085)
And Rodity is, hey shout out to Dave Rodity at TCU doing his thing. But you heard it right here. And by the way, Dave Rodity is five foot six, maybe five seven on a good day. Right, so I've known David since he was working for USTA even before he got the job with the Horned Frogs and phenomenal recruiter. mean, so, and player by the way. So trust me, I love David. We go way back. The point I'm getting at is this.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:32.299)
We have spoken.

Torrey (01:03:50.507)
I'm having a hard time with you dismissing the Nico Jari's and you replacing him with Cam Noy. And that's all I'm saying. And if you had said, if you had said somebody like, what we're talking about, know, Taylor Fritz, I'm like, you know what, I would well say, did you just replace Nico Jari with Cam Noy? I'm like, really?

Alvin Owusu (01:03:57.981)
Okay, okay, okay. I know for a fact.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:05.749)
No, no,

Wait, Yalfonseca beats Andrei Rublev first round Australian Open. He beats Hubie Hercatch first round French Open. I'm sorry, Nico Jari, the best version of Nico Jari is not in that class. He's in the class behind it.

Torrey (01:04:26.687)
Nico Jerry is the Jaime Menar of Spain and he is of Chile. I'm not saying he is, I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna stand by that. He is the best of the rest. He is certainly not Nadal. He's not, who was from Chile? Gonzalez?

Alvin Owusu (01:04:32.618)
my god.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:45.803)
I don't recall. Is he? Okay.

Torrey (01:04:46.572)
Fernando, I think Fernando was from Chile. Gonzo, I'm pretty sure. My point is, not Gonzo, my point, but good, very good. And he's their next hope. I don't think Yao is as good as, God bless it, I'm looking at it a queridin, right? Or at least we don't know yet. He is that next iteration. We'll see. I'm just saying you don't know until you see. And I'm only saying that

Alvin Owusu (01:05:07.189)
Sure, sure. mean, that's,

Torrey (01:05:16.192)
Howie Menard, been very, very solid. Is he an adult? No. But is he very solid? 100 % yes. And that's to me when, and I'm not here to say Nico Jarre for president. What I'm here to say is he's going to, no, no, no, not even close. Not even the House of Representatives. He's simply been mayor a time or two in a few tournaments. What I'm saying is, that Yao, for him to get to this ascendant spot that he is destined for.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:27.775)
No, you sound like he's already been president. That's what it is.

Torrey (01:05:45.472)
He has to dismantle players like this and do what they would have done if not more. That's all I'm saying. And learn, back to my Thundercats analogy, and learn and be that player going forward. He can't just beat them. He has to learn what they learn. That's my point.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:00.086)
I just feel like Nico Jari is not the lesson that needs to be learned. That's all I'm saying. I'm with you, it's just not him.

Torrey (01:06:03.02)
And fair, and fair. Says the same guy that's putting Camp Norrie for president out there on who the match is. I'm with you,

Alvin Owusu (01:06:13.451)
He can't even be president, he's not a US citizen. Stop, stop, Jesus. my goodness, don't come tomorrow.

Torrey (01:06:21.836)
Can we talk about Mintz, Nick and Jerome? I mean, what happened there?

Alvin Owusu (01:06:26.315)
Uhhhh

Torrey (01:06:30.229)
Similar age, and while we're there, can we also talk about Nakashima and Appelka?

Alvin Owusu (01:06:32.392)
No.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:37.835)
I did not see the Nakashima-Opelka match. I looked at the scores and I guess I can kind of understand what maybe happened. Did Riley just not serve that well? That's right, mean, whatever, straightforward. Yeah, pretty straightforward. But Mincek, he's starting to do the thing. He's starting to do the thing. Marcus is a top 50 player.

Torrey (01:06:48.459)
That's always the case when you're asking about Riley. That's so it's a pretty straightforward situation. Brother's seven foot one.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:07.275)
So like he should be getting to the second or third round of every single major. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. I don't, mean, Marcus is sneaky older than guys. Marcus is 31. I guess he did play four. Did he play four years at UCLA? Maybe he played all four years there. I think that's what it is. Yeah. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's, to your point about Fonseca and Jari, like,

Torrey (01:07:24.319)
Wow. Yeah. Not new to this, so to speak.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:36.957)
If Mincek, who is ahead of Fonseca as far as like what he's done so far, you know, the two young guys that everyone's kind of like got their eyes on, he should be beating a Marcus Garon in the second round of Wimbledon. And then he did. Right. So that, yeah. Four, four, was it four? Four. Yeah. It's fine. Weird things happen on grass, but he did it. He got the W and then he's got, he's got Kabali in the next round and Kabali has been playing chumps. I think he's about to, he's about to.

Torrey (01:07:40.267)
Thank you.

Torrey (01:07:45.579)
100%.

Torrey (01:07:49.366)
100%. And then he did. Albeit in what, four or five, but he did.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:06.88)
He's about to run into it.

Torrey (01:08:07.061)
Four, six, seven, six and a fourth, but four.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:11.09)
It's grass, whatever, it's grass. Taylor, I wanted to make sure before we get out of here that we talk about Taylor Fritz. If I was wearing a hat, I would take it off, I'd give my hats off to Taylor Fritz. Just got through some tricky ones. Got through a couple of brown bombers there in the first two sets, in first two rounds.

Torrey (01:08:13.747)
You

Torrey (01:08:26.877)
I was, I too was right.

Yep. Yep. Diallo and Diallo I thought played very solid and, and Hey, I don't think we have.

I'm buying into the Kool-Aid of Diallo like I did with Felix years ago. And I really, they get me, they get me. And this one came out with some blonde hair and a little weird. I was like, wait, what happened to Diallo? What's wrong with this brother? But bottom line, he played a good match. And you know what I loved about Taylor?

Alvin Owusu (01:08:51.467)
the brown Canadians, they just get you,

Alvin Owusu (01:09:07.307)
He's Canadian.

Torrey (01:09:12.491)
Taylor looked like he enjoyed that match today. And I know that's a weird statement to say Taylor looked like he enjoyed the competition. He enjoyed it being that close. Taylor didn't look like he enjoyed that match with Mensik in Miami. And I felt like in that match today, I felt like Taylor looked a little more comfortable in the under duress. And I was really happy to see that about him. That told me he can go another two three rounds just because he's comfortable in this situation. And I did not see that with Tiafoe.

You know, when he was playing against camp, Teofil looked weathered. He looked beleaguered. He did not look like I got this.

My main man Taylor looked, Taylor looked good today.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:52.438)
Taylor fancies himself as one of the best grass court players in the world and he might be. So I think that's why he feels comfortable. He just kind of feels like I can, at the end of this long puzzle, I will have figured it out. The numbers will bear out in my favor. He has this air of irrational confidence about himself, which is just like the

Torrey (01:09:58.269)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (01:10:18.665)
Sure. I like that term.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:20.992)
He needs it. He needs it. Like he just has to have it.

Torrey (01:10:23.219)
Right, right. I saw him play here at the Atlanta Open. I think he played twice, but I saw him a lot this past year. And Alvin, heard it right here. I was not as impressed. I've seen better players, period. I've also seen some of the best. Taylor carried himself like he was one of them. Like, know, Feds right here and the Dawes right here and I'm right there. That was almost how he played. You know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (01:10:42.707)
Right, exactly, exactly.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:49.099)
I'm right there, yeah. So I saw him at Miami, went and watched him play, I can't remember the guy who was playing, but it was later match, like one of those, not a night match, but it was being played at night, and I'm sitting there, I mean, I'm front row, I think my brother saw me on TV that day, I was right there, and I'm watching him play, and I'm just like, he feels like he's gonna win this match two and two, and that the other guy should just let him win two and two, like I'm that guy, like he carries himself like he's that guy, but like.

Torrey (01:11:01.127)
Right.

Torrey (01:11:13.937)
Right. Right. Yeah, he does. He does.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:19.115)
Which, yeah, irrational confidence I get. Yeah, exactly. But on the tennis end though, I'm curious to see how he comes out of two matches that were very similar, like kind of just like these serve plus ones kind of matches, like very choppy against, and then comes up against a play. Yes, exactly, short points long matches. He comes up against Davidovic Vakina in the next round, which is going to, he's gonna play, like he's gonna play.

Torrey (01:11:21.642)
Good for him. Hey, it's working for him. You know what I mean?

Torrey (01:11:36.585)
Sure. Short points, but long matches. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:48.65)
like David Viscount is going to play.

Torrey (01:11:49.159)
you're certainly gonna go longer points per and I agree with that. But again, to your point, he's gonna approach it with the same confidence he always does. And let me say this one last little sneaky point. There's a few less American flags in this tournament now as a result. Brandon played Riley, so we know one of them else is gone. Francis gone. Who else? Jerome's gone. There's Tommy Paul's gone. Shelton and...

Alvin Owusu (01:11:53.642)
Yeah,

Alvin Owusu (01:11:58.088)
ever, all day.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:15.765)
Yeah, Tommy's tough.

Torrey (01:12:18.811)
Nakashima and obviously Taylor might be, might be it for the rest of the American contingency. Mickelson lost what? First round, right? So you're looking at, you're looking at just, there's only handful left after being several going in. I have a crazy thought, Albert. If I were the head of player development for the USTA, I would have four squads. This is a weird thought. I'm going to put it out there because it just came to me. I've been thinking about it for a while.

Alvin Owusu (01:12:33.311)
Yeah.

Give it to me.

Torrey (01:12:49.946)
I would have my best grinders of all time in juniors, pros, whatever. And I would have a depth chart of about eight of them. And we would train on the clay for six months specifically for the clay court season. And then I would have my eight players, the biggest banging serves that you've ever seen. And the players are free to go back and forth between the different squads of eight, but they would be literally serve plus one virtuosos. We have the volume, why not?

take advantage of it. The hardcore player, my fastest, best sliders, biggest forehand, biggest counter punishers, best returners. And that would be what they, and then of course my Australia players, athletes, know, great continental skills just, and there might be one or two players that are in all four squads. And I would put them out for the season, not for the tour. And I would see after three years,

which one of them catches fire. And then the ones that don't catch fire at all, cut, new batch. And the ones that get a little bit of traction on all four, keep. And a couple that get great traction, I'm talking juniors, small pro tournaments, and obviously the tour itself. And they are there learning from each other. And we're trying to keep this depth chart, if you will, of eight players ranging from 30 to 15. And they are just good at what they do.

The 15 year old trying to learn from the 30 year old because the long and the two is going to be retiring soon. He will end up coaching that team after a while. And the same thing with the French guys, with the French open crew and the clay and the same thing with the hardcore. Here's what I'm saying, Alvin. Each surface brings its own challenges. And unfortunately, I feel most countries are sending out their players because they are player dependent and they are scrapped player wise and volume wise. The States has more

people than a third of Europe, maybe two thirds of Europe in some cases. And to not come at it that way to me is a misstep. I'm only going on, well, on our part, because we keep thinking that we have to have that one player that has it all.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:57.258)
Who's part?

Alvin Owusu (01:15:01.909)
Well, no, like the Federation's part of the or the like who does that benefit like.

Torrey (01:15:04.997)
The federation, the federation in a small country is maximizing who they have. We BULTA, BU Australia, BU Spain. You only have so many players. The US has so many more players. And I'm saying, let's start having our players be surface specialists to be able to go the distance in that situation. There might be a player or two that has all four, which is your avatar, which is great.

but there might also be surface specialists to go out there and do the deed on that surface. And he's at the very least is gonna be good for the good player who might come through, who needs to play against those surface specialists. And at the end of the day, you hope that you have that problem. That's just my thought.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:49.899)
I like that your ideas are boundless. like that you allow yourself to come up with the ideas that don't get bogged down by the constructs because I would just come back with all the constructs that would not allow that to work and why it is, but you get that, so.

Torrey (01:15:52.654)
buddy.

Torrey (01:16:06.759)
You know why my ideas are boundless? Because for 25 years I have dealt with the bounds. There was a time when Brian the Haley, Alvin, did not make national team and had to beat five players on the national team to get national team. That's where my bounds come from. Somebody, for sure, for sure, because they indiscriminately chose an arbitrary number.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:26.029)
well it's silly team concept in an individual sport though. Like that's the issue right there.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:35.134)
Right, yeah.

Torrey (01:16:36.088)
And their top did not make top because they limited it. So guess where my bounds come from. It doesn't come from imagination. It comes from a few idiots that just added three more players. You might've figured it out then. You're onto something. It needs to be a team. But maybe you weren't thinking broad enough. If there were nine more Yal Fonseca's, Brazil would have a team of 10 players. They have one. His name is Yal Fonseca.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:00.597)
Well, okay, let's, all right, and we'll leave it there with the alpha on second, because...

Torrey (01:17:05.562)
So I want the viewers and listeners to chime back in the comments what they think about this. Alvin's trying to, he's trying to,

Alvin Owusu (01:17:13.087)
I'm trying to cut it short so I'm not editing all night and I get this thing out at a reasonable amount of time. Because it's grass court season right now, it's Wimbledon time.

Torrey (01:17:17.062)
Fair enough. And I understand it's dead on arrival, but three days later, I hear you, Alvin, just saying. I want the viewers and listeners to comment on what I'm saying. Why are we bound by arbitrary constraints?

Alvin Owusu (01:17:32.915)
There we go. I'm gonna put a pendant right there. I'm Alvin, that's Tori, best of three. We're out.

Torrey (01:17:36.934)
Peace.