Ep. 48: Wimbledon Semi-Final Preview

Torrey (00:26.049)
You sound bitter Whatever.

Alvin Owusu (00:30.147)
I am bitter. am bitter. I am bitter, but I'm not bitter. We're here together. Welcome to another edition of the best of three podcast. I'm still Alvin, that's still Tory. It's another late night. It's a late night show. It's almost damn near 10 o'clock, because we got lives, but tennis never sleeps. Tory, how are you doing?

Torrey (00:44.491)
Yeah.

Torrey (00:48.267)
Yep, it's true. I'm good Alvin, I'm good. You're looking awful awful preppy teppy tonight with your little button down.

Alvin Owusu (00:58.248)
It's a linen shirt. It's linen, gotta say breathable out here, even though I was inside and it was cold at dinner, but I went to dinner with some friends tonight. Good to see them, good to do it. Just three guys having dinner. It's a nice thing to do. It's a nice thing to do. Yeah.

Torrey (00:59.809)
Ooh, yeah.

Torrey (01:05.43)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:15.024)
Absolutely, especially especially all being dads. That's a you know that that can be a rarity especially on a on a Wednesday. You know what I mean? So you know what I mean? Right. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:22.737)
on a Wednesday, on a Wednesday, not even a work meeting, just on a Wednesday out. But no, it was good, it was good. Nice way to cap off the day. We had a lot in the last two days, and you know, from a tennis standpoint, just got the nature of the order of play and how these things go. Like I am aware that by the time some people are listening to this, the women's semifinals will have already been played, right? They're gonna play in roughly 12 hours from now will be the first match.

Torrey (01:36.64)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:51.22)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:52.329)
Eleven hours from now, so but we're still gonna talk about it anyways. We're gonna come from all we'll talk about the women's Upcoming women's women's semi-final. We'll talk about the men's semi-final kind of through the lens of what we saw in the quarters I Haven't flipped a coin or anything heads or tails Where where do we want to start men's side women's side? I feel like I feel like we should start on the women's side. I Feel like that's right. Let's go. Let's go kind of a reverse order what I saw

Torrey (01:56.045)
Yep.

Torrey (02:10.495)
air.

Torrey (02:17.772)
100%. Let's go.

Alvin Owusu (02:22.217)
in the last few days. Let's start with Eega. So Eega, she's in the semifinals of Wimbledon. First time, first time Eega in the semis. And today she played against, who did play today? I'm just blanking.

Torrey (02:30.71)
Yeah, first time, nice job. Yeah.

Torrey (02:41.714)
She played she played against Sam Sanova the other day. Is that what you're talking about? you talking? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:45.457)
Yeah, that was today. No, she played Samsonova today. She will play, yeah, Ludmila. Interesting match. Very interesting match. What were your takeaways from the match? Because I had a few, but I wanted to, and we haven't spoken in the last two days about any of the tennis, so I want to kind of hear what you saw in that match and then how that projects forward for you.

Torrey (02:53.259)
was.

Torrey (03:06.08)
These two matches, I don't want to, very similar I felt to the match, Samsonova and Pavel Chicova, they have quiet, sleepy, big power. Like they can hit you from anywhere on the move, on the strike, pretty big serves both of Both of them probably right at, if not just a touch under six feet tall, underrated in terms of under the radar.

for most players, obviously, Sam Sanova has had some great success in some doubles recently. I was thinking that it went true to form. I was very impressed with. Ega's controlling of the ball through the middle of the court. I was impressed with Ludmila's ability to hurt her as often as she did.

looked like tactically she came out trying to attack the forehand early knowing that Eaglet's backhand can be a little bit bigger. Nothing may sound weird. Eaglet's got a very vicious first strike forehand if you give her ball into the court. But her cross court forehand me is very normal. I don't want to say that in a bad way. She's obviously a multiple time Grand Slam champion. She's a very, very good player, but her ball's a little thin, a little heavy, and she's doesn't penetrate like most top women's ball does. Having said that, through the court.

Alvin Owusu (04:29.385)
through the court.

Torrey (04:31.275)
And having said that, some son of his ball can go through the court. And I felt like if she had really leaned on that a bit more, she took a real close in the second. If she had done a little more of that early, she'd have had more chances. I also felt like for whatever reason, I know your favorite term is that skinny cross. I call it the inside in. She pulled that backhand inside in on the deuce return Alvin about 60 % of the time where it was unreturnable. And I think that was the difference in the match was I don't think Ludmila has

played against that class of a returner to take her out of the mix. And that to me was the real tail of the tape. I knew that would happen to Eager's advantage. I didn't think it would be that much of a difference maker where she would take the racket and first strike out of her hands.

Alvin Owusu (05:04.219)
Right, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (05:16.903)
Yeah, so my, you know, that's, think from a tactical standpoint, that makes a lot of sense, but I think the thing about Eega, let's look at this match and then look at yesterday's match as well. Not the Sabalinka match, the, no, there was another match yesterday, I didn't bring any notes with me today, so I'm just kind of free-willing.

Torrey (05:32.962)
Ego's other match?

Torrey (05:39.212)
you mean, mean, you mean, mean, think, Pavlina Tinkova and Andy Smolkova. Sure, sure, sure. Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (05:42.388)
Probably a chunk of a against Anna Samova, Anna Samova, right? So what you're, I think the way those kind of matches progressed forward were very similar. Slow starts, slower starts from the players who were not used to being there. So Ega and Amanda both got out to normal starts for them out of the gate, fired out, right? Easy, straightforward first sets. And then,

Torrey (05:52.394)
That's what I was saying, they both started very similar.

Correct.

Torrey (06:02.356)
Pretty good leads. Sure.

Torrey (06:09.649)
Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (06:11.365)
it wasn't until the player who has less experience in this position settled in, did we get ourselves into a match. In Eega, there was a, I think it was the five, maybe four, four, three, four, two game, something like that. Midway through the third, midway through the second set in Eega's match, did it start to get competitive. Ludmila settled down, and like literally settled down. Like I think Eega's ball is so unique in that you don't see a ball that comes up.

Torrey (06:15.334)
Right, settled in, 100%. 100%.

Torrey (06:30.619)
Right? Right?

Alvin Owusu (06:39.911)
that much on the women's tour, right? So when I say settle down, I feel like she was actually popping up so much and struggling to square up Ega's ball in the first set. So when she finally found her base and found her ability to kind of stay on top of that ball and square it up, she was able to start to dictate more. Very similar, maybe not tactically, but at a macro level, Pavlo Chincava was blitzkrieg.

Torrey (06:40.551)
Right. Right.

Torrey (06:46.057)
Yep, agree.

Alvin Owusu (07:05.787)
She was just like, don't know, didn't look like she did not know how to play tennis for a little while. And not until she got ahold of that match, she'll get really interesting in that second set. And then almost got her, almost got into a third. And if she wins that breaker and we get into a third set, I don't know, we're having a different conversation right now, right?

Torrey (07:05.897)
100%.

Torrey (07:09.577)
100 % 100 %

Torrey (07:14.856)
Yep, it did and almost got him the breaker, 100%.

Torrey (07:22.09)
Could have been, could have been, could have been no, nephew Jackson on the, you know, on the, on the presentation and, and post-match interview and so on and so on. I totally get it. And I, and I feel like both of these girls are going to continue to do, to do better. We talked earlier, Alvin, about matches you get on grass and the number of matches you get on grass, better your next few years will get better. And obviously, you know, injuries and whatnot, not withstanding.

Alvin Owusu (07:32.371)
Right.

Torrey (07:48.937)
Both of these two, Anastasia and Blumil are going to do so much better in grass court going forward. They got the confidence now. They're going to continue to push in the years to come. And I'm really looking forward to them making that push. What was Simpsonov's 19 seed? And I believe, I don't even think Palychinkov was seeded. So you got to look at these two. They will certainly continue to do better. And they have this tournament to thank for their more reps.

Alvin Owusu (08:06.995)
She was not seated, no.

Torrey (08:14.919)
You know, in a tournament like this, and you heard right here, both of them can hit a ball. I was impressed at their striking. know, no different than Clara Towson. I was impressed with the mobility, the height they have, especially on the grass, and the feel, the slides, the volleys. just, it really, I wasn't surprised by Laura Sigelman. I wasn't surprised by others that are kind of crafty like that. These two showed a lot of guile. They showed a lot of feel.

Alvin Owusu (08:18.801)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (08:44.637)
You know, I was very, very impressed to see their all court game come out the way it did. If anything, felt like they could have taken a few more risks earlier and, and, and maybe even served a little more aggressively into the body. Just, you know, and not given, you know, the known bulldog of a returner that, that Ega is given her some of those same easy cracks. I say easy, none of it's, you know, you don't mean to get attacked, but maybe didn't adjust the serve placement as well as they could to keep that.

Alvin Owusu (08:53.18)
So.

Torrey (09:13.906)
pit bull off the rear end a little bit.

Alvin Owusu (09:15.433)
So that's kind of been my one, not necessarily beef with Ludmilla, but I've been kind of tracking her the last few months or so. It's that she has all this firepower, but does not necessarily put it together in a package that she can build offense off of. Yeah, she, exactly.

Torrey (09:31.239)
Right.

Right, that showcases it, right? She's got great power and great strokes and doesn't come with the serve to set it up.

Alvin Owusu (09:40.893)
Well, even like even even like when she gets inside of the court, if it's not a straightaway, like put away ball like her transition game is a little suspect, which is it's it's it's normal. You see that on the women's tour.

Torrey (09:53.128)
Sure, a bit soft and maybe she's been playing a lot on hard chord and knows not to come in necessarily so early, but she's decent hands and good volleys. A little, I say, Sasha's verivish on the approach. Not as quick to take the strike, just saying.

Alvin Owusu (10:12.105)
Okay, it's a way to look at it. It's way to look at it. But it's not really about Ludmila, right? so we've got Iga moving forward, playing against Belinda Bencic. Kind of two things here. Iga right now is, I think she's in a really, really good spot. She's found tennis that more or less works on all surfaces now. We look back at her and we think about Iga as this

Torrey (10:14.161)
Yeah.

No, no.

Torrey (10:38.791)
Okay, I agree.

Alvin Owusu (10:42.121)
clay court dominant player, but she's hard court masters after hard court masters. She's won the US Open a couple years ago. Her ability to do what she does on different surfaces has never really been an issue. just kind of always seemed like she thought she needed to make massive changes to do well on grass, and it seems like, and we talked about this earlier in the week, some of the changes that Wim has kind of brought in is you don't have to go full bore.

all the time on that forehand side. And I think, you know, not only is she getting more and more match reps at Wimbledon, as I mentioned before, the surface gets harder as the tournament moves on, which is more favorable to players with more spin. She's getting better, it's getting better for her. And it's a nice, it's really cool to see

Torrey (11:11.505)
Sure.

Torrey (11:21.115)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey (11:25.221)
Right. Sure. More play, pack it down the dirt, get more better traction.

or her. True. Good point.

Alvin Owusu (11:41.545)
someone who's been at the top and then quote unquote fallen off, think Ega's, her floor is like eight in the world. Yeah, well yeah, sure. But she's still right there and she's evolving and she's...

Torrey (11:47.399)
or plucked or plucked or pitched from her perch and now regaining foothold. So I'm with you.

Torrey (11:59.933)
of course, she's gonna be right there. She's the top player in the world. And Alvin, I was looking up earlier, she's 22 and nine on grass. I mean, she's not terrible on grass. I mean, let's make sure we understand. And that may be including these five or six matches here so far. So first, Semi, which I thought was kind of a shocker to me, but here Wimby, but clearly she's 22 and nine on grass and she's, you know, she's won several slams already. I don't ever doubt.

Alvin Owusu (12:15.657)
Yeah.

Torrey (12:26.107)
her competitiveness, her willingness to compete and finding a way. I think her serve has made huge impact. I also feel like if anybody, if anybody in the tour benefited from the half of the draw she was on, was Higa. And that's not to say that she has not played her butt off and dispatched everybody, because she has in stellar fashion, but right.

Alvin Owusu (12:46.289)
It worked out, it worked out, it worked out. Yeah, she had Rebecca in her draw, former Wimbledon champion, and she got out of that one, got out of it, but you can only play who's in front of you.

Torrey (12:55.556)
Right.

You're gonna play and it could really not and I'm not I don't take anything away from her I just say I was as I was going through this I was looking at the seeds and I'm like wait a 1 a 13 a 9 and an 8 Wow What happened to to 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 and and so on and so on and so on the man that did it not and so and Alvin you realize of the top 10 seeds outside of sabalenca I believe there were

Alvin Owusu (13:15.657)
Last week happened last week was a problem

Torrey (13:27.559)
my notes are correct, eight of them that are in the top 10 that did not make it. Do you realize four of them lost in the first round and two of them lost in the second and Madison of course lost in the third. You're looking at seven of eight. Mira is the only one that lost in the quarters. know what mean? Which is technically she earned her seating. you think about that, that leaves a lot of carnage, which that's my point. I'm not saying anything.

Alvin Owusu (13:48.253)
Right, where they should be, yeah.

Torrey (13:56.528)
about about Ega. was the one that was able to hold her seat and obviously she's the semi-finalist. I'm just saying there's a lot of others that did not that may have may have counted her a little better may have served a little bigger you know that to not have given her that advantage is all I'm saying and it just

Alvin Owusu (14:10.474)
Well, mean, I'll think to consider her. I don't remember what her seed was. She's six or eight. Like she's not even like, guess. Yeah, she's not eight. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, she's outperforming her seed. Look at that.

Torrey (14:15.942)
Kulis Yontek, eight, eight, eight seed. Yeah. To my point, I'll perform it, which let's face it, a lower seed for a slam champ, which is always weird when you got so many women in the draw that have won a grand slam already that are unseeded. But I'll only say it to say it's been a very good draw for her. She's maximized it. I look forward to her bench itch. I looked up ahead to head.

Binchich has won in three against her. Obviously they've only played four times. You know, I, we're looking at a bit of a preview, I think this match is pretty straightforward for, for Ega. She's playing very, very good tennis and I don't, I don't see Binchich stole one today. I don't want to before we go on her. She stole one today against, against Mira.

Alvin Owusu (14:59.369)
Did she steal it or did Mira just not do enough? I mean...

Torrey (15:03.812)
Well, Mira lost it, but my point being, nah, didn't do enough at the end of points when she had her on the ropes is what I saw. I mean, did not, I hate using the term, didn't step on her neck. I mean, just let it kind of let her get back in it somehow, some way. And you got to grow this one Olympics and you know, got into the

Alvin Owusu (15:15.239)
Right. Right.

Torrey (15:29.368)
semis of the world championships. This girl can play. She's been around for a long time. She's not new to this. She was darn sure true to this and she just stayed. What's your term? Finish the drill? Mira didn't finish the drill and I feel like there are times when I work with my players on powder completion. We do a lot of pattern work, right? Do this, do this, look for your shot, right? At some point you've got to go three or four shots from step up ball and

finish the pattern and know what the certain tactics are to close out because otherwise if there's no finish then you're just setting up and not really closing out. That's what Mira did today. She did not finish it as often as she could.

Alvin Owusu (15:59.379)
Finish it. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (16:11.306)
And she also didn't, I mean, also, even to make it even more simple, she didn't execute, because she had opportunities in both tiebreakers to finish points, actually, she did the thing, she got through steps five of six, and then would just miss a put-away ball. Or, sir.

Torrey (16:22.606)
Yep. Right?

A miss, a put away, came in a little late. Ball was too low, some balls below the net she was trying to finish off. Just again, hit right back to her on a couple of swingers. Just little things that to me, again, youth is what it showed me. But I don't say stole it as if it wasn't her match to win. I'm just saying it was a couple of tiebreakers. I didn't feel like she dominated Mere by any stretch of the imagination. I felt like she was the more savvy veteran player.

And I felt like it was certainly her match, but I just feel like, with that, having said that, feel like Ega looking at the two matches that I watched Ega will certainly do that. And, and then some what Mira was unable to complete Ega is very good at. And so I didn't, didn't, I didn't see her ability, Belinda's ability to be wildly and slippery in those corners and be dangerous.

so much as I saw a mirror not finished like she could have.

Alvin Owusu (17:27.113)
Yeah, I feel like looking at that match, it's like, to your point, like, Eagle will be able to do the things that Mira wasn't able to do, like her movement, her ability to.

I mean, ability to execute. We're not gonna say that like in A, but I feel like her EGA in the middle of the court is a lot more efficient than Mira in the middle of the court. Yes.

Torrey (17:42.253)
Yeah.

Torrey (17:48.932)
Her center shots may be the best of all time. Her center shots may be the best I've ever seen in a women's game. And Serena was pretty good at it. But her center shots are absolutely just tactically and precision just spot on. mean, you just round up, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (18:05.45)
From the ground up too, because her footwork is impeccable. She puts herself in position, gives herself time to even use spin a lot of the time on the forehand side to get that ball off the court as opposed to needing to bang it flat through the back of the court. So I feel the same way I feel about a lot of EGLE matches. Like once this thing starts going, like if we get to an hour mark, if Belinda can be down a set and a break, like right, yeah.

Torrey (18:15.191)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (18:27.042)
Yeah.

If it's still a match, you know, by the hour, by the hour, like that'd be, that'd be saying something for Belinda from, from what we've seen. Oh, for sure. From what we've seen. Not, not a huge serve, not a, not a, not a huge weapon. Very wily. But again, you're talking about Ega here and then that would tee it up. I am looking forward to, uh, I did a few notes on this match here. Alvin, did you know that Anissa Mova is five and three in the head to head with Sabalinka?

Alvin Owusu (18:35.249)
She could actually just go right through her. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (18:56.497)
Yeah, but those are the, those five, the majority of those wins are from before Sabalinka was Sabalinka. The Sabalinka we know now. So like in the last three matches, would say that it's been three on the trot for, for, for Arena. But yeah, there was a while she was like undefeated against her. Like it was like four and or five and at one point.

Torrey (19:04.227)
No, no, no question. No question.

Torrey (19:16.998)
I'll, I'll, I'll, sure. I'll, I'll give you one more stat 11 and two on grass and versus 28 and 17 on grass. Now, unfortunately, because of some injuries and some takes some time away from the game, she's missed a year or two of some of those matches. And obviously arena has gotten, has become arena, you know, in the last couple of years to your point, but just to say an arena made the semi here and back in 21, the point I'm getting that album is this match could get fairly

You know, it could get, there's a little bit of unfinished history here and they're both starting to play well. You cannot go through Amanda's backhand. think that's been proven. Amanda's got a backhand that will absolutely take you out. She can bang it cross, bang it line, inside out, skinny cross. She has a world-class backhand that not many can handle. And I say that to say it will be good to see a couple of six foot tall, you know, bangers.

go head to head on this thing. Do I give Arena the edge? 100%. Do I think it'll be interesting and could it get dicey? I do.

Alvin Owusu (20:23.047)
I'm with you, I do give Irina the edge here. And it's interesting, we're looking at the semi-finals looking forward. The quarter-final matchup, it's not really much to take, Irina versus Sigmund really has nothing to do with what she'll see against Amanda in the next round, but I will say she did a really, really good job of staying mentally with it.

Torrey (20:45.131)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (20:51.401)
throughout the entirety of that match and even switching up her strategy a little bit in the third set, like using a forehand slice, like Irina Sabalinka, biggest forehand in women's game, using a forehand slice. But she did a really good job of mixing that in to kind of keep Laura off of what she wanted to do, giving her less to work with. Yeah, exactly, so that was really, really cool. And then, I don't really want to talk much about that match.

Torrey (20:51.447)
Yep. Right.

Torrey (21:08.876)
Yep. Right, feeding off our pace. Right, yep.

Alvin Owusu (21:19.453)
It happened, I feel like happened a year ago. But Amanda's match against Pavlya Chankova was like a classic women's tennis match in that the match, once they both got into it, it was all about serves and returns. Like, can you make enough first serves? Because if you can't, the returner is building offense off of that second serve return. Like, on both sides, both sides.

Torrey (21:42.563)
Right, right, right.

Alvin Owusu (21:47.709)
damn near could have drop fed it instead of a second serve and backed up and played a little bit defense. But I'm interested in the matchup between Anasumova and Sabalenka. I think skill wise off the ground they look to be equals to a certain extent. Yeah.

Torrey (21:50.028)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (22:04.002)
Right, very similar, sure, 100%. I would say Sabalinka's forehand is much bigger. I would say Amanda's backhand is much bigger and better. And the forehand's gonna go to the backhand. And that was my thing was to say, what I like about the rock, paper, scissors, this is Sabalinka will love to go inside out, step up front of the backhand. that, much like she plays Coco, that is.

a non-starter because that ball will come back and potentially hurt her off that same ball because Amanda just strikes that ball so darn clean. And Amanda didn't have a bad forehand like Arena didn't have a bad backhand. So to me, it's going to come down to Arena's backhand and Amanda's forehand. And to your point, can Amanda make enough first serves to be relevant and can and if, if, if and only if Arena

Alvin Owusu (22:42.47)
Right.

Torrey (22:55.573)
has a few sloppy service games can Amanda take advantage and keep this thing tight and threaten her and really take a set to get her attention. Otherwise, if Arena's in the driver's seat, there's not many players, Sviatek, Koko Gov included that Madison Keys, that can take her to task if she's in the driver's seat the entire time. That's where she wants to be.

Alvin Owusu (23:17.415)
Yeah, I mean, think the, you know, kind of in that same vein, the blueprint would be like Madison at the US, I mean, at the Australian Open. Like if Amanda is going to actually push Arena and try to take this match, I don't think she has the same serve. Like Madison was able to get three points off of her serve, and Madison played lights out for the vast majority of that match as well. also a big differentiator is foot speed.

Torrey (23:34.516)
Right. Right. Right.

Torrey (23:41.119)
Right. Right.

Torrey (23:46.536)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (23:47.272)
Amanda, I worry about Amanda anytime she gets outside the singles lines. And that is something that is going to, I think, show up pretty early and pretty often because Arena has impeccable footwork and moves quite well for someone that size, yeah. So I think it might come down to, obviously, serves, right? Like both women will be looking to attack second serves. Arena's second serve isn't as.

Torrey (23:57.076)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey (24:01.376)
She does, especially for being as tall as she is. 100%, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (24:17.101)
impactful on the grass. does not get the kick that she wants it to get. So I think Amanda will be able to build offense off of it. take that, I mean, that's kind of the same on both sides though. But once they get into rallies, I just feel like, I feel like Amanda is gonna get behind in the rallies.

Torrey (24:17.896)
Right. Right. Right.

Torrey (24:27.328)
percent.

Torrey (24:34.42)
I think she will defend better than you might think early. I think what's, what's going to be interesting is let's just give it a 10 ball rally, Well, it'll be max cause that's about all, all they're going to do. But my point is in that 10 ball span, ball three through five is where Amanda's going to shine after ball six and seven it to your point, she will start to get behind, but.

Alvin Owusu (24:44.765)
Max.

Torrey (25:02.912)
If she strikes backhand back deep to Arena's backhand and can wrong foot go behind or go through the court with another backhand or wall and inside out, that now pushes Sabalinka outside the single sidelines. And in which case that's the favorable matchup for Amanda. If she cannot and you give that same inside out back to Arena and it's now the inside in territory, curtains. And that to me is where this match is going to be made.

A make or break for Amanda. Can she capitalize and counterstrike soon enough to where it's not a foot race, but the depth and she can counterstrike earlier. And if not, then at the end of the day, that's just what it is. So that's, that's, that's my take.

Alvin Owusu (25:44.393)
Well, how do you see her doing that without serving 70 plus percent on first serves?

Torrey (25:51.168)
but she's been serving pretty good, Alvin. I think that's my point. So that's the thing. I don't see that changing. And I really don't see, if she doesn't Alvin, this will be three and three. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, I think we both understand arenas, though no one playing in the world has great returns and especially second server turns. So if she doesn't, this won't even be a, this will be a walkthrough. We're assuming both players are gonna bring 70 % plus, hopefully high 70s for Amanda.

to make this thing relevant. has got a good serve. If she can land enough first, this will be a match. And if she does it, then it won't.

Alvin Owusu (26:27.854)
Then it won't. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

Torrey (26:31.547)
Sigmund, shout out to Sigmund for bringing out a flurry of tennis IQ. I know we kind of skipped over, I skipped over the part of kind of reviewing the quarter. I was so impressed with her tennis IQ and just her overall mutant ability to just understand where the ball was going, what to play, slices, drop shots, balls.

on the rise droppers, mean, had had had Luke and then would tag a few balls every once in just to kind of keep you honest. And I was so impressed with her, with her play. I that was a match to get through, not necessarily to look good doing it. And I got to say, again, the grass, we talked about this before the grass does things. It shows up different parts of the court, much like Sonigo did with with Shelton, you know, a few days. He just he completely did not give him what he was looking for.

didn't give them any rhythm, didn't, and a flurry of the drop shots where you're not looking for it, Alvin, can, you know, makes you naturally move in and kind of cheat drop shot. And then the ball goes past you. She put her, man, she put her, was Tom Glavine, old school Braves pitcher. She was putting the paces, you know, she really was. And I thought, and hats off her for doing that. When you don't have a lot of weapons, you do that, right? But at the same time, I have to give her credit, what credit was due. She had a lot of players in her wake this tournament.

Alvin Owusu (27:39.479)
nice one. Nice one.

Torrey (27:53.926)
This was the, she was the lowest Poisson of this tournament as far as just a wrecking ball through the draw and hats off to her. It was, she was fun to watch.

Alvin Owusu (28:00.042)
Yep, She reminded me of like players you'd meet in juniors that are just like throwing junk at you. They don't have the quote unquote pretty strokes or the classic game from a reputable academy taught well, but they're just good at winning tennis matches. And especially in that fashion, they put a lot of

Torrey (28:07.666)
Yeah. Crafty. Yeah.

Torrey (28:15.313)
Right. Right.

Torrey (28:20.989)
Right.

Torrey (28:27.677)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (28:29.353)
pressure on you to execute over and over and over and Sabalinka got

Torrey (28:30.578)
Right.

Torrey (28:34.526)
And the unconventional game, which you haven't seen before, makes it even tougher because you haven't seen it before.

Alvin Owusu (28:41.403)
Right. You haven't had to hit these kind of shots from these particular positions in the court. But the strategy is the same though. have to, like you play against a player like that and you see that in juniors, you see that at recreational adult level. Apparently you can see it in the quarterfinals on center court at Wimbledon as well. You just gotta be willing to go through that person. And that's not over hit from the baseline. It is.

Torrey (28:45.864)
Right?

Torrey (28:50.302)
Sure.

Torrey (28:57.616)
Torrey (29:10.367)
in the process.

Alvin Owusu (29:11.301)
It is the process of like building the point and when you get the short ball, don't overcook it. Don't be lazy with the footwork. You actually have to execute and continue to move forward and then finish off with a she might make you hit the overhead as well, but you have to be willing to do that over and over and over and over and know that it's going to be, it's going to be a, you know, a rough ride. like I was watching it. It'll, it will be a ride. It is a battle of attrition.

Torrey (29:20.446)
Yeah. Right. Right.

Torrey (29:34.021)
Right? But it'll be a ride. It'll be a ride and a ride you can handle. Right. Longer than you want. A whole lot more uncomfortable than you want. But manageable.

Alvin Owusu (29:43.144)
Yeah, it's a battle of attrition. And it was interesting to see like at the end of that match when, when it really got down to like the business and back into that fourth set. And you could see that Laura did not have the tools to finish the match. She couldn't finish the match. and that is a, you know, that's just kind of like other players would have given it to her. And arena pulled up just enough, like

Torrey (29:52.881)
Yep, yep.

Torrey (29:58.717)
to finish. Right, right.

Torrey (30:10.213)
Right. Through frustration alone.

Alvin Owusu (30:12.793)
just enough to like, I'm gonna get over this finish line. Because I don't think you can without me giving it to you. Close, she tried. She tried. Not gonna give it to you. Yeah.

Torrey (30:16.126)
Yep. Right. Right. And I'm not going to give it to you. She was close. I'm not going to give it to you. I'm not here to help you. Good, good playing. Very mature tennis from Arena. She did that in the Australian Open too, Alvin. felt did a phenomenal job up until she ran up against Madison of showing some craftiness in some in some very tough matches. She did it again in the French. She's starting to show me a lot of

maturity, one of my ladies at the club loves that word. She says, maturity, know, when she plays the right shot instead of the shot she may have wanted to play, you know, it's, I love seeing Arena's maturity continue to develop because we know she has the big shots and let's face it, Alvin, a player with lot of shots, especially growing up with a of shots, you play that way because you know, you can, and unfortunately you lean on it too much because,

Alvin Owusu (30:54.611)
Right.

Torrey (31:12.245)
And you always take the burden of taking the risk and finishing. You don't really have that burden. You shouldn't have that burden when the goal is to pressure the other person. Right. And I feel like what she's really done is she's found a way to find that balance between I'm still wanting to establish pressure. I have to do that. But I don't always have to pull the trigger and let it be on me. You know, I can still defend. I can put a few balls back and forth. can play a little Muhammad Ali, Ruffalo.

you know if need be and then go for the ball I'm looking for and realize you can't and if you're waiting for me to go big or go through you or take all the chances I'm smarter than that now I don't have to put myself in that trick bag all the time

Alvin Owusu (31:53.47)
Yeah, a little controlled aggression. You're also not to jump ahead, but we've seen kind of that's been the growth on Carlos Alcaraz in the last few months. the pace of my ball will be enough sometimes, will be enough. I don't have to hit the winner. I don't have to try to hit the winner. can almost old school agassi, like I'm gonna let you give it to me. I'm gonna make you give it to me. yeah. Kind of like just kind of looking ahead to.

Torrey (32:00.924)
percent.

Torrey (32:05.604)
Right. Will be enough. Right. Punisher.

Alvin Owusu (32:21.553)
if we find ourselves on Saturday, women's final, what that might look like.

Torrey (32:27.217)
What will the scores with Ega and Arena be? Is that what we're saying or?

Alvin Owusu (32:29.993)
Uh, not necessarily the scores, but what's at stake here? Like, how do we feel about how, how do we, with the four that we have, I'm a big, I'm a big story guy. Like when people ask me, who do you want to win? I'm like, well, at the end of the year or the end of the tournament, there should be a, there's a story. But there's a, like when the book, when I go back and look at the book of 2025, like there should be a reason for the way these, the way these things shook out. Right.

Torrey (32:33.958)
How tough of a match, what do you?

Torrey (32:48.314)
Right, I know you like this whole story, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (32:59.409)
We are in a weird space here where we have an opportunity to get Irina Sabalenka and Iga Suyatec in the finals of the Grand Slam for I believe the first time against each other. They never played in the final of the Grand Slam, right? Definitely first time at Wimby. The first time final for both of them. Maybe first time final for any of these four semifinalists, right? At Wimbledon. So that's interesting.

Torrey (33:12.092)
And certainly the first time to win me.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. First time, final for both of them. So, 100%, 100%.

Alvin Owusu (33:29.853)
I think who's it most important for right now? I think it's really important for Arena. I think Arena, because okay, let's allow ourselves to live in this kind of space where Arena makes the final and doesn't win it. That'd be three in a row. Once is a thing, two is a coincidence, right? Three's a trend. And we often talk here about her being the most dominant women's tennis player we've seen since Serena Williams, right?

Torrey (33:35.612)
Okay, why you say that?

Torrey (33:43.26)
right, third time in a row.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm with you.

Torrey (33:57.244)
She is. She is.

Alvin Owusu (33:58.878)
But then how does, I mean, yes, two things can be true, but now we have to reconcile that, right? Is she then like, can only do this on hardcore? Wait, this feels.

Torrey (34:03.418)
At the same time. Yep.

Torrey (34:11.516)
I'm with it. You're hypothesizing. I get it. I think I agree with you in the sense that it's more important arena this year. I also would tell you that she has completely put her foot down on the women's tour and the other two, Madison didn't have a great follow-up to her Australia win. Coco got knocked out the first round after her French. Tim, up to your point.

Alvin Owusu (34:20.275)
this year.

Alvin Owusu (34:35.593)
She's regressed to somewhat the norm.

Torrey (34:41.391)
When the others who won that slam, in my opinion, nosedived a little bit post their championship and here she's now been in three in a row, it doesn't carry the same sting in my opinion.

Alvin Owusu (34:52.713)
That's fair, that's fair. Then also, there's also the Amanda Anna Smova angle. It would be really cool, like when we think about American women's tennis, could we have now that would be, if she were to make the final, that'd be four slams in a row, I think, that we've had an American woman in the final, dating back to Pagula in the...

Torrey (35:02.756)
Yep.

Torrey (35:08.751)
For sure. For sure.

Torrey (35:16.569)
Yep. That would be amazing.

Alvin Owusu (35:22.385)
US Open Final. I don't remember who Ego beat in the French Open Final last year, but yeah. Probably not. I don't think so either.

Torrey (35:23.452)
That would be amazing. Do I think it will happen? That's like asking for Fritz to get past Carlos in the next few days. Could it happen? It's possible. Is it likely? Not so sure.

Alvin Owusu (35:33.897)
Oof, let's, yep. Yeah. I would say it's more likely, it's more likely than, I think it's more likely than Taylor beating Carlos.

Torrey (35:44.913)
you mean Amanda and Arena? Sure, especially on a head to head basis. Sure, again, no doubt, but my point to my point, you know what I mean? It's possible. I'm not sure as likely, so.

Alvin Owusu (35:46.65)
Yeah, if you had to look at the two...

Alvin Owusu (35:54.876)
It's possible and the Belinda of things. I feel like we kind of glazed over the Belinda. Yeah, it's just. full stop. I don't know what Belinda does well. I watch her play tennis and I'm like, I don't know what she does well.

Torrey (35:59.319)
Yeah, and I don't want to sell it short.

I just feel like Belinda... Go ahead.

Torrey (36:12.699)
And the fact that you say that, and she's going up against a player that maximizes what you don't do well is the problem. And that's my point. If you don't have big this, that, and the third, guess what? Eagle will make you pay. If you do not have a serve and a form that can take her off the court, Eagle will make you pay. If you hit a ball a little short in middle of the court, Eagle will make you pay. And that's my only issue. If it was anybody else in this matchup, if they were lefty, if there was something.

Alvin Owusu (36:40.938)
Mm.

Torrey (36:41.049)
right, that they brought in this particular mix. I'd be like, he's gonna have a tough one here. This one here to me, this one here to me reminds me a little bit of the match where Emma Navarro played Eega in, was that US? Where she went through her pretty quickly. It was like 6-1, like 3-0 or whatever in the second. And then Emma finally got on the board. That's what this one will look like. And I don't want to sell her short, nor do I want to.

Alvin Owusu (36:59.707)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (37:06.458)
give her to poop on newly crowned mom and all that. Belinda's been phenomenal and a veteran of the tour. I just feel the match up on this one in a rock, paper, scissors kind of way. Eega is getting signals from the person behind you, watching your fist. Oh, you're gonna do rock? Gotcha. Oh, you're gonna do scissors? Gotcha. And it's just one of those kinds of things. She's just going, oof.

Alvin Owusu (37:29.874)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (37:33.962)
It's a different class. It's a different class of player.

Torrey (37:36.255)
just in a horrible matchup for Belinda, in my opinion.

Alvin Owusu (37:39.048)
Yeah, okay, that's fair. Let's mob on over to the men's side here. And I wanna start with bottom of the draw, Alcara's versus Fritz. Taylor's match against Karen Hatch. I was listening to Taylor's kind of comments coming out of the post match and he said something to the effect of the way I played in the first two sets against Karen.

Torrey (37:44.313)
Yeah!

Torrey (37:48.644)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (38:07.978)
No one in the world's beating me. And I'm like, again, Taylor, with your irrational confidence, which you have to have it. I love the way he talks about himself because no one's gonna gas you up if you're not gonna gas yourself up, right? And you need to have that confidence in yourself. But my man, Karen Hatchanoff, is Karen Hatchanoff for a reason.

Torrey (38:13.434)
Bro. 100 % shameless self plug.

Torrey (38:35.257)
You

Alvin Owusu (38:36.477)
Did you see what Carlos did? This is, no shade. Taylor has done a, I've said it before, I'll say it again, Taylor Fritz is probably the fourth best grass court player in the world. And he is in the tournament right now with the other three better than him.

Torrey (38:50.102)
for sure.

Torrey (38:56.857)
But the fact that he's in the conversation is a huge, huge compliment. Yep. I'll give you some numbers, Alvin. 13 and one on grass. 13 and one. This is his first semi here at Wembee, but two other quarter finals here. I think he's won a few titles of his house. I want to say three or four of his whatever number titles, nine titles I think he has are on grass. Here's another one.

Alvin Owusu (39:01.295)
should not be overlooked. That should not be overlooked. That he is

Alvin Owusu (39:09.705)
this season.

Alvin Owusu (39:22.91)
On grass,

Torrey (39:25.559)
Guess who this player is. 22 and 10 on grass. Don't answer yet.

29 and three on grass. And this one here may be hard not to guess. One, 20 and 20 on grass. Not total, on grass. So I think you understand the other, who the other parts of the semi-final shake out to.

Alvin Owusu (39:35.433)
I know that one.

Alvin Owusu (39:40.073)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. On grass.

I did see the stat flash up today and it's mentioned a few times. Novak Djokovic was in his like 62nd quarterfinal and Kabali has won 62 tour matches or something like that. like, what are we talking about here? Yeah, mean, let's like, no shade. mean, I'll just look at it as objectively as possible. Yeah. If both players play their best.

Torrey (40:02.092)
Matches, right? Matches.

Torrey (40:12.94)
as we can. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (40:19.229)
this still probably won't be close. It'll be close. It won't work out in his favor. He doesn't do...

Torrey (40:26.72)
He's, he's playing the best player he could possibly play on quite frankly, one of his favorite surfaces. And I feel like, I don't feel like Taylor does two things. Well, Taylor serves and hits four ends very well. He actually returns better than you think, but he doesn't return phenomenal on firsts and he doesn't, and he doesn't cover the court extremely well, nor does he close and volley very well.

His drop shot returns and gets aren't very good. His on the move to the backhand is more passing shot-esque, a la Marty Fish from back in the day and leaning on it. Then he is setting up and countering and guess who he's playing against the fastest, best footwork, best court coverage, best return, best drop shot player we've seen, dare I say ever. 29 and three Alvin on grass.

He won this tournament two years now in a row. I'm not sure he has a higher win percentage Alvin than the, than Sir Roger and Novak on grass, which is saying something.

Alvin Owusu (41:29.757)
Hmm?

Alvin Owusu (41:41.513)
I think that I'm going to say that probably says there's a little bit of the rest of the field. Then it says it probably says something more about the rest of the field considering Roger was playing against like players who were actually pretty good on grass. But your point is your point is I take your point though.

Torrey (41:50.743)
It's.

It's a fair statement and neither he has not played 120 matches, but the point being, nor has he won 24, but the point of me, he's beaten the guy that's won 24. And I'm only mentioning to say that's who Taylor's playing. So Taylor, maybe he's saying that to build himself up. Maybe he's saying that to, maybe he's got a good sports psychologist in his corner telling him to give himself a shameless self-pluck. That's great. But this match will get out of hand if he does not bring

Alvin Owusu (42:05.705)
twice.

Torrey (42:23.479)
close to 80 % first serves if he does not come forward. And if he does not keep somehow, some way the ability of Carlos to, he better keep that ball and that back six feet of the court. I mean, if not, this could be a very short day.

Alvin Owusu (42:42.439)
Yeah, it's the, I remember last year I was watching the ATP finals and watching Fritz play against Sinner. And they showed some pretty creative camera angles in this match, but I think we might even have talked about this. Like they would get into rallies and you could slowly start to see Taylor getting behind in the rallies. Like not being able to recover to the optimal spot splits that a little bit off.

Torrey (43:04.94)
Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (43:10.311)
like not being able to hit the ball he wants to. It would happen ever so slightly on every single ball until there was a down line winner at some point. And I was like, that's just the difference. It's small, especially on hard court, it's small, but his movement is enough to keep him from being able to break into the top, to challenge the top.

Torrey (43:21.969)
Yep. Yep. Yep. But significant. Yeah.

Torrey (43:35.659)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (43:36.359)
two or three. I put Djokovic at a mental three, even though he is ranked whatever he is ranked. he is, those are the three best players in the world, but for him to break into that group, I think Taylor is bumping up against his ceiling. Like that's just his ceiling. Like I don't think he's going to get past. Yes, yes.

Torrey (43:56.151)
with current company and had current company not been here, Taylor would have himself a grand slam. You know what I mean? Because he is phenomenal on grass. Unfortunately, like so many others who came through the last 15 years, they are coming in a time that just happens to be in a time of some of the greats. And so that to me is it's unfortunate time for him because he is a very good player and a very, good grass court player. Dare I say phenomenal grass court player.

had it not been for the other three that were sharing the Simi with him.

Alvin Owusu (44:28.143)
He's a good grass court player. other three, no, he's a good grass court player. Carlos and Novak are great grass court players. Janek is great on grass because he's great, not because he is a great grass court player. So I would even put him, he's probably.

Torrey (44:46.751)
Right. I would, I would even make it simpler. They are great players. Taylor's great on grass. And I would say he's good on everything else. He's great on grass. These are great players. They're great on everything. And I, and, and I think that's, but that may be the difference. So yeah, I don't see this match getting, getting two two out of hand. was very impressed to see how Carlos literally dispatched.

Alvin Owusu (44:59.367)
Right. Great on everything.

Torrey (45:16.073)
Cam Norris. mean, when I tell you, don't think Cam played a bad match. don't think Cam. Cam may have played quality wise. Forget Carlos. He probably played some of the best tennis that he's played in those nine games each set that he's played all tournament. He held, he did a I can't say held, sir. He got broken lot. He did, his serve was solid. His returns off. He opened up the match. I'll, whatever.

big down line winner, awful good return. The guy played phenomenal for his level, right? It just simply was not enough. And between his comfortability on the grass, being hometown hero, you name it, he could not make a dent. He's lefty, he has a decent serve. He's fairly quick, moves around the court well, great feeling, slice around the court, and he's from England. I mean, you can't put more...

You can't put more, you know, possible, you know, accolades, you know what I mean? Best case scenario. And buddy, I'm telling you, there were some points, there were some points where it looked like Carlos was trying to get a few more hits in just to make sure that he felt good about it. And it looked like at any given time he was ready to shift gears and take it up a notch had the opponent been able to do so.

Alvin Owusu (46:18.089)
That's the best case scenario.

Except.

Alvin Owusu (46:41.705)
Carlos came out like he was still playing against Rublev in the last two sets. He was right there, same spot, ready to roll, ready to jam, and I felt bad for Cameron. They were playing different levels, completely different levels.

Torrey (47:01.577)
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, it's but to your point, Cam was at his ceiling and he's playing against the best player in the world. And that's and that's what it looked like to me. I'm going.

Alvin Owusu (47:11.111)
As if there was a level in between the two of them and Carlos was like at the at the at the next level it was

Torrey (47:15.573)
I am Carlos, Carlos and watching him this tournament. watched, I saw it again in that, in that French final. Carlos is starting to play and this will, this will be a funny term. I use this with some of my kids sometimes in the academy. Cause there is no such thing, but he's a 17 UTR. He's a 17 UTR. That's what he is. You know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (47:34.133)
haha

Torrey (47:41.588)
That's what he looks like right now. And that's what he is playing like right now. And Alvin, I have to say, had not been as impressed with the players level than I have right now since the mid 2000s Roger Federer. I mean, it's just, he's playing so well and so within himself and such. He has an answer for everything. And it's just, I don't know if you turn that off. That has to be caught. That doesn't turn off.

Alvin Owusu (48:11.083)
Yeah, and the interesting thing is when you look at the way that Carlos, the 07 fed, 06 to 08 fed, was it 06 to 08, or 03 to 05? yeah. Oh man, for those of you who were there, you remember. If those of you who weren't, Jesus, those were some times, Those were some times. And Djokovic,

Torrey (48:20.436)
Oh, like 04, 05, 06, I think it was that where he won like nine to 12. Like he was just, only ones he didn't win were the French.

Torrey (48:38.781)
Math to class.

Alvin Owusu (48:40.968)
Djokovic has made similar runs, like nine out of 12, but Djokovic broke tennis, right? Like he figured out tennis and has out-tennessed everyone. What Roger did was like he transcended tennis. We all elevated with him. It was artful. It was beautiful. I respect the hell out of both. Like this is not about Djokovic. This is about...

Torrey (48:51.482)
Right, cheat code, yeah.

Torrey (49:00.2)
Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (49:10.91)
what like 0506 fat actually looked like. was a, the whole, those were.

Torrey (49:13.638)
Right. Took the game to a different level, made it, made you, gave you, it was a personification of the game at its highest level, at its most graceful, and played the way it was meant to be drawn up. If you had, if you open the book, there's a picture. Exactly. See, see also, Roger Federer.

Alvin Owusu (49:28.52)
Yeah, open the book. Tennis, there's the picture. Yeah, yeah. He brought, think this is the thing that bridges the Federer and the Alcares together is like they bring people from outside of tennis into tennis. Like this is dominance and it's beautiful. Wow, wow. Novak's dominance is for us tennis nerds. Like when you watch him play tennis, it's like man, that's perfect tennis. That's how you play tennis.

Torrey (49:43.558)
intense.

Torrey (49:49.01)
So

Torrey (49:52.625)
right.

Right. He's, he's, what's the, what's the crazy guy and, and street fighter that's always at the end and street fighter that Blanco, whatever his name is, the, crazy Russian, you know what mean? Blank Blanko or whatever his name is, make our blanket. Like he, he is that player that he's a nine out of, he's nine out of 10 on this. mean, you, there's just no way to beat him. You know what I mean? Kind of thing. You have to, you have to do a few moves, wiggle the joystick, little bit.

Alvin Owusu (50:06.641)
I can't remember the name but I know you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (50:17.139)
Right. Yes.

Torrey (50:24.967)
You know what mean? You have to, you literally have to get lucky, you know, to take out, take them out. But to your point, again, no shadow on Fritz. I wanna say this last thing about Fritz. I feel like Fritz might be doing it because he didn't get his due. So I wanna give him his due. Played a great tournament up to this point. Having, last we saw him, Alvin, lest we forget, was losing to Jocka Minsik in the semis of Miami. I don't think he's played much since. And we were, you I don't, no one.

Alvin Owusu (50:52.318)
He was out during most of Clay, because he was hurt, and then kind of got it back together. He won a warm-up event. He went to warm-up. He a warm-up too. He finaled one, won another one. Got himself in right form coming into this event.

Torrey (50:54.609)
right?

Torrey (51:01.659)
Yeah, was it it Halle or was it?

Torrey (51:10.597)
and it's played great and for those like me that are listening and watching this that remember his fateful lost in a doll where the doll couldn't serve and I still haven't really forgiven him. Taylor, I have forgiven you. I know that means a lot to you and you're gonna finally get to sleep at night but I say it to say I forgive you. have 100 % ebbed that from my memory and I am very, very, very happy to.

Alvin Owusu (51:23.85)
Hey!

Torrey (51:37.946)
I've seen you in person play a few matches here at the Atlanta Open. I've seen you up close and personal. You are a great tennis player doing a great thing for the men's game here in the States. Shout out to Ben Shelton as well. However, feel like keep doing what you're doing. You're going to be great. You have carried the torch from Johnny and Quary and all the rest of the ones. And obviously even from my main man, Roddy. You have a slam yet to gain to join Roddy status, but...

You're going to do great. Continue to push. You are playing one of the best in the game. We are witnessing another phenomenal greatest of all time. And I would just be completely stoked if this match, if he were going to take this match five sets, Alvin, that would tell me a lot about, about Taylor fritz.

Alvin Owusu (52:25.138)
If we're in a fifth set, if we're in a fifth set, I mean, well, Carlos Sacco-Rez doesn't lose fifth sets, but if we're in a fifth set, something happened. Something happened, and I could say, this is how it could happen. Taylor could come out prime for the fight, and Carlos has a slow start. Now, we haven't seen Carlos slow starts. Well, a French Open final, but he's playing against Yannick, and it is a weird. But he's, he,

Torrey (52:37.852)
Taylor would have happened.

Torrey (52:51.568)
Yeah. Then that thing with his eye and all that, that kind of took him a little bit. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (52:54.64)
Occasionally Carlos will come out slow. He will drop a hill occasionally. This late in the tournament, not normally. Once he writes the ship, which I gonna, as I mentioned this earlier, the kind of, when you look at his matriculation through tournaments, he's a little wobbly early, wobbly for him. And then once he writes the ship, boom, he's locked in, he's going. Yeah, which I think happened the other day against.

Torrey (52:58.674)
Okay, Yep.

Torrey (53:16.111)
Yeah, it's point and shoot. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (53:21.642)
against actually strut the strut match he got it together and then against Rubev is like okay we're done now.

Torrey (53:26.789)
He played so well against Rublev. There was a couple of times Rublev looked back over at him like, are you serious? Like there was a couple of times like on a couple of passes that he was like, when top 10 in the world is shocked and surprised at the return pass of one of the biggest points in the game, that's noteworthy in and of itself. So anyway, we've, I love your term, wax poetic on him enough.

Alvin Owusu (53:32.052)
Are you serious?

Alvin Owusu (53:42.302)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (53:55.985)
I just feel this could be a, we might be, I don't wanna catch, know, hatch any chickens before they, what is it? Count any chickens for the hatch. But it is, but I'm just gonna say this is looking like a 29 and three will be 30. I said 31. 30 and three. Yeah, fairly soon. And you know what? I'm looking forward to it because I think we talk about this all the time.

Alvin Owusu (53:56.445)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (54:05.94)
Check this before they hatch.

Alvin Owusu (54:15.849)
30 and 3.

Torrey (54:22.575)
You got to get enough matches against the greats to be able to know how to play them the next time. You know what I mean? You just can't play them once or twice and then know what to do. You got to play them five, six, seven, eight times. And then they start respecting your level. They start taking some chances they wouldn't normally take or not taking the chances and leave the door open for you to take that ball because you usually didn't miss that ball. Those are things that I like to see in this match that Taylor can go five. It'd be phenomenal. I don't think he will. It's possible, but he might.

Alvin Owusu (54:47.505)
And it's, yeah, and it's not a matter, I don't think it's because of what Taylor won't be able to do. I think it's more, it'll more come down to what Taylor is not. Like, I don't think it's gonna be him not being able to execute. I think Taylor will be fine. I assume Taylor will serve fine. I assume Taylor will play the way he's played in the four matches, five matches leading up to this. And that just won't.

Torrey (55:06.158)
Right. Sure.

No.

Torrey (55:16.346)
Won't be enough. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (55:16.821)
Enough I haven't I haven't seen I've never seen Taylor fritz play a match in which I go. yeah that that's that right there would be Alcaraz that and that's that's that's actually the now we're hitting the ceiling

Torrey (55:30.18)
Yep. And his ceiling and his opponent. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. it's so pretty. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. You're right.

Alvin Owusu (55:32.263)
I can't dunk. I'm just not tall, I just can't dunk. There's nothing I can do. Yeah, yep, that's that one and we come down to the last semi-final Novak Djokovic against.

Torrey (55:51.17)
Alvin, Alvin, 22 and 10. He's five and four against the greatest of all time. He has only made one semi on the grass. That was in 23. We've said it before, he's mortal. Alvin, I think Novak could beat Yannick Sinner on grass in this tournament in a few days.

Alvin Owusu (56:18.356)
Well, I think you'd have to because I think in the beginning of the tournament I said that Novak Djokovic might win this thing. And I haven't seen anything to make me think the contrary. Yeah, it's on grass. This is a whole different beast.

Torrey (56:27.618)
Otherwise, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:35.784)
The matchup, Novak looks unbothered by anything that happens on a tennis court. Losing a set, I don't care. He and Carlos have that in common. Like lose a set, whatever, it's fine. I'm gonna win this match. I know I'm gonna win this match. You know I'm gonna win this match. You can have that set. It ain't gonna matter. And today against Kabali, I was really impressed by Kabali. That guy is that guy is,

Torrey (56:40.356)
anything.

Torrey (57:01.645)
I was too.

Alvin Owusu (57:05.436)
a little belief away from being a top 10 player. just,

Torrey (57:07.31)
Yep. Yeah. And maybe a little bit bigger, sir. But to your point, yes. Right.

Alvin Owusu (57:12.81)
Yeah, the firepower aspect sure but he's the same size as Carlos like you could you could cut it could we can grow into a bigger surf like incrementally bigger but the thing the thing that I saw is like Kabali is a light version of

Torrey (57:20.846)
Yeah. One will help.

Alvin Owusu (57:33.598)
the future, actually what the greatness of men's tennis has always been. The best player, the best movers are the best players. He's an off the charts mover and I think it's been well documented. He had an offer from, I think it was AC Roma professional soccer team. He was a very, very good soccer player. Very good soccer player and had to make a choice and very good tennis player as well.

Torrey (57:43.056)
100%.

Torrey (57:55.652)
Yup. Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (58:02.251)
We're talking about a world-class athlete, like a fantastic mover. And the thing that I felt watching him play today was like, his game is safe. Like he rips and it's safe. Very Spanish of him. He's not Spanish, but more Italian player. Yeah. These guys are hitting, yeah, and he's a good mover, hits a big ball.

Torrey (58:24.493)
Yeah. For an Italian player. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (58:31.678)
that safe was not flustered by the moment. That was also really cool to see. Like he was there. He did not beat himself. He forced Novak to kick it up a gear and to beat him.

Torrey (58:35.247)
Sure. Yeah. Yep.

Torrey (58:43.341)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (58:46.472)
That was a fun match.

Torrey (58:48.111)
I thought it was very solid. As I said, there wasn't a bad match in any of these quarters. Ladies or gentlemen, that to me was one of my highlight matches in the sense that, I hadn't seen much of Kabali and he played, I thought played a very solid match. I would also say that he learned from this match and takes away a lot of belief from the fact that he can hang. It was much like the Raticando Sabalinka match. know, she should walk away from that match thinking,

I'm right there. And that's, and that's, and that's fun to see. It's fun to see the players start to catch up to that level, right. And, just be, cause you know, the next time the place is going to be, it's going to be tighter. It's going to be better in the end. It's actually going to help both players. But obviously for, for the person that lost you, you'd love them to take away from that loss a lesson slash I am that close. If I do this and this better, I'm right there. And that's what I'm, and that's what Kabali did today.

Alvin Owusu (59:43.658)
What would the this and this be when you're looking at Kabali, like if you had to really kind of peel back the under here, what could he have done differently? What is the actual takeaway from this match for him?

Torrey (59:58.806)
better. His takeaway to me is handle your returns better. Handle your in terms of placement and don't rely so much on your speed to be able to run down things. Keep the ball in front of you a bit better. He is so fast that you can move it. He didn't mind changing direction because he's so fast at countering you on your change. But I feel like as a result of that

One of the things he did not do as well as I would have liked is place the return better into tougher spots. Servers are vulnerable at one point and that is upon landing in the court. And at that point you've got to pull a ball, especially if it's a like Novak who prides himself on not having any vulnerabilities. You have to make that ball happen without taking a lot of risks to your point, being safe.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:41.386)
from a landing. Yeah.

Torrey (01:00:54.286)
without taking a lot of risk on the shot itself. I also felt like he should have drop-shotted the old man a little bit more. And I felt like he got into some strike fasts. The strike fasts is always gonna favor Novak. He just strikes and hits clean and he moves you around like, buddy, if this goes 15 rounds in this title fight, I'm pretty good at 15 rounds, right? He needed to have made, he needed to have been a little more Tyson-esque in that and not Muhammad Ali. He had to do something.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:06.408)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey (01:01:23.47)
that was going to make Novak, you know, run up and go north south a bit more. Play a Senegal, you know, tactic a little bit more. If I am trying to beat him, if I'm trying to go toe to toe with him and see if I can prove to myself that I can do it, well then he got what he started out to achieve. But if he's trying to beat him, he needs to turn this into a foot race. And unfortunately, it was not a foot race that I felt like it should have been a bit more of.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:32.616)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:43.358)
It's,

Alvin Owusu (01:01:52.467)
Even getting into the psyche of it, like, you win a tough first set against your idol. Guys won seven titles here. The GOAT, right? Coming into that second set, the first thing I was thinking is like, Nobeck's gonna break him right off the bat. Like, right off the bat. He didn't. He got him in the second service game, right? Kabali's second service game. But I feel like there's, can see the,

It's almost like a sigh of relief that the younger player has when they get that first set they go, I got one but it's like really it should be the inverse of like I've almost got him. I need to I need to go higher now I got to step it up a notch because he most definitely will He most no that most definitely is going to step it up and you you saw it right off the bat like okay We're gonna we're gonna tighten in the focus here

Torrey (01:02:23.528)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:02:28.277)
Right.

Torrey (01:02:32.749)
Sure. Now I need to take it up a notch, 100%. 100%.

Torrey (01:02:46.881)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:50.634)
we're gonna own the middle of the court. It's time to play pinball. And Kabali needed to do something different. And I think at that point, he couldn't do anything different because he kind of ran out of tricks.

Torrey (01:03:01.963)
Ran out of tricks and that's what I'm saying. A few more droppers would have been great to see. A few more backhand inside ends. A few more forehand inside outs to get that backhand and then go behind him. There was just ways to hurt him. He's got pretty good racket speed. A few more tactics to wrong foot the sure footed veteran would have been great. A few drop shots. If he had played him like Sigelman played Sabalenka, like Sanego tried to play Ben Shelton, he to me would have had a better chance.

especially post that first set. Now that he's kind of gotten that out after he got, let's face it, he got routine in the first, in the second set of six two, he needed to have shown a different level and just being able to play the X factor. Like, okay, you know what? We're to go nuclear here. I got to show you that I can do a few other things. And now I have to turn this match to a foot race. Cause I know what just happened. The second set will happen pretty much in the third. If I tried to see me again, let's try this, you know, and I think that's what, that's, what I was hoping to see. And I didn't see it.

I was impressed with his game, with the game that I saw, but playing against Novak, I knew that I got the sense he would try to redo what he tried in the second and do a better job of it. But he didn't realize that script was already written, you know, and it didn't matter how well he did it. He was not going to do any different with that situation. And played a close third, but at end of the day, it was Novak's match. And let's face it, he was not having it.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:17.137)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (01:04:29.164)
Tell me about, tell me your thoughts about Ben and Yannick. I know you, we talked before you came online here. What, what, what were you disappointed with? Because it sounded like you disappointed.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:33.838)
gosh.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:41.363)
Bye!

It's not really disappointment. Actually, I'm disappointed for tennis. I'm disappointed for tennis because I keep looking for someone else to threaten these two.

Torrey (01:04:49.149)
Okay, in what way?

Alvin Owusu (01:04:59.941)
And there's no one else. They keep like people pop up like Ben Shelton. He's made semi finals of multiple grand slams and he's right there. He hasn't dropped a set. All tournament comes into this match. I told you before the match in a world in which Ben Shelton is going to take down Yannick center. He's going to have to do it in tiebreakers. What happens? We get into a tiebreaker in the first set. What happens? He gets up a mini break. What happens? He went another point the rest of the tiebreaker and it was like

Torrey (01:05:17.003)
Go down. Yep, yep, yep. Did he win that tie break against Carlos and then lost in four or did, I forget.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:28.625)
It was just like the semi-finals or the quarterfinals played against Carlos at French Open. It's almost the same thing. And at that point, it's like, okay, what does...

No, Carlos, I think he got up and Carlos came back. I think it was like 4-0 or something like that. 3-0, 4-0 in the time breaker and Carlos came back and beat him in straights. Yeah, so my question then, like as I'm watching the rest of the match, I go.

Torrey (01:05:48.329)
think you're right, right. And they lost it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:58.366)
What does Ben work on to then come back and be able to threaten a Yannick center or Carlos Zacharias? And I got disappointed for tennis because the answer is, not you, homie. Like you are who you are. it's, there's nothing you can get better. You can go for number three. Number three is a great goal. Number three is a fantastic goal, right?

Torrey (01:06:11.627)
Exactly.

Torrey (01:06:25.589)
Right, right. I found this great place. It's called my lane.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:34.814)
Great view, great service, no Michelin stars, but just reliable. Every single time it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Yeah, it's just like, it's just, there are levels, right? There are levels. And we always sort players in the levels.

Torrey (01:06:41.897)
Money, money, money, yeah.

Torrey (01:06:49.899)
I hear you, I hear you. It's almost as if it's funny. Listen to the dichotomy of what you're saying. Cause in one hand, I think you realize how good they are. And I think in another hand, you keep looking for three through five to close the gap. I have wax poetic on three through five and three through eight, not even being, some of them not even being worthy of being three through five, three through eight.

And you keep waiting for three through five to show you they're close. And I find that, I find it ironic is all I'm saying.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:25.502)
I'm for, I'm wanting, I'm wanting one through three and then four through eight when there really is just one and two and then three through eight. That's.

Torrey (01:07:36.266)
And a former one that's deciding he will still be relevant. He's not even three. He's a former one. Right. He's a former one. Yeah. You can't. And that's the problem. There's one and two. Former number one. And then everybody else is playing bridesmaids. And Alvin, that's just unfortunate the way it is right now. And they are playing at such a level, Alvin, that

Alvin Owusu (01:07:41.15)
Wild card. He's a wild card. I don't even count. I don't even count no no vac. He doesn't need a ranking He does not need a ranking. I don't he doesn't count. Yeah, he is

Alvin Owusu (01:07:54.706)
No, back.

Torrey (01:08:05.266)
And it's not to say we can't look forward to and see these other players get through. if, if anything, Alvin, I mentioned this to you at the end of at the French. The level they played was such a high level that if they were to continue, they were not going to fall down a notch after this match. They were only going to get better. And therefore, because the other players didn't play that match, there's already catch up.

And then on top of that, they're pretty good anyway. And you're talking about and going into Wimby, this is now a surface that Carlos is pretty good at. If anything, I'm impressed that Yannick's got here without much fanfare. So I say that.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:50.378)
Wait a minute, hold on, hold on, hold on. Gregor had him dead to rights. No, but I have to bring it up to say that exactly, and there is the difference, right? How do you beat Yannick Center on grass, right? Well, you have to be able to keep him out of his strikes, balls out of his strike cover zone, right?

Torrey (01:08:54.644)
Gregor don't bring up don't bring up Gregor because that's a soft spot. Gregor should have beat him dead had him dead to rights. I am I am pissed at Gregor.

Torrey (01:09:10.778)
You serve comfort zone. You serve bombs. You go by. He did exactly what I thought. What I'm telling him, but I think your boy Kabbalah should have done to get Novak. Went behind him often. Took him to task. Never let him get his foot under. Came forward a lot. Kept, kept, he sliced cross, he sliced line. Right? Give me a four and I'm gonna run you with it all day long. And hell serve.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:25.076)
Well, that's.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:30.484)
keep the ball low, slicing, keep the ball low. But that's the thing, you have to be able to, so when I look at Ben versus Grigor, it's the, there is a gap in the skill set to be able to execute some of those finer tactics. Like Grigor has the best, probably the best slice backhand on tour, right? He hits it with.

Torrey (01:09:47.357)
Yes.

Torrey (01:09:56.019)
I agree with that.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:59.53)
the precision that most people dare to have on their forehands, right? Yeah, and he did for an hour and a half, was perfect. He was perfect. Perfect, served bombs. Slicing, slicing, bringing up grass off the bounce, like having Yannick down on, no, I got it, I got it. I'm taking care of the turf today.

Torrey (01:10:03.133)
Dream up. Right, man.

Torrey (01:10:12.979)
Yeah, yeah, he was up in the one 40s. I mean he was he was nailing first

Yeah. No need to mow. No need to mow. I got it.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:29.276)
It's one thing to be able to identify what the tactic is, but then to be able to do it is a different thing. And I saw Ben trying to use the slice, but even when he used the slice, the slice is not as good as Grigory's slice, right? And that's the, mean, keep working on your slice, but at some point you don't have the technique, you don't have the feel, it's like the slice is gonna be what the slice is gonna be.

Torrey (01:10:37.021)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:10:45.001)
That's right.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:59.466)
So yeah, I'm not disappointed in Ben by any stretch of the means. He's a Grand Slam gamer. He shows up in Grand Slams all the time. He's always there. Okay, in his last four Grand Slams, he's lost to Yannick Sinner, Carlos Ocaraz, Yannick Sinner, Novak Djokovic. What are we talking about?

Torrey (01:11:05.929)
He's had a great fall of year and

Torrey (01:11:11.97)
my god, big time player mix, big time plays, and big time games.

Torrey (01:11:23.177)
Right. Nothing to be disappointed in at all. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:28.626)
Just fine, young man.

You don't have a grand sleight. He does not have a grand sleight problem. He does well in of five set badges.

Torrey (01:11:34.928)
Right. You run into former and current Grand Slam champs. And that's unfortunate. I think he and Taylor are both doing quite well. I love the fact that they're doing it. would say Ben, we talked about this a while back, Alvin, and you may not have been fully aware of what I was looking at. I told you, think Ben's got the best chance of all of them to truly crack that top four and deserve to be there. I know

Taylor's has had some ranking bumps due to the numerical counting of things. But to me, Ben's got the best chance to, and that's the no shit on Taylor. I just feel he's got it. Now, having said that, let's also talk about how routine that coming off of that almost got beat match against Gregor. That center has bounced back like he did in the darn Australian where he's almost, he almost crapped out and passed out.

took a 15 minute bathroom break. Was that against Runa? Yeah. That I feel like he has once again, you know, found a way to revive himself, resuscitate himself, put on some hand cream, whatever. He's done something to get back into the mix and Albin, I'm telling you right now, if those are some of his bad days, you know, it's going to be a tough match. I do think this will be a tough match up with him and with Novak. It was a tough one on Clay. And I think

Alvin Owusu (01:12:33.116)
It's Holger. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:13:00.572)
He loves the clay and plays great on the clay. His footwork helps on the clay. It's not to say he can't move on the grass. He's obviously a very adept, he's a good mover, period. I'm going to say that I think Novak.

It's very tough to say this with a clear, with belief. If, so I have to go, I have to go hypothetical. If Novak can continue his level and Yannick plays the level he's played thus far, this match goes long and it goes to Novak. If Yannick plays better and all in things indicate he's on the upswing since that Gregor match.

he will dispatch Novak in four. Unfortunately, Alvin, you heard it right here, that darn Carlos Alcras is just playing on another level right now. And grass tends to be, I think it might be his best surface. Hate to say it. And he wasn't too bad on the clay. And he ain't too bad on hard court. Just saying.

Alvin Owusu (01:13:59.946)
I mean, fair, fair, hmm, okay.

Torrey (01:14:09.443)
I haven't seen anybody do anything that can hurt him. That can make him uncomfortable. That can put him in any ways, shape or form. This is Carlos, Carlos, Carlos. That can make, okay fair enough. We won't talk about it. Because there's nothing to say.

Alvin Owusu (01:14:17.117)
Wait, who are we talking about? Who are we talking about? Carlos, I don't wanna talk about Carlos. Let's leave, let's leave. There's not, yeah, yeah, there's not much to say. Like the things that happen in Carlos Ocariz matches generally have to do with more with Carlos than anybody else, right? I don't wanna breeze over the Yannick versus Novak match because you brought up a really good point about what happened on Clay. I don't know if necessarily it's,

Clay is Yannick's best surface, think Hard's his best surface, Clay being next. But what Clay does is allow more time for those small differences between the two of those players to show up, primarily in age and movement, right? I think Yannick beat Novak because of Novak's inability to move with Yannick over that long period of time. Forget that it was three sets, forget that. The points were long.

Torrey (01:14:51.398)
Sure.

Torrey (01:14:56.23)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey (01:15:09.712)
Sure. Right. Sure. The match is almost three and half hours. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:15.783)
the accumulated amount of blows that they each took, even if they are the same, there is a damn near 15 year difference between the two of them. That is going to be exacerbated on clay. That's where that shows up. I think on grass, where age and movement are not in Novak's favor on clay right now.

Torrey (01:15:45.189)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:45.254)
I think they are in his favor on grass because the movement favors probably the more experienced grass court player. And there are ways to keep yourself out of those situations on grass. Novak will shrink that court. Shorter points, yeah, not as grueling rally. All those things, is a different, it is a very narrowed in playing field.

Torrey (01:15:53.126)
Okay. Sure. Right. Sure. Short, shorter, shorter points. Manage the core position better. Sure.

Torrey (01:16:11.086)
Right. Right. And Carl and Yannick doesn't possess the Ben Shelton, know, Taylor Fritz, the best you pair of card type of serve to get freebies to get him back. That's not his game. He's a very precision, high percentage kind of player. I agree with you. I think the only thing I would venture to throw in there, which is why I still think he can beat Novak in four is he returns pretty well.

And that's a thing of Novak. Novak's serve is not a huge one either. So they're basically better. They're basically, he's basically a newer version of Novak in a lot of ways. Now, with that said, Novak's playing himself or younger version of himself. As good a backhand, as good of a return to serve, dare I say as good a foreign, as good of a problem solver, but maybe not as good of a grass court player, least not yet.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:59.251)
but not as good of a grass court player, but not as good of a grass court player. You said it, you said it to me and I don't think we were, I think it was in a conversation outside the podcast. You said something about, about Janik and it's around the, he's special everywhere else. He's just good here. Novak is special.

Torrey (01:17:12.803)
Yeah, very mortal.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:26.201)
everywhere but he's even more he might be even more special on grass.

Torrey (01:17:27.198)
Yeah.

Torrey (01:17:33.665)
Alvin, has won seven titles. He also lost four finals here on the grass.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:36.787)
Seven, that's a lot.

Torrey (01:17:44.665)
That's big.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:46.473)
He lost in finals, what, two to Fed? Did he lose all four to Fed? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Torrey (01:17:55.269)
There, I looked it up.

Right. Right. He lost. He's lost 13 finals of slams for the midwimpy.

Torrey (01:18:09.349)
So not only has he won 24, right? He's been in 37. So you have to appreciate the fact that what we're talking about here, I mean.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:16.923)
Yeah, so he's won seven Wimbledon's and he's been in 11 finals.

Torrey (01:18:21.859)
That's what I'm at at Wimbledon.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:24.263)
Wimbledon which I think the other finals actually the other Grand Slams actually don't have any impact on what happens here because this is this place is so unique the grass is so unique Seven seven out of eleven in finals

Torrey (01:18:31.173)
So unique. That's my point. To your point of finals, which is how you get to 120 and 20 on the grass. You know what mean? That's a special number, Alvin. That's a special number.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:40.753)
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. don't feel, I don't have any issues saying it with my chest. I feel like Novak's gonna win this one probably in four. Say it with your chest! I feel really good about where Novak is right now.

Torrey (01:18:54.391)
Hey, what's your chest? I got I'm going I'm going to be contrarian and I'm going to go and I'm going to go center and four only because I feel like if he gets stretched out if he gets if if this becomes a foot race, I feel like the younger person will handle it. I feel like Novak will have a person that isn't relying on big serve they can counter he's going to get the points more at the point you're going to be long.

I think he preferred them to be long and Novak too gets outside the single sidelines at 38 years old, however old he's now. I think that's also a bit of a problem. And I think that favors Yannick. Grigor showed a way to shorten, to slice, to go big and to keep Yannick off balance. And unfortunately Grigor's body couldn't handle the toll that took to exert that toll onto an opponent over the course of three sets. I'm just hoping that Novak

who always has a trigger up his sleeve. I think this match is going to be, was that movie with Kurt Russell back in the day, Universal Soldier, where there was like, he was basically fighting a new version of himself. You know, this is what we're dealing with here. And this match, I look forward to this match for the grand scheme of things. We saw a little bit of it in the French, but these type matches have a little bit of torch passing to them. And I look, this is gonna be the match I'm looking forward to of all the rest of them.

All of them. mean, to be of all the semis, this is this match to me, to me, it holds significance because and then I see Carlos being able to close the deal. Not looking at too far, but just saying, I feel like he's got the ability. He's just playing very well. that and he and he's beaten Novak already here on the grass a few times. So I think that's something that, you know, this will be this one will factor into your earlier prediction many episodes ago about Novak, possibly.

you know, head for the last round up if he does. And if he doesn't Alvin, I think your boy's gonna be around for another two, for another two or three slams to try to get that one more. Cause he knows he got a chance. know, dumb and dumber, you're saying there's a chance.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:03.921)
Yeah, yeah, he is making me, I mean, that's the thing. If the issue is not getting to the match, I think that's what pushes Novak out, right? If he can't get to the matches against Sinner and Carlos, but he's getting there.

Torrey (01:21:21.124)
Right. God, if anything, he's looking like a favorite. I mean, I don't know if the odds are in Vegas, but he's gotta be, it's gotta be fairly even.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:31.975)
You know what I don't want this and this is going to sound really weird. I don't want another center and Alcaraz final just yet. I need, I need some space. I need some because it cannot live up to the last one. It, it, will have to be a let down and I, I'm just not.

Torrey (01:21:39.555)
god, how can you say that?

Torrey (01:21:51.049)
Alvin, in the words of the great Rick James played by Dave Chappelle, bump your couch, Alvin. This is not about what you want, brother. This is.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:02.985)
That's it. I'm putting a pin in it. We're done. I'm done. I'm done. I had nothing left all the eggs dry. That's it. That's it We'll watch the tennis. We'll see where it lands. We'll come back We'll talk shit on the internet.

Torrey (01:22:14.883)
How can you not be ready for greatness when it shows up at your front door? my God, tired.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:17.769)
I'm tired, I'm tired, I want some space. something for the US Open, leave something, let's just leave something.

What do we, no, no. All I'm gonna be doing is all I'm gonna be left with is disappointment. It can't, you know what we had? We can't just have that all the time. It's not available to us all the time. There are duds.

Torrey (01:22:42.051)
And quit looking at my lemonade.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:45.01)
I'm just...

Okay, it's too late. We got to turn the off. Turn the off. I'm Alvin. That's Tori. Vest of three. We are out.

Torrey (01:22:54.785)
Pretty boy.