Ep. 47: Wimbledon 2025 Quarterfinal Preview

Alvin Owusu (00:11.043)
I'm still Alvin, that's still Tory. are, what is this, Monday after 4th of July? So that puts us quarter final, quarter final preview time, huh? How you doing?

Torrey (00:16.066)
Yep. Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Some great tennis. Have you gotten over the match with Jerry?

Alvin Owusu (00:26.541)
my God. You know, you can't, when you got Jerry in one hand and Cameron on the other, you know, you're in a pretty decent place.

Torrey (00:35.258)
I'm talking about, I'm still talking about, about Fonseca. I'm not talking about that Cam-Nory match, that was a hot mess. Your fellow lefty, I'm more asking about when I was at your place on, was that Friday?

Alvin Owusu (00:42.113)
Yeah, you know.

Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (00:51.137)
It was, yeah, Friday on 4th July. One, thank you for coming, that was fun. It was a low-key soiree, but it was a lot of fun to actually talk tennis and get into it. I mean, we talk tennis all the time, but being able to do it while watching a match, having that back and forth, we had a little, I feel like we had an audience, it was like we were doing a live podcast, it was fun.

Torrey (00:53.707)
Yeah. thank you for having us. That was awesome.

Torrey (01:02.241)
Yeah.

Sure.

Right.

Torrey (01:11.457)
Yeah, yeah. I hope we didn't warm the death or, or it was, it was contentious though. Shout out to your boy Travis for, for making the conversation lively as always. I think Travis suffers from some delusional, you know, I used to be this back in the day and Travis may not realize how good he was back in the day, but he certainly wasn't.

Alvin Owusu (01:19.343)
E?

Torrey (01:38.413)
a backhand virtuoso. And so I say it to say, I'm like, Travis, there were kids that literally feared your forehand, but your backhand, oh, I had that shot though. I'm like, I'm not so sure you did Travis.

Alvin Owusu (01:50.862)
mean, the content around these parts, I like to say it's hot and fresh, hot and ready, just like the donuts. And I just got off the court with Travis. I just got off the court with Travis and backhand virtuoso, still he is not. but yeah, leave one sitting in the middle of the court though, he'll make you look bad with the forehand. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And there you go, and there you go.

Torrey (01:57.449)
No doubt, the red light is on.

Torrey (02:03.401)
Right. He is not.

Torrey (02:09.794)
for sure. Highlight reel for sure. He can hit any shot once. I mean, let's just...

Alvin Owusu (02:19.225)
You know, while we have the time, let's just go ahead and get into it. Because this content expires, so let's just talk about it. So, match that just most recently finished today. Sinner versus Grigor. Two things can be true at the same time. Grigor was amazing, and then Grigor was Grigor. I left my house, Grigor is up.

Torrey (02:22.719)
Yeah.

Torrey (02:26.006)
Yeah. True.

Torrey (02:34.242)
What can you say that hasn't already been said? That's true.

Alvin Owusu (02:47.535)
Two sets to love, somehow serving for the second set at five, three, five, four, gets broken. Yeah, five, four, gets broken, breaks back, somehow breaks back, serves for it again at six, five, pulls it out. like, I text you. I was like, he's up two sets to love and still there ain't no way he's pulling this match out. I leave.

Torrey (03:01.622)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pulse it out. Seven five. Yeah.

Torrey (03:14.583)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (03:16.973)
I go to the court, I stretch, get warmed up, look at my phone, two all. I'm like, two all? Two all retired. You gotta be kidding. That's five in a row.

Torrey (03:25.494)
Yeah. Yeah. It was, was, it was, was a, was painful to watch. It was, I felt bad for him. I, I had to go back and watch the replay just to see maybe if I could see a moment that he strained it or hit a certain shot. There was a couple of moments he actually fell a few times. And I wonder if in one of those matrix like falls that he did, if he didn't strain it then,

Alvin Owusu (03:31.139)
What happened?

Alvin Owusu (03:53.219)
What did he strain?

Torrey (03:54.656)
It looked like his right shoulder, looked like a peck muscle on the right shoulder. mean, he's, mean, dude, he couldn't, he had to lift his arm up to shake the ref, bro. I it was, I mean, I don't think it was tough. It was tough. mean, you know, you can fall in weird ways and the grass, you you're going to slip and fall in the grass way more than any of the surface, just with the footing and getting back. long story. it was tragic to say the least. It was tragic for Gregor because he was playing so well. It was tragic for.

Alvin Owusu (04:19.053)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (04:25.568)
Yannick because he needs that level of match to push him and come back from a five setter. He's tragic for the fans, tragic for all of us. There was no winners in this whole thing. You can kind of pencil in Yannick as the winner because he got through one, but that's not the way you want to win, especially going into a potential semi with Novak. You want to be tested. You want to know you can come through and have that confidence in yourself. And he even said, and I thought it was very gracious the way he said it. says, look, I don't consider this a win today.

This was just unfortunate. You know, I'll have to get ready for the next match, but this was, you know, this was, this was unfortunate period and that he didn't say anything more or less about it. And I was actually very impressed with how humble he was in the, in, in the post, you know, on the court, on court conference, because I thought he, he didn't want that ending, you know, you could, you could tell he was not looking for that and he really wanted to play. And, and again, and he knew.

He knew that Grigor was playing pretty well. I have to tell you if Grigor could have, that's the operative word could have, continued that level of play. He was playing, it was going to be a very close third and things being the way they had been, I'm calling, you know, breaker slash ish. Had he have gotten to a breaker and I think he would have pulled it off today.

Alvin Owusu (05:28.032)
Hehehehehe

Torrey (05:45.449)
Had he had not won the third, it was over. mean, just in general, just because Yannick, but I mean, all things being equal, the way he was playing up until that time, no other obviously injury and whatnot, notwithstanding, he was playing that well. And let's be very fair. Yannick was not playing that well. I mentioned to you earlier, Yannick is not as special on the grass. doesn't behoove him to, the surface doesn't reward him for what he does so well.

Alvin Owusu (05:46.126)
Really?

Okay, okay, yeah

Torrey (06:15.339)
Uh, Yannick will, let's say you and I are rallying Alvin, and the 10 ball rally. Okay. I'm Yannick center on a hardcore, especially on the clay. can end up taking a 10th of a second away from you per ground shrug. Right. In 10 shots, that equals a whole second. As I get that next ball and I go behind you, go in front of you or volley.

Alvin Owusu (06:32.857)
Per, per shot, yeah, yeah, yep.

You're done.

Torrey (06:43.326)
That now is could be a half a second, but I've taken you out of your game and I'm making the most sure approach, the most sure swing and volley or step up. I don't care how big your strokes are. I'm going to keep taking that time away from you. Even if it's just how early I take it or just how unbalanced my shot back to you is. It seems as if the grass neutralizes his ability to move his feet and get back behind it. I don't know if it's a footing issue. I don't know if it's just the way the grass.

The ball goes on the grass, how far deep you have to be in the court, something. Even his returns don't look as magical as they have been on other surfaces. And you would think the clay is about as slippery as they come, but the grass just does something to his game and other players if they can strike. He is more mortal on that surface than he is in the other or so it seems to me. What were your thoughts?

Alvin Owusu (07:36.589)
Yeah, it's, it's, you know, that's an interesting one because he's almost like a boa constrictor, right? Every time, once he gets his arms, once he gets his grip around you, every time you exhale a little bit, he squeezes tighter, right? And then that it's a kind of death by, you know, in your, in your example of death by 10 breaths, right? But on grass, he doesn't necessarily get that much time to have that impact on you. Right. And I think he's, he is a fan. He has fantastic footwork.

Torrey (07:52.713)
Bows and cuts.

Alvin Owusu (08:06.065)
He is a graceful mover, but he is not a fast twitch mover. He's taller than you'd give him credit for. He's probably like 6'4", right? So when it comes to being special, and a lanky 6'4", not like Pete. Pete was probably like 6'3", 6'2". Right, yeah. Yeah, that kind of octopus type of, I wanna say octopus like Medvedev, but that...

Torrey (08:07.465)
Mm.

Torrey (08:23.655)
Yeah. Yeah, maybe not that tall. Maybe one or two. But yeah, to your point. Rangey, lanky. Yeah.

Torrey (08:35.604)
Right. Right. But Pete did have long arms and crazy dexterity and range of motion in the shoulders. So, right. Agreed.

Alvin Owusu (08:35.682)
a little more loose, doesn't really, it just takes a little longer to get that thing moving. I think the grass, not necessarily exposes, but like you said, takes away from where he is special and kind of almost makes him slightly more mortal compared to the rest of the players. If you could, yeah. Preferably both.

Torrey (08:48.881)
Right. Right.

Torrey (08:54.452)
Yeah, a lot more mortal. And if you can strike or serve or both, ideally do both, then you have the ability not only to hurt a guy, but you also have the ability to run a guy. And he is very comfortable on the run, except on grass, because now on grass, and he slides better than most on grass, but you're still sliding on grass. And sliding on grass is very different than sliding. While it's sliding.

It's not the same entity of sliding on clay where you will end up finishing somewhere. Somebody is going to create a grass court clay court shoe that they're going to be able to slide on some longer nubbies, something on that thing. And if that happens, heard it right here. Yannick center will win several on on Wembee. He just moved so well. It's just weird to me that he doesn't move that well.

Alvin Owusu (09:43.664)
I mean, that's the thing, that shouldn't be.

Torrey (09:49.193)
on the grass and I'm literally seeing him like a fish out of water sometimes when he's sliding out wide and it's not, no mind you, others do it quite well. Carlos seems to move quite well on it. I don't want to take the focus off this match, but, he, right. He, can slide on concrete, uh, polished concrete. You know what I mean? At the, at the club. I mean, the guy comes in like John, John Givalta. It's crazy. His level of his, his sure footedness. But I say that to say that's what exposed today.

Alvin Owusu (10:01.316)
Yeah, I could slide on the moon.

Torrey (10:18.867)
Grigor did a great job of serving out wide and his inside out forehand today was just on Alvin. He has a good forehand, pretty good inside out, but he was moving the ball so well today. Server test, which I also think probably juicing that serve little bit. He probably had probably over, you can't say overdo it. It's easy to say in hindsight. Clearly was hitting the serve big enough. They said he was up in the 140s. I mean, that's pretty big for Grigor Dimitrov and perhaps he was straining it a little bit knowing he had to go for some extra, but

Alvin Owusu (10:28.28)
And he's sort of fantastic as well.

Torrey (10:48.954)
Unfortunately, we won't never know the end of this match, but it was some great tennis.

Alvin Owusu (10:51.632)
So speaking of big serves, so Yannick's got, he's got Ben next, right? And this seems to be, Ben is having like deja vu at every Grand Slam. It's like you get through Sonigo at some point and then you run into Center and Alcara's at the next point. so they met in the, was it semifinals of Australian Open? Was it semis or quarters? I think it might have been the quarters. I don't remember. Yeah, he beat, who'd he beat in the semis? Who'd the center beat in the semis?

Torrey (11:04.486)
Yep. Right.

Torrey (11:13.074)
had me quarters, cause he, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (11:21.296)
Yeah, it doesn't matter. That was two slams ago. God, how does that just blanking?

Torrey (11:25.672)
your boy played, Zara played him in the finals. So he had to have played.

Alvin Owusu (11:32.08)
the final, the final. Djokovic played Zverev in the semi, and then who did Alcaraz play, was it Ben? It might have been Ben. well, someone will let us know. I'm not looking at it right now. I mean Ben's dropped one set this entire Fortnite, right? Looking good, but I think you almost have to put, he's done what he's supposed to do, but none of it really matters until now. Like this is a completely different scenario that he's working himself, that he's got himself into now.

Torrey (11:57.308)
Right. If Ben is going to be a top four player, you're right. You know what I mean? Right. This is that litmus test. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (12:01.455)
And so this is the litmus of the level. Right, yeah, he would like to meet one of these guys in the semis, which he has before, or either he's gonna be a five through eight guy, or he's gonna start to get into that Taylor Fritz spot. And he has to beat a Yannick center or a Carlos Alcaraz to get into that conversation.

Torrey (12:14.534)
Right.

Torrey (12:27.058)
Be the man, you gotta beat the man, Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (12:29.972)
It seems like every Grand Slam, this is what we're presented with. Okay, so I guess you would think this is his best chance, right? Yeah, that's what I mean. Best surface to make an impact here. If we're looking at this, if we're having this conversation come Wednesday, this match is over and Ben Shelton has won, what did Ben do well in that match?

Torrey (12:38.887)
100 % and best surface.

Torrey (12:58.536)
I'm gonna go back to an episode we had many, many weeks ago about what Ben needed to do this year. Improve the slice. Be more than a big serve wonder. Come forward. I remember saying that specifically, he has to come forward more, period. And present more of a pressure. Come over the backhand more in the past. And just in general, not make the careless mistakes.

Ben has done every single one of those things in route so far. He's doing great. I personally didn't think he'd do that well on the clay this year. He did way better than I expected on the clay. That's to me is not his best service, much like isn't the best grass may not be the best suited for Yannick. But having said that, the greats always play well on all the services, even if it's not as good as they normally play. It's still pretty darn good. I think if Ben would have won, he would have served 80%. I hate to say that, that number, but that's about where that's gonna have to be.

Alvin Owusu (13:34.224)
Sure.

Torrey (13:55.483)
You know, and it's got to be 90 % on second serve points, right? Just because you're going to have to take first strike on Janek and keep it because if that first strike is ever neutralized, you're done. Second, he's going to have to come in a lot, right? He's going have to come in a lot. He's going have to come in well at the right times and not just, and not give up some easy shots. He had some easy shots against Sanego today that I thought that he just kind of thought the pressure of the moment would kind of make Sanego miss and Sanego had some great passes.

Alvin Owusu (14:10.201)
It's great kidney. Okay.

Torrey (14:24.283)
Very crap in his own right. Talk about him in a second. And the third thing is he's going to have to return well. He actually returned very well today, which I was very happy to see Ben. He fought for some tough returns. Mate almost so aggressive on the return, kind of extended himself in the wings a little bit. But if he can stay upright, because he fell a few times as well, stay upright, make those returns and make Yannick fight to

finish him off. He is lefty. So you got the you got that kind of working for him and hit every back and he can when he can go back through the court, making Yannick go back to his forehand. He's got a chance. It's a great matchup on grass. It's a great matchup in general. If he can do those things and that and he'll have to do it over and over and over again for three sets. If the match goes for the match goes five. It's just I don't like the server can't serve 80 % for five sets. It's just

Alvin Owusu (15:11.109)
Yeah.

Torrey (15:17.772)
physically impossible legs wise being what it is, but is it possible in three? It's possible in three, Al.

Alvin Owusu (15:19.109)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (15:23.12)
I think it might be even more simple than that because I don't feel like this is gonna be a match that's gonna look anything like any other matches they've played, right? Obviously when they played it in the Australian Open, was pretty taxed coming into that match and just could not hang on in that heat that deep in the tournament with the amount of mileage he had put on leading up to that. Coming in here, both players are fairly fresh. wonder, I don't think there's any lingering impact of center feeling like.

and he's lost his last two sets, right, coming into that match. feel like it's, by the time we get there, that's done and dusted, they're ready to go. I feel like this is just gonna be a matter of, Ben get into tiebreakers and then return well enough? I don't think it's going to, he's not gonna be picking off six, three, or six, four sets. I just don't, yeah, just don't see that.

Torrey (15:53.626)
Right, That's right, right.

Torrey (16:02.694)
Mm.

Torrey (16:11.75)
And yet Grigor would not as big of a serve did. I guess that's my...

Alvin Owusu (16:16.977)
Yeah, but Grigor's a much better, Grigor's much better returner. Like he's craftier, like he keeps things in front of him. He broke center three times in two sets. Like do I see Ben Shelton breaking Grigor, mean breaking Yannick three times in two sets? Like no, I don't. So, on the other side of it, exactly, we're going to old school. It's old school, just crank it up, let it rip, and then see what we get into in the break, bless you.

Torrey (16:20.142)
Okay. Okay.

Torrey (16:25.338)
Yeah, three times.

Torrey (16:33.609)
Right. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. So it's more of the Dr. Evo side of things.

Right. Right. Thank you.

Alvin Owusu (16:46.821)
But then again, like I don't actually see any of that. I don't wanna go out on a limb and say it's straightforward, but like the scenario I laid out, I feel like I could actually see that happening because he was able to do it against Carlos on clay and got himself there, right?

Torrey (17:04.838)
Thank you. Yep. And Lawson four in a close fourth that mind you, different player, it's 50 % chance. Which is pretty good considering, you know what I mean? All please consider 50 is pretty good. If anybody else I'd say 30 at best.

Alvin Owusu (17:15.983)
Yeah, which is probably his best shits.

All things, all things considered. That's great chances.

Alvin Owusu (17:26.511)
Yeah, okay, let's keep mobbin' here. Next quarter you've got Kabali against Joker.

Torrey (17:35.513)
That match there. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:37.462)
That's, mean, Novak had a, once he got straight today, he looked pretty good.

Kabali, I don't know if people are paying attention to his game, but his game is solid. It is well rounded. He is a seven and a half on a good day and eight at everything. Yeah, and he's young. He's like 23 years old, moves well, seems very confident in himself. World class returns. That guy has a mean return, especially on the backhand side. Mean return. And what does that all equate to?

Torrey (17:52.121)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Very much so.

on everything. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (18:18.114)
I don't know, probably loses like three, four and four. But.

Torrey (18:20.773)
Yeah, to get this far, to get this far, I mean, it's an accomplishment in itself, which we have to appreciate for a guy like him who's not reached this round or this far before.

Alvin Owusu (18:31.534)
Right, but this is what you want to see, right? He's now seated at Grand Slams, he's 23 years old, he's getting into quarterfinals, taking care of an elder statesman like Cilic. Great match this morning. I was really impressed, especially in that fourth set with Kabale being able to keep his nerve under the pressure that Cilic was putting on him. He came up with some big returns when he needed to on the back end of that breaker, so.

Torrey (18:48.761)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (19:01.712)
Yeah, just that second, the one in the fourth set, Workaholic was able to edge ahead there right around that, right around the first changeover. But yeah, I don't know if that even matters. This is one of those weird, not one of those, this is Wimbledon. And with it being grass, almost everything that happens prior to this surface one and then these top,

Torrey (19:02.434)
He had a couple of them, didn't he? He had a of breakers.

Torrey (19:11.395)
Right.

Torrey (19:18.02)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (19:30.648)
three opponents between Sinor Djokovic and Alcara. It all seems to not matter. These are very, very specific challenges and you just gotta see it, adjust to it, and then meet the challenge on the day. Which I don't know that he has enough firepower to do that against Novak.

Torrey (19:43.47)
Yeah, right. And execute, right. Yeah, no, I agree. Right, right. To do that, certainly not against Joker. Quick sidebar, he did not look that great today. mean, or I guess it was yesterday, was today. He did not look that great. Looked very mortal, looked very human, looked very, unfortunately, Alex didn't look great himself. I was...

Alvin Owusu (20:03.106)
No, it was today. It was today. Yeah.

Torrey (20:14.304)
If this was his bad match, he will play great for the rest of the whole affair. And I'm worried about who he meets in the semis. That's an early premonition for, for Yanuk shouldn't get that far. He's not, if this was his bad match, it looked like it was. mean, he looked, his serve percentage was, was, terrible. His returns, Alvin, he never misses returns. I mean, his returns weren't great. He was missing balls. He, he looked mortal is the only way of saying it. And

Alvin Owusu (20:34.286)
Yeah, he didn't surf great.

Torrey (20:44.536)
Well, Yannick didn't look himself as pristine as he normally is. Novak looked at times looked awful. Not in a... He looked very, very sloppy, which is something you never say about Novak.

Alvin Owusu (21:01.476)
Hold on, is wild, like okay, which is wild because he just beat the number 11 player in the world, like after dropping a horrible first set, 4-4-4. okay, and looked bad, I think yeah, we'll take it. He also finaled this event on one leg last year. like, and then, you know, the year before got to the final and it took a Herculean effort out of Alcáez to take him out in five. So, like I said, like everything leading up to here,

Torrey (21:19.083)
Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Torrey (21:30.255)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (21:31.332)
doesn't really seem to matter. It's all just kind of like, what's gonna, what.

Torrey (21:35.944)
when you're playing against that level, sorry, go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (21:40.976)
Look, nah nah nah, you got a G.

Torrey (21:43.12)
Especially when you're playing against a guy that's won this tournament, what, six, seven times, you know what mean? So is it seven? Eight. How many times he won this thing? I think he's won it seven and he's looking for his eight. Here's what I'm saying. I tell my players this all the time. A 10 will usually beat a nine, but he can lose to a nine. A 10 should lose to an 11, but he can beat an 11. But a 10 will always routine an eight.

Alvin Owusu (21:49.648)
I can't count that high.

Torrey (22:14.228)
And a 10 should lose pretty much most of the to a 12. Now apply that to a 16. This is the issue. And the scale doesn't go past 16. So we're now dealing with Novak on a bad day. It's still a 15. And I don't want to bring UTR in this too too much because this is transcending UTR and tennis in general Novak has. But I say it to say, I've got a player that's played this tournament.

But the better part of 18 years, and he's still a legitimate threat right now against a guy with no real, real weapons, no offense to Alex. He's a great, great player. the Aussie number one, he's a very accomplished for what he has maximized his package. Let's just say it that way. But when I'm playing against one of the better players in the history of the game, his weapons don't quite match up in a way to hurt such former champ.

And his off day, which was let's face it, that was today, showed you that he would take him out in, know, dispatch him in four. And I'm just going to say it like this.

He was probably lucky that it stayed that close because Novak was sloppy. And that's, and that's, and that's that, that's as kind as I can be.

Alvin Owusu (23:34.864)
Yeah, I'll say if I could do that against Alex Demon or then Kabali probably doesn't have much of a chance either. Right. to discount him, but.

Torrey (23:42.275)
Right. Especially this being, especially this being Novak's bad match.

Alvin Owusu (23:48.28)
Right, exactly, he doesn't often play two bad ones in a row. Let's keep bouncing here. Fritz has catching off in the next round.

Torrey (23:59.063)
happened to Jordan man I thought Jordan was gonna throw an upset or two in the mix pretty over tired

Alvin Owusu (24:02.801)
Jordan also came up lame. I was not watching that match. was watching the women's match at the time whoever was playing and

Torrey (24:11.511)
But he looked like he was lame the whole time, Alvin. mean, look like he just, I mean, let's be honest, came in dinged up.

Alvin Owusu (24:14.126)
yeah, yeah, he came in. think they were talking about it. Someone mentioned it. I think Tim Heman said he saw him before the match and he was like, yeah, Jordan doesn't look good. And then he comes out and he was not fit to play, but felt compelled to go out there anyway. So can't really draw much from that for Taylor. mean, all things considered, Taylor got through the hard part of the beginning of the event for him with the big servers and the kind of strange conditions there.

Torrey (24:37.423)
Right, right. And the five sets like twice a row, you know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (24:41.356)
Yeah, but not like taxing five sets, like kind of servers, tactical five setters, just kind of getting through it, getting through it, and then put together a pretty decent performance against, I think it was Davidivish Vakina the round prior. So, I mean, you could say Taylor Fritz is the fourth best grass court player in the world. I feel confident saying that, I feel confident saying that. Karen Hatchinoff is good for a quarterfinal every year. Like just kind of will pop up in quarter of slam.

Torrey (25:00.0)
I would feel confident saying that. I would too. I would too.

Torrey (25:09.709)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (25:11.566)
So I.

Torrey (25:12.128)
and came up in that draw where a lot of the seeds, you know, didn't quite make it out. So I'm with you on that.

Alvin Owusu (25:15.312)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I think this will be an entertaining match. I'm gonna stop short of necessarily coming up with a prediction here, but I feel like they're very similar players except for Taylor is like just a little bit better of a version. Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (25:25.346)
Yeah.

Torrey (25:33.4)
better at it right and better on grass you know I would say you know of the two I don't know how far catching off it to your point a similar matchup I have to give the nod to Fritz on this one you know I got to ask you about about your other lefty sir Cameron Norrie that that's what that's one that's one more that has my attention what do you think

Alvin Owusu (25:57.436)
Okay, so I'll take you back to, what was the year, probably 2022, US Open 2022. I happened to be in New York for work and it was the Friday before the event. So I stayed, I finished up work on Thursday. I was like, I'll stay an extra night, I go watch Qualys. It's the last day of Qualys. So I get out to Billie Jean, walking around.

find myself on Louis Armstrong, at that point it's wide open. You don't pay to go in, you just walk in, whatever. I am five rows back watching Cameron Norrie and Carlos Alcarraz hit for an hour. And I was like, dude, this is amazing. This is the best. It was the best. Because you never get that close in that kind of environment. was fantastic. And Cam had, think Cam,

Torrey (26:29.453)
Sure, walk in,

Torrey (26:37.747)
No way, how about that?

Yeah.

Yeah, nice.

Right.

Alvin Owusu (26:54.49)
beat Carlos that year earlier in the year, like somewhere down in South America, whatever, whatever, but that doesn't matter. I just wanted to tell you the story. It's, no, was 50, and then right after that was Nadal and Davidivic Shakina. So it was like the best two hours of my tennis life, just fantastic. And the price of admission was zero. I spent zero dollars to watch this. Yes.

Torrey (27:03.261)
That's a great story.

Torrey (27:08.609)
Yeah, yeah. Right, right. That was worth the price of admission right there. mean, that would have been worth the price of admission had it been a buck 50 or 250 grounds pass. Just saying. Yeah. for sure. Because you're right there and that's and you're seeing a raw and uncut. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (27:23.758)
I'd rather that than a full house at Ash any day of the week.

It was fantastic. It was fantastic. But okay, so in this particular matchup.

Cam's playing some fantastic tennis. Great Britain's had a great run in the last nine days or so. Fantastic for the LTA. everything that Cam does well. Let's not make this match about Cam. Jesus, Carlos played amazing yesterday. Amazing. He looks unbothered in general. Everything you see of the off court clips.

Torrey (27:44.428)
F F

Yeah, for the Brits. Yeah.

Torrey (27:59.819)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (28:08.166)
the way he's carrying himself. Like you go back to French Open last year when he looked just like a stressed mess the whole time. Australian Open this year, it's just looking a little out of sorts. Netflix special.

Torrey (28:13.451)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. look, to me, to me, he came up Indian Wells, you know, in Miami. That's to me when he really hit a weird like, wow, what's going on? You can see him having the bad match here and there with some other really top players at a big, at a big slam. But to not just will his way through the others, especially in New Wells, I was like, well, dude, you need to take some time off.

Alvin Owusu (28:25.485)
as well, yeah.

Torrey (28:41.201)
And sure enough, the clay court season, he did great, obviously. That phenomenal final of the French. Keep going, because I think you're building at something.

Alvin Owusu (28:44.325)
got right.

Alvin Owusu (28:50.093)
It doesn't seem to really matter right now. Like Carlos is starting to raise, he's starting to raise his floor. His ceiling is his ceiling and we don't even really know where that is. But when he gets in trouble, it's usually because he is not doing the simple things well in tennis matches, in matches especially which it does not require his magic. He just needs to get through it. And even for him dropping sets, I don't think we should really be paying attention to that because he dropped sets, it doesn't really matter. He doesn't think,

Torrey (28:58.358)
Right.

Right.

Torrey (29:07.509)
Sure.

Torrey (29:12.799)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (29:19.931)
think it matters, I don't think it matters. after, bingo, bingo, I left that one off the backboard for you right there. Yeah, he, the sets, I mean, even in the first set he looked fine, but sets two through four against against Rublev were just like, it was so much fun to watch, so much fun to watch. And he served what, 23 aces? What are we talking about?

Torrey (29:23.178)
I'm a column clay. I'm a column clay.

Torrey (29:46.954)
Yeah. And, and, and, and returned several more from Rubilev and Rubilev was Rubilev don't hit it. He don't hit it soft album. I mean, we, think we all know Andre is there's a little bit of Philip Pouss's blood running through Andre. You know I mean? That he absolutely takes a crack at the ball. I mean, they might need to change the ball rules out for him and go every

Alvin Owusu (29:59.161)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (30:10.703)
Right.

Torrey (30:13.683)
Instead of going nine and seven, they needed to go seven and five. I mean, that brother is cracking the ball and Alcara seemed to hit it better off of the ball that big. it was, it was, it was, I like you, I was shocked to see how well he handled it. I think Rublev was shocked that he handled his ball so easily. Like who could you be hitting with that's bigger than me? You know what I mean? And it was like, dude, I got you. That doesn't matter.

Alvin Owusu (30:22.491)
Better, better.

Alvin Owusu (30:35.951)
Right, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. kind of my last point is like everything that Cam does well.

Carlos is not gonna let him do it. Cam has this, obviously his forehand is handy. It's handy, it's handy. But his backhand is a thing that gives people trouble. So you're taking a righty's forehand into a lefty's backhand, you're expecting that to be the pot of gold, but he just kinda leans in on that thing and slides it around the court. Carlos isn't gonna let him lean into a damn thing. I don't think Cam can hit that open stance.

Torrey (30:45.844)
Right.

Torrey (30:52.213)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Torrey (31:00.842)
Right.

Torrey (31:06.931)
Right, Nope, nope. don't think Kam Sadova stands backhand in, how old is Kam? In that many years. He's the old of the old school on that backhand step in shovel. Jimmy, Jimmy's proud of Kam on that backhand. mean, Jimmy's like, way to go Kam, keeping it alive. Jimmy's gifted him an old T2000, you know, from back in the day on that backhand. To your point.

Alvin Owusu (31:15.374)
yeah. Right. Yeah. I expect.

Alvin Owusu (31:26.095)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (31:34.899)
And looking at how this whole thing is matching up. I think Carlos is playing about as good a tennis as we've seen. My only concern is he's playing a little too well, playing a little too sharp. I'm hoping that that, but again, going against Norrie tomorrow, think whenever it is, two days from now, I think he'll be okay. I really do. I'm more interested, there's some good matches here, considering how many seeds have taken the L early in this match.

Alvin Owusu (31:55.653)
Yeah, it-

Torrey (32:03.659)
early in the first couple of rounds. And I'm really happy to see some semblance, right? When you still are left with one seed, the two seed, the five seed, the six seed going into this thing and each of the respective matches, that's still pretty respectable to see that the guy is still making through. And by the way, the sixth seed, the lowest of the high seeds being one Novak Djokovic.

Alvin Owusu (32:22.326)
Yeah, and-

Alvin Owusu (32:28.537)
Right, and I think that's kind of the, know, we've had a lot of conversation about the first two days were full of upsets and full of excitement. Most upsets at Wimbledon and Grand Slam, yada, yada, yada, yada, which is great for days one, two, three, and four, but what happens as you get into this kind of weird space now, like in these last few days where we've had some really good matches, but we've also had some like the, some kinds of duds, right? That just, I mean.

outside of the retirements that we've had, there've also been some matches that weren't all that competitive. But that does lead us up to the big boys and girls are gonna be fresh kinda back into this thing. So I expect the last four days of this event to be quite exciting actually. Quite,

Torrey (32:56.902)
Right. Yep.

Torrey (33:05.662)
Yeah, right.

man, spot on. Spot on, as the English would say, you know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (33:15.377)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's gonna be it. Let's just bounce on over to the women's side. Top side, Sabalinka versus Sigmund. Sigmund, yeah, just, you know, she's found the right matchups in which to, where the Sigmund of things is most effective. Let's put it that way. And on the other side, Sabalinka's playing some, I mean, it's becoming,

Torrey (33:25.213)
Sigelmann having the term of her life, huh?

You know?

Torrey (33:35.857)
Yeah. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (33:45.522)
commonplace to say she's playing great tennis. The match against Mertens was extremely competitive. Elise Mertens, somebody had the quote that Elise Mertens is a perennial 15 through 20 kind of player, never better, never worse. So all right, just kind of not, doesn't have enough firepower to really get through and hurt the top top players, but will always show up and get to play the top players. She's a pro, which is just a pro.

Torrey (33:51.677)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (34:03.613)
Yeah, right.

Torrey (34:09.545)
Yep. Yep. A hundred percent. And the older I get Alvin, the more I appreciate a player like that. It's easy. It's easy to get lost into the, you know, no player, right? Top, top 15, top 50 or top hundred had the ability to change said package. They came in, they simply could maximize the package that they were given and Elise was given that Elise was done that. And then, you know, I,

Alvin Owusu (34:15.78)
Absolutely.

Alvin Owusu (34:34.863)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (34:39.059)
Shout out to, I thought Claire Thompson did a phenomenal job with her term this week. She's six feet, she's not the best mover. She hits a nice ball, hits a nice strike. She just, what she is, she's never gonna be nimble, but she at the same time, she's gonna have power and hey, she will do what she does. And I think that was a good term for her. I do wanna give a shout out to my girl Amanda Nesamova who came out on top the other day.

Alvin Owusu (34:51.77)
Right. Right.

Torrey (35:05.991)
I watched that match. She was at a few moments where she looked a little bit tight, but ended up pulling it out. I was very happy to see her. I've been telling you about her, you know, for a while. I know some of the some of the viewers and listeners have been hearing me go wax poetic, as you like to say about my girl, Amanda. Hey, I'm a big fan of the girls that I saw when they were younger. And the same thing goes for obviously for JPEG and for

Alvin Owusu (35:11.505)
Yeah

Alvin Owusu (35:24.941)
As you should, Amanda's fanta- like.

Torrey (35:33.161)
Katie Volinets and several others that were playing the game back then when I was tournament director of the girls 12s. You love seeing these kids grow up and go on to be something pretty good in the game. And that's all I'll say about it. Obviously, Coco was one of them. I say that to say, just because I've seen them, I've seen them grow up, I've seen them continue to mature and get better. And to see her now, I think she got to, did she get to the quarter or semi before Alvin one time?

a of years back, but to see her back plant.

Alvin Owusu (36:04.338)
She might have quartered it. I think she sent me to French at one point in time. When she's, yeah.

Torrey (36:06.97)
Right. To see her getting back this far is huge, not just for American Jazz, but for her personally. And you know, as you know, I was getting back from an injury and seeing her kind of come back to this level, that's big time. I was, was, and NOSCAVO was NOSCAVO was no slouch in that match. I mean, that was a, that was a, that was a hard fought match, you know, as far as the match up is concerned. So looking forward to seeing that match, you know, obviously tomorrow. And if you got to tell me what you thought about Navarro and

Navarro and your girl Mira.

Alvin Owusu (36:41.041)
Well, before we get there, let me go back to something you mentioned about some of this crop of players that you've seen in person at a younger age. So you were the girls 12's national tournament director, right? And then obviously from age 11 or 10, 11, 12, these girls mature into women and they're on the tour, 17, 18, 19, there's a big jump there. I wanna give a plug to going to see high level.

Torrey (36:42.642)
Okay.

Torrey (36:48.38)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (36:53.682)
Correct. About seven years.

Alvin Owusu (37:09.744)
Junior tennis one of my favorite things to do and if the schedule allows is get down to Florida in November for Eddie Herr and or Orange Bowl pick one I don't care which one you go to Eddie Orange Bowl is more prestigious little ugly a facility Eddie Herr it Eddie Herr is at IMG. It's it's fantastic And then it's just little you get a little weirdness because like it's the first of the two so sometimes players traveling international

Torrey (37:10.833)
you

Torrey (37:16.487)
Right, any of her? Nope, nope, nope.

Yep. I say and is the flip. Man, it feels like a pro tournament.

Alvin Owusu (37:39.708)
just aren't really adjusted quite yet. Like imagine being 16, 17 years old coming over from central Europe where it's not hot and you come down to Florida, six hours time change. There are some weird things there, but I will say like a lot of these players like your Taylor Fritzes, your Francis Tiaphos, your Amanda Anasamovas, your Alexander Zverevs. I saw all those guys play at either Andrew Herr or Tommy Paul at Orange Bowl. Like all these guys play ahead of time and it's like.

Torrey (37:41.489)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Torrey (37:51.394)
Boom.

Torrey (38:02.619)
Right, and they're yep.

Alvin Owusu (38:08.898)
that is your best chance to see the future. And like I wouldn't even, like if you're gonna go to the event, I'd go early. Like go the first couple rounds, because they're not, you know, winning the tournament doesn't necessarily mean you're going to, you know, be something at the next level, but you'll get a lot, you'll get to see them all. And you get to see the different levels. And this is like what you're looking at is like, this is your future of what you might be seeing in three years time on television. there's my...

Torrey (38:13.923)
100%. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (38:21.447)
100%. 100%.

Torrey (38:28.987)
Yeah. 100%. That's a great point.

Alvin Owusu (38:34.705)
There's my plug for that. Go down to Florida in November. I guess it's technically December. It's after Thanksgiving.

Torrey (38:36.643)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's that week. It's that weekend. Eddie Herr is that Thanksgiving week, one and two.

Alvin Owusu (38:44.518)
Thanksgiving, Eddie Herr, and then Orange Bulls right after that. So, just...

She's a lot, man. She's a lot. She's a lot.

Torrey (38:57.606)
She looks pretty routine today. She looks pretty routine today. And Emma's not playing bad tennis. You know what mean? Emma's not playing bad tennis.

Alvin Owusu (39:04.323)
Right, was a little surprised by, well this is the thing with Emma though, like she's going to, Emma, you can, she's not going to be able to go through you, right? And with that being the case, you look at Mira's kind of weakness, be exacerbated on grass, you have to attack her hard and low to the forehand side, and Emma just can't do that. Actually I don't think anyone on this side of the draw can do that, so.

Torrey (39:13.318)
Through you, 100%.

Torrey (39:26.842)
Yep. Yep.

Alright.

Alvin Owusu (39:32.921)
that's that bodes well for for Mira kind of moving forward.

Torrey (39:34.918)
Right. From Mira. She's not left-handed. She didn't have that kind of a ball. Her ball's kind of spinny. Backhand's clean. But again, Mira didn't have a bad backhand herself. Mira has two backhands. And I want to speak this to you because we talk tacky sometimes. I think Emma has the classic, and I'm going to say this in a weird way, the classic American girl game. Little bit heavy forehand, drive backhand.

Alvin Owusu (39:43.947)
It's still hip height. Right. Right.

Torrey (40:04.927)
you know, nice serve, not necessarily the drive off both and you know, not necessarily a huge serve, right? So she's in this weird space where you mentioned 7.5 earlier. She's 7.5 on a lot of things. She has good all court games. She has great continental skills. does, but not really an eight on anything in particular, forehand and serve or return for that matter. she's, hence why the score was

Alvin Owusu (40:20.687)
Yes.

Torrey (40:32.646)
what two and three to that, right? It's not like she did anything poorly. There's just some things she doesn't do. And I think that's one of the things you look at. Mira's got the ability to roll a backhand. She has this low heavy that can look like it's from our angle, especially with the poor camera angle, like it's going out, but it dips down. And then she can rock it on the rise backhand through you. You're like, whoa, she's got a forehand that can drive and it can take you off the court. Her ability to hit both, if she has time.

Alvin Owusu (40:34.074)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (40:51.81)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (41:00.419)
If she has time, if she has time, you can rush her on that side. Yeah.

Torrey (41:02.566)
100%. You can't, but she has both and she can get you out of court and she can, if you go line, she's mobile enough and nimble enough to be able to take the ball back open court. I just like what she does with a lot of shots. I don't necessarily, I'm looking at her matchup tomorrow. Who's she playing? She's playing Bencic. Yeah, she's got Bencic on, oof. And again, here's another player that doesn't quite have the firepower to perhaps stop.

Alvin Owusu (41:19.963)
Belinda, she got Belinda and on Wednesday. Yeah.

Torrey (41:30.21)
Amira it just if Mira can continue to stay at the course, she may just find herself into the semi in this thing. And honestly, that'd be a of a match between her and Ega. But yeah, we'll get ahead of myself. I think that's a there's this this is coming down to what you don't have. I was watching the match today and I was noticing Emma serve and for whatever reason, Emma serve looks a little bit there's a little bit of Hitchpac in the back.

Elbow drops a little bit. The arm comes out a little bit. It's a small coach thing that I look at. Clearly her serve is top 10 the world worth. So there's nothing my eye and the other coaches that she has a great team around her are not seeing. But you were just watching Mira's serve just be that much more biomechanically efficient. You're watching the matchups and as far as the forward and forward, back and the back. And I just said to myself, when you get to this point, who has the cleanest this or this?

who has the most efficient this or this, because it's not gonna break down. It's not going to be in trouble, especially off weird bounces, especially off of a drive, an unexpected shot, who has better agility and nimbleness around the net chasing down certain drop shots. Mira hit about seven or eight, what you thought were gonna be drop shots, they ended up long slices, right? And that match kind of loaded the back, the old fake slice, the old fake drop, deep slice.

Alvin Owusu (42:49.733)
I love those. I love those so much. Yeah.

Torrey (42:54.481)
routine and it really kind of threw Emma off her game because Emma's looking to counter off that backhand and maybe slap one open stance cross and Mir is like no Roll it roll it into my backhand Thank you very much if you can and and now and that to me was a place she worked very well It got to the point where I think she was doing it as a fake dropper to start and she's like hang on a second I'm getting more off this ball. I'm gonna keep slicing to it because you give me what I want and forget the drop shot

Alvin Owusu (43:09.009)
If you can, if you can, yeah.

Torrey (43:22.788)
I'll do it every once in while, but really I kind of like the ball you give me off that backhand because that's what that was an unexpected bonus for me with that shot you have to hit. So anyway, I just was watching them tactless players and I saw this in this case, we often say the score didn't reflect the score reflected it today. It was two and three.

Alvin Owusu (43:32.56)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (43:40.912)
Right, and on the other side though, Belinda got through a tough one today in which once they got into the second set, were some, I'm gonna say Alexandra got down on herself a little bit in beginning of that second set, which gave Belinda some time to get her neck out in front. But towards the back end of that second set, especially when Belinda was serving for it at five, five three, I think it was five three.

Torrey (43:57.058)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (44:10.638)
and she got broken. And Alexandra came up with some, like down match points, came up with some big shots, like she was going for it. I was like, you know what, if she can hold this next game, got some nasty coming up here. And she wasn't able to, so it just doesn't really matter. But kind of looking forward in Belinda's match against Mira, I could see if things weren't going well.

Torrey (44:18.99)
Yeah. Right.

Torrey (44:25.635)
Right.

Torrey (44:29.346)
Yep.

Torrey (44:39.321)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (44:40.197)
Belinda has the ability to make it a little ugly. And if it gets a little ugly, like Mira can get a little pissy. And if we get to that point, if Belinda sees that, she'll scratch at it. she'll scratch at it, yeah. Because she's a vet. She's a vet. She sees what's going on in the side of the court and she will, if she has the ability to not, if she has the opportunity to not make it about forehands and backhands, she'll start hitting that slice, she'll start.

Torrey (44:42.686)
Right. Right. Swiss Swiss miss will be able to exploit that for sure. For sure. Yeah.

Torrey (45:05.195)
Right, she will. Right, that's lies, for sure, for sure.

Alvin Owusu (45:08.641)
knuckleball and balls, yeah, she'll do some things. But then again, it's almost very similar to the matchup Sabalenka versus Sigmund. If she doesn't have an opportunity to get into it, then it won't matter. It won't matter, yeah. Okay, kind of a round and third here. Iga versus Ludmila Sonsonova, Ludmila has not dropped a set all tournament. I love watching her play tennis.

Torrey (45:17.668)
Exactly. Then it won't matter. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (45:29.601)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (45:37.103)
I love watching her play tennis. It's so much fun. She's like a slightly more athletic Barbara Kachikova. All court game, smooth as silk. Can get a little squirrely on the forehand every once in a while. Sometimes overcook some of the finesse shots a little bit, but I enjoy it. I enjoy watching her play. With that being said, he gets floating out there.

Torrey (45:37.11)
Yeah.

Torrey (45:44.439)
But we're, yeah, cringing, but yeah.

Torrey (46:06.647)
Yeah, her serve, her serve hasn't looked better. She's hitting her shots, hitting her passing shots well. I'll be honest, Alvin, we were talking about her four months ago and I was not ready to put dirt on the casket. But obviously she was still playing football and I think the French has kind of rejuvenated what she's doing.

Alvin Owusu (46:07.707)
She's ballin' right now.

Torrey (46:30.752)
I'm still not convinced that she has the goods to retake number one in the world. I, I'm so happy she's back. It's best. It's better for the tour. It's better for tennis. She's playing good ball. She's fun to watch. She's the counter punish who's counterpunch. She's the 2020s, Martina Hingis, right? the, the 3.0 version, right? I just don't know if.

in this day and age if it's enough. And I'm glad she's playing better, but we're in that next phase, that next iteration where is it enough for what it is now? We know it was enough five years ago, but if I can use Hengis as a reference point, but it was a perfect time when it was potent. Is it going to be potent now? Now she's on the end of that, the back end of that draw. Symptoms is going to be a tough test for her for sure.

But I'm also looking at, let's look past this one, on grass. And she's lucky that two or three of the bigger ones are gone. Do you think she can win? And let me say this question differently. Do you favor her to win when.

Alvin Owusu (47:49.754)
You know, this is interesting, where we are with Iga, because she did so much winning so early, almost without any real competition, right? Yes, the Sabalinka that we know was not there, right? She has become, and you gotta keep in mind that Sabalinka's a little bit older than Iga as well, three years older, which is like a lifetime in tennis, right? So like she is firmly in her...

Torrey (48:02.05)
or resistant, I would say. Yeah.

Was not there. It was.

Torrey (48:19.554)
Right. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (48:19.601)
in her prime. 26. Yeah, he's friendly in her prime.

Torrey (48:23.01)
She's in her best life, so to speak. Living her best life.

Alvin Owusu (48:25.657)
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So, Ega, with where she is in her career right now, she's got four Grand Slam surnames, five? Is it four French's and one US Open or three French's and one US Open, like that? But now she's been forced to adjust her game, evolve her game, because the rest of the girls have caught up, the rest of the women have caught up, right? What she did then to win is not necessarily working now, because everyone, you're...

As Andy Roddick would say, you're fighting against your own shadow, right? The shadow that you have created. And the women coming up now have adjusted. Fantastic. Okay. But she is a champion. There's no reason to think that she won't also adjust. I think the adjustments you're seeing in real time, her run at the French Open while she did not win the French Open, right? I think was very telltale in the way that she made adjustments within the match against Rebecca and the match against Arena.

Torrey (49:13.47)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (49:25.777)
here, think those adjustments, yeah, it's still a fantastic match.

Torrey (49:26.786)
Great match, by the way. Still to me, that match to me did not get the credit it deserved. Was that Sabalinka-Svysyantek match in the semis. One of the best pure ball striking matches I've seen. Unreal. So, keep going.

Alvin Owusu (49:41.989)
It was so much fun to watch. It was so much fun to wait. Yeah, so, but I think the things that, you the very tactical things that her and Wim have, Tissette have been working on is not feeling like she has to red line that forehand all the time. It's not as feast or famine as it had been in the last, let's say 12 months, like in between the friendship in last year and the friendship in this year. She's found harmony with.

Torrey (50:01.183)
Right.

Torrey (50:06.314)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (50:10.087)
that delicate balance between aggressive ball that is consistent versus all out smash the gas on the forehand, right? I think that has led to her finding that space here on grass where she doesn't feel like she has to channel a 1995 men's player where it's all crush and rush out here. She's found the ability to.

Torrey (50:19.563)
Sure. Sure.

Torrey (50:34.027)
Right. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (50:37.84)
And she said to herself, like she says, like she's finally feeling the ball. The ball's doing what she wants it to do. And I think that's because she is approaching it differently, which is starting to turn, it's starting to pay off right now. So long way around. Funny thing, you know, Arena Sabalinka's never won a grass court event? Never, never, never. Yeah, so.

Torrey (50:46.155)
Sure.

It's very well said.

Torrey (50:56.924)
I saw that. Yeah, ever. Yeah. I that. I saw that the other day when it was mentioned. I think, I think that changed this year, but it's

Alvin Owusu (51:05.842)
Do I think she can win this title? Absolutely. Absolutely. I expect her to be in the final. And I like a little chaos. Not that I'm cheering for the story, but wouldn't it be funny if Ega's streak of French Open gets broken only for her to turn around and win Wimbledon. And now we got a slightly pissed off Arina Sabalenka. Like, when the hell am I gonna win a Grand Slam again? Like, you get to the finals?

Torrey (51:17.696)
Bye.

Torrey (51:31.252)
This year, Yeah, yeah. Pissed off. Huge chip on the shoulder in the US. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (51:33.906)
I would love that for her to go in the US Open 0-3 in Grand Slam Finals this year. Just pissed, mad. now I want more out of the end of the year. let's take aside what I want. on this particular, right. I think Sabalenka versus Anna Samova Semi-Final would be so much fun.

Torrey (51:42.837)
Yeah.

Torrey (51:49.632)
But as hard as that is, we'll put that to the side.

Alvin Owusu (52:01.234)
It'd be a fantastic match. played it in Roland Garros. It was a great match. It was a great first set anyways. I also think Andreava versus Suatsevich would be a lot of fun, but I think that's a really, really good matchup for Iga. Like a really good matchup for Iga. So yeah, I don't, can't discount pedigree. Let's put it that way. And Iga has won, did win Junior Wimbledon, so don't sleep on her.

Torrey (52:12.744)
Yeah, I agree.

Torrey (52:26.176)
I definitely could see this being that match up in the end. I, for your sake, and I know you're a closet only person you don't openly cheer for as much as Madison is Mira. And I know you deep down hope Mira gets it. I am, you are a huge Mira fan. You know that and I know that.

Alvin Owusu (52:42.345)
I don't know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am a huge Mira fan, but I don't need anything from Mira at this stage of her career. She's got plenty of time. She's got plenty of time. I don't want anyone running away with, she's here, yeah, but I don't want anyone running away with.

Torrey (52:51.228)
at this stage in her game, 100%. But she's here. she, somebody's gotta win this thing. know, might as well be here. I think this is arenas for the taking. I think she has continued to put her foot down in the women's tour. We're not gonna say anything more about it. She's already done the work. I'm looking forward to how she handles the crazy sigma.

Alvin Owusu (53:02.159)
They will crown a champion on Saturday for sure.

Torrey (53:20.411)
Amanda who hits the ball as big as she does as tall as she is and we're going to see pace, pace versus pace. And we're going to see as Fionte can handle a similar, you know, pace player in Samsonova. That'll be a very good indication. And clearly if I'm Sabalink's team, I'm watching to see what Samsonova does and what takes right. What sticks. And if I am Andreva, I am watching all four matches for the future reference, right? I'm watching, I'm watching mine and the other three on tape on speed dial like, Hey.

Alvin Owusu (53:46.083)
Yeah.

Torrey (53:49.619)
This is the type of player I'm gonna need to be to be here routinely in a quarter slash semi going forward on all these because I got to match Sabalink is power and first strike. I got to match Eager's return. I've got to match, you know, I've got to match Benchich slash Sigmans craftiness, right? I've got to match, you know, and I've got to have the clean, the clean strike of obviously my fellow young.

Alvin Owusu (54:12.241)
I mean, but for Mira though, for her to get to the final here, she's gonna have to go through three very different players regardless of how this works out. got some outside of, let's assume Sabalenka over Sigmund is the most straightforward of these. The rest of them, it's like you got bangers up top and then you got some craft down below, right? So she's going to have to get past a savvy adult. Right, well even Samsonova, that's going to...

Torrey (54:19.529)
Sure.

Torrey (54:27.346)
I would agree with that.

Torrey (54:31.378)
Yep. Yep.

Right, with the exception of Sam Sondable. Right.

Samsonova has hands, but you can't say she doesn't bang it. mean, that's all I'm saying. I mean, she can clearly bring it, is all I'm saying. Keep going. I like the point you're bringing. It would be a very different, we talked about this in the draw episode. There was a lot of different bangers in one section and there was a lot more of the all quarter junk, pardon the term.

Alvin Owusu (54:45.733)
Fair. fair.

Alvin Owusu (54:49.765)
She can also put it in the back fence, like.

Alvin Owusu (55:01.913)
Right.

Torrey (55:05.992)
players on in certain half and it just so happened that lot of them came through. So, you know, I don't disagree with what you're saying. I'm saying something different. Is she, Mira, ready to go toe to toe on the grass with Sabalenka with an Ega type of player? That's more what I'm asking in that sense. And if not, add an an add addendum to that. And if not, why not? And

Alvin Owusu (55:27.174)
I would, let's.

Torrey (55:35.292)
give or take, how long do you think it'll take? That's more where I'm going with this overarching sidebar question.

Alvin Owusu (55:41.423)
Yeah, I'm gonna leave some space on that one. If we end up with an Andreva versus Suatec semi-final, which should be on Thursday, Thursday, yep, because they'll tighten this thing up in a couple days.

I'm gonna play close attention to both of these quarterfinal matches here because that will give me some a little as I'm thinking about it through the lens of the two of them playing each other. Yeah, yeah. I mean you when you start getting up to this point like we've had this in all these episodes, right? We're talking about a lot of different matches and a lot of it doesn't matter until like especially we're looking at through the lens of like how are we gonna see this in the last few days of the tournament? But now it's very like okay if I'm watching and Drava versus Benchic I'm thinking about it through the lens of

Torrey (55:59.599)
Okay.

Right, a little better context. fair enough.

Alvin Owusu (56:24.241)
how either one of them would make an adjustment against Suatec or Sepsodivite, because it matters now. A lot less to get distracted by.

Torrey (56:28.797)
Right, right.

Do I? lot less hypothesized and more to actually watch and be didactic with and figure it I get it.

Alvin Owusu (56:38.371)
Right, the grass court is strange, right? The surface itself keeps changing, right? There are parts of the court that are a little more sure-footed. You start getting out into that, especially on center court, far camera side, deuce side alley out there. It's slick as North Pole up there. And I saw Novak take Alex out there a few different times. I know you're gonna fall. You're gonna slip out there. So that's part.

Torrey (56:43.645)
Yeah.

Torrey (56:53.767)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Torrey (57:01.212)
Yeah, right, right.

Alvin Owusu (57:05.521)
Yet also the players get more experience every match counts so much from a standpoint of experience on grass So everyone's a little bit better as We go on in each round. They're a little better more surefoot on the surface. So I don't know if you can tell I'm excited I'm really excited about the bottom half of the women's draw right now We can end up we can

Torrey (57:10.311)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (57:16.049)
Yep.

doubt, no doubt as you should be. It's a good tournament. So looking forward to it.

Alvin Owusu (57:28.881)
Yeah, it's a good tournament. It's a good tournament. So far, we got past some weird stuff in the first, back in the last week, but now we're in good place. Good round of 16, I think the right players, for the sake of ESPN, got through. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't even come down the stretch here with, mean, heaven forbid we end up with Sigmund versus Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals. be a problem. That'd be it.

Torrey (57:52.605)
Man, that would be a problem.

Alvin Owusu (57:58.651)
That'd be a problem. That would be a problem. But hey, not my problem. So let's put a pin in it there. I don't expect that we will chat again until...

Torrey (58:05.605)
Right. Done.

Alvin Owusu (58:13.041)
Let's see how this plays out. Let's see how this plays out. we find the reason, we shall do this again.

Torrey (58:17.757)
If a few more upsets demand us chiming in, great. If not, think it may be Saturday and we'll see how this whole thing, as you say, there will be a champion crowned on the weekend. So we'll figure it out.

Alvin Owusu (58:34.257)
Quick question, what is your, if we end up with Ega versus Sabalenka on Saturday, and or we end up with.

Carlos versus either Novak or Yannick on Sunday. Are we watching either of those matches together? How do we make that happen? Okay, okay, okay.

Torrey (58:55.875)
100%, 100%. But if not, if not both, I feel like especially, especially on the men's side, regardless of who it is, because that one could be, both are going to be pretty pivotal for the rest of the year and for one player could be pivotal for the rest of the career. You know what I mean? So, you know, I, I always feel like we're on borrowed time with Novak. I just, I just feel that way. You know what I mean? So you, gotta,

Alvin Owusu (59:16.677)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (59:21.125)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Torrey (59:24.188)
This is you're talking about the ending of an era, you know what I mean? So you have to give that respect where it's doing it's certainly doing his case

Alvin Owusu (59:31.707)
Okay, we'll leave it there then. We'll leave it there. Cool. All right, there's the pin. I'm Alvin, that's Tori. BESSA 3, we are out.

Torrey (59:37.532)
the

Peace.