Ep. 60: US Open Quarterfinal Preview

Alvin Owusu (01:25.966)
 And welcome to another edition of the best of three podcast. I'm Alvin, that's Tory and TH, we're gonna get straight to it. Tonight is the, we're wrapping up the round of 16. Center is putting off the.

Torrey Hawkins (01:33.081)
sure, well. Go.

Torrey Hawkins (01:46.184)
What up, what up?

Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:54.35)
think putting the finishing touches on on public right now. So we'll get to that a little bit later. Maybe that finishes during this recording. If not, I'm sorry. But we're going to start with the with the women anyway. Sorry, not sorry. And then Amanda and Samova is playing Beatrice Haddad Maya. But I feel good. We've got the vast majority of the quarterfinals set locked and loaded. We're going to start with the women because I think we saw something.

Torrey Hawkins (02:00.425)
Yep.

Sorry, not sorry.

Alvin Owusu (02:23.53)
in this afternoon's matchup that it seemed like everyone was paying attention to. Naomi Osaka versus Kukla Golf. And in our preview to that match, you made some pretty clear declarations about how you felt Naomi was going to come out and play. And I was a little less sure that she had that ability, the ability to make balls and just kind of be steady.

Torrey Hawkins (02:45.544)
Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:51.143)
Man, the tactic was spot on.

Torrey Hawkins (02:52.972)
Maybe not she couldn't do it, but that she hadn't consistently shown it up here to Fulk. Right. Not certainly not.

Alvin Owusu (02:57.378)
That's not her A game. That's not her A game, right? But it seems like you were on the conference call with her and Thomas Widerowski and I'll be damned. Do we get two? Exactly, exactly. We get two games into this match and it's like, okay, well, I guess TH knows what he's talking about. This was an opportunity where tactics met execution beautifully. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (03:04.916)
She texted me full disclosure.

Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (03:21.683)
100%. She played, make no mistake, Coco is a better version of Naomi, dare I say a younger and carbon copy of her from five years ago. Backhand to backhand is very solid. I think Naomi has the edge on the serve, but I remember a young Naomi Osaka beating a

Alvin Owusu (03:39.362)
Hmm, in what way? Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (03:50.355)
champion veteran Serena Williams on that very court. And I saw Serena go to her full standby, which was the attack game. But you're playing a better, younger version of yourself and you're just not able to out hit a great counter. I use the word, the term counterpunisher a lot, Alvin. You're not able to go through a counterpunisher and you're providing them with the ammo, your pace, your strikes.

And if they're fast enough, good enough backhand, good enough returns and a serve, you are providing all of the horsepower and they're just using it against you. So what I had hoped that Naomi would do being the elder statesman was to change it up. Don't give her a lot of that to work against. There were several points in exchange album where she tried to go through her once she got into the mix and Coco as always, she pulled a couple inside out backhands album. At one point she pulled it. She pulled it inside in. She did some things on the backhand side.

Alvin Owusu (04:45.268)
Inside out back hands.

Torrey Hawkins (04:50.482)
And make no mistake, even a few forehands, although it broke down quite a bit, that she showed had she had played her straight up slash the normal way, that match would have gone the other way. Cocoa would have found a rhythm and Cocoa would have made sure that, you know, it would have got been a lot more complicated. And I give her coaching staff and her a lot of credit to play her smart. And I'll be honest, Alvin, shot that broke down the most was the forehand off the heavy high ball way more than the serve.

Alvin Owusu (05:19.031)
So that's the space in which I think I'd push back on the differences between the two players. So Naomi, right, yes, backhand to backhand, you would probably go check on both players there. Return to serve, check. Serve, yeah, Coco's, first serve good when she goes for it, second serve testy, we were aware of that.

Torrey Hawkins (05:19.097)
I mean, this third was actually not too bad. Could all things considered? What did you say?

Torrey Hawkins (05:33.426)
Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (05:40.314)
Right. Right. We all right. Everybody's.

Alvin Owusu (05:45.102)
I think the forehand side is where we, just because of the difference in Naomi has a weapon and Coco has an obvious weakness. And I think Naomi has, she does not have any clear weaknesses and she has a way to hurt. Coco has these strengths that will hurt you, but she cannot attack with them. You cannot necessarily attack with speed. caveat there, you can.

Torrey Hawkins (06:06.735)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (06:12.993)
in certain circumstances, but she's not gonna do it against Naomi Osaka because she's not gonna give you the ball to do it upon using that quickness. then the serve is a, that didn't kill her today, but it's obviously a, not a strength.

Torrey Hawkins (06:17.496)
Right. It wasn't a strength. It certainly didn't. She got broke a lot. But the funny thing about it, Alvin, to me, and they kept making this comment. I'm not sure if it was Lindsey Davenport, if it was Chanda Rubin, that up until midway through the second set, she had not won but five points or so. I think she won five points.

on Naomi's serve all set. Now the set was 6-3 so you're looking at four or five games but think about that. You only won five points total. Holding, holding with lemonade the LeBron James commercial in the swimming pool. You know what I mean? I stopped looking at my lemonade.

Alvin Owusu (06:52.043)
she was holding comfortably comfortably

Alvin Owusu (07:02.259)
Yeah, yeah, was. Yeah. I mean, the whole the whole time, though, it was like I from the time Naomi walked on the court. I think I text you the same thing. She never looked bothered. She had this smile on her face as a rise smile on her face. She's like, I got you. Like, I've got this match. I know I've got this match. I'm playing well. I understand the game plan clearly. And within the first break right off the bat, it's like,

Torrey Hawkins (07:12.016)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (07:19.94)
Yeah. Right. Right.

Yep.

Too well. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (07:28.831)
That's, that's, that's, we're going to have a problem and you know, we'll get to, we'll get to it later, but I saw something very similar in the, Von Drussova's match against her back in a, like she had this kind of wry, relaxed smile on her face. And we're talking about two former grand slam champions here who had not, they, they are experienced in the second week of slams. They, they're, they're here for the battle. They both looked in both instances, both players looked comfortable walking into. Yes, exactly. Like I'm, I'm, down.

Torrey Hawkins (07:43.162)
That's right.

Torrey Hawkins (07:54.289)
with the matchup.

Alvin Owusu (07:58.252)
I'm down to dance, what do you got? I mean was an interesting match and when I look at this, I was a big story guy, a big macro, like when this year ends, when this tournament ends and effectively, not effectively ends our year but finishes the Grand Slams, it's like what is the story that I'm trying to extract from the season and I never thought the story was gonna be Koko Goff wins two Grand Slams, right? She even mentioned herself, like she won the French, she's coming in here, she.

Torrey Hawkins (07:59.674)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (08:06.211)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (08:16.748)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (08:22.399)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (08:27.157)
signs on a new coach days before the event because she feels like she's playing with house money. She's like, I already want to slam this year. you know, three in the world, whatever she is, like I'm starting to build towards next year, but this, this Naomi Osaka thing that is happening, we've been watching it since, I mean, you even want to go all the way back to last year and her match against EGA at the French open when she had her dead to rights, right? We've been, we've been building towards this with some, you know, peaks and valleys in her inner.

Torrey Hawkins (08:34.99)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (08:40.162)
Mmm.

Torrey Hawkins (08:45.445)
Yep. Yep. Thank you. Sure. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (08:55.949)
and her confidence, especially the hardcore season this summer, she's been steadily working towards this final Canada. She's been there. I don't know what that means as far as the story goes, but.

Torrey Hawkins (09:01.808)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (09:10.767)
It's left to be written, isn't it?

Alvin Owusu (09:15.081)
It's left to be written, it's it's it's It's sizing up quite nicely for her.

Torrey Hawkins (09:19.264)
Exactly. And she's starting to tell her own version of chapter two. Let me tell you what I saw, Alvin. I saw a young lady who perhaps for the first time since her resurgence, played in the moment and didn't play to expectations, didn't play to what she used to be, played as the underdog, which was probably nice for her, played as a player who knows where she's going.

Alvin Owusu (09:23.285)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (09:46.509)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (09:47.234)
She's been there before a few times. A note on Mary Jo Fernandez, horrific off on court interview. Let me just put that off to the side. Good God. First time playing on Arthur Ashe. I'm like, are you serious? I mean, let me get that in a little bit, but she played like.

Alvin Owusu (09:55.117)
The post-match interview, yeah.

Naomi Hit

Alvin Owusu (10:08.054)
First I'm gonna ask this tournament, this tournament.

Torrey Hawkins (10:10.415)
As somebody probably piped in her ear, Alvin, you saw how late that comment came in. Don't let me get started on Mary Jo and all the rest of the whole cadre of bad commentators that we tend to have with this game. Naomi played very solid tactical tennis against Coco. Coco did not play that poorly. In fact,

Alvin Owusu (10:13.067)
Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (10:35.94)
had Naomi continue to hit the forehand, Coco was about to get the forehand on line and it seemed like she started saying, okay, okay, okay, let me get to the back end a few times. She's hedging, she's hedging to the right now and let me at least run the back end, open up the forehand. But my point to you about Naomi is for the first time in several years, I saw a smile on her face. You've mentioned it about a level of calm right from the very beginning. Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (10:46.901)
Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (11:03.139)
I don't know where she goes from here, but I like it. And I like that she is in a good place. She knew there were times where she was smiling, almost like it's good to feel this way again. You knew she was going to this match. She was almost smiling, trying to contain herself. That was a bad call, computer or whatever. She looked over at her box and kind of smile like you saw the balls out, right? And it wasn't even anything to get her flustered. Now let me

Alvin Owusu (11:16.66)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (11:31.107)
Put make one last comment about Coco. If that's Coco's bad day, we can live with that. If she is going out like that, striking the ball, she still had a couple of aces, Alvin. She still hit the ball pretty clean. You could tell the tactic is something she needs to build on. The girl is still young, man. She is an athlete. She's competing. And if this is her on a bad day on a bad matchup against a four time Grand Slam champion.

then this to me is more of a speed bump than a hurdle that is... Fair enough.

Alvin Owusu (12:03.148)
Nah, not giving her that easy of a pass. I'm not giving her that easy of pass. you are three in the world and you are a two-time Grand Slam champion, the game plan shouldn't be that easy. It shouldn't be that straightforward. Just hit to her forehand. Now granted, you gotta hit a quality ball over there, right? I'm sure in a previous matchup against Magdalena Fret, right? I'm sure Magdalena knew the the path as well. She just couldn't hit a ball hard enough to force the errors out of it.

Torrey Hawkins (12:31.074)
Thank you. Thank you.

Alvin Owusu (12:32.99)
Yes, a lot of that goes to, and obviously the forehand has been a problem and she still wins a lot of matches, right? So it does take a high quality enough player to force the errors out of her. And I'm also gonna get a, what?

Torrey Hawkins (12:38.049)
Yep. Thank you.

Torrey Hawkins (12:50.892)
I'm going to push back on you real quick because you're starting to get into my point. A former Grand Slam champion has that level of ball, right? And I'm not here to say it any other way. And that's the piece we have to speak to. Alvin, there are, I think I sent you this text. There are eight players in this draw, four outside of the top four that are Grand Slam champs in the last five years.

Alvin Owusu (12:55.276)
A little

Alvin Owusu (13:00.68)
Right, right, right.

Alvin Owusu (13:18.352)
that's what it was. It was in the last five years. I was like, man, there's so many more than that, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Eight in the last five years.

Torrey Hawkins (13:21.89)
There's 12, there's 12 total if you include Venus and Vika, but there are eight since 20 in the last five years. So I say that to tell you, you gotta appreciate very much unlike the men's game. That's the depth we're dealing with in the WTA right now. You've got girls that aren't even seated. Alvin, Barbara went out in a weird kind of a, got sick during the match in Wimby. You saw it, I saw it. I remember when it happened. She had an errant forehand out wide.

What did she plan to borrow in Wembee?

Alvin Owusu (13:53.515)
Yes, she was up a set and maybe a break and roll in and yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (13:55.662)
up a set and maybe a break and hit a forehand almost to the stands. And you were like, wow, that's weird. And had a steady decline. You heard it right here. And hey, unfortunately for Emma, the player again in this tournament, but you heard it right here. She would have lost that match in Wembe, let alone this one. This time she's healthy. And Vondrasova, when we're backing up, which I'm sure we're gonna talk to next, Vondrasova should have played that well in Wembe. That was her.

in a sense, her tournament to kind of shine. I was disappointed she didn't play better then compared to her level. Now she's putting, beating the breaks off her back in that match. And Alvin, it wasn't really necessarily a surprise if she played well. So that's what I'm saying. So I just want to make sure we're, we're, putting it out there that no one else could have done what Naomi did to Coco. I'm not saying that the foreign doesn't need to be fixed. Strike zone doesn't need to be, you know, fine tuned and the serve can't be worked on.

Alvin Owusu (14:35.766)
Well, that's fair. That's not that's fair. That's fair.

Torrey Hawkins (14:51.213)
We've known that for five years. That's nothing's changed. I'm simply saying it took a grand slam grand slam level champion four time I might add Mary Jo if you're listening to hope to pull that out of her and I just want to then segue back to Mary Jo you never Want to forget or be reminded of a four-time grand slam champ when you're talking about first time on Arthur Ashe

And she almost mentioned it a few times, Alvin, it was very condescending. She mentioned it a few times as if, how's the crowd on Ash? Like you'd never been here before. And part of me was like, Mary Jo, how many times did you play on Ash? We know you didn't win it four times like the person you're interviewing. So do your homework next time.

Alvin Owusu (15:27.286)
Right.

for the,

Alvin Owusu (15:34.55)
For the listeners, I'm gonna advise you, not just from a promotion standpoint, but go check out our Instagram account. I reposted a bit of a rant by Sally Jenkins about a month ago, and it's kinda gone viral, but it's about this very thing, right? The American commentators, all feel a little long in the tooth. I think there's a lot of talk about the McEnros and whatnot, but I have...

Torrey Hawkins (15:43.242)
Hmm.

Alvin Owusu (16:04.256)
having been viewing those comments there. It's an active conversation and people in the tennis watching public has strong feelings. mean, both directions, but yes, it's not not a convert.

Torrey Hawkins (16:15.947)
Sally do a piece on Mary Jo in that interview and the condescension Chris Everett the same they both are so condescending and so smug Alvin it's why I watch tennis so much with the volume off and it's and I don't want to get too deep into it it she came back at the comment so late as if to say

Alvin Owusu (16:28.928)
Fair li-

Torrey Hawkins (16:37.932)
Somebody's in my ear saying she won this twice already. Oh, oh, this tournament. And then she mentioned it in the close. Like, ladies and gentlemen, know, Naomi Osaka, your four time Grand Slam champion. I'm like a little too late for that. I'm sorry. I had to say it. had to say it.

Alvin Owusu (16:55.094)
Fair enough, fair enough. So Naomi plays Karolina Muhova in the next round. So I'm gonna give some space for this, right? Because now I wanna talk about the Czechia Armada that has been just stirring up the tour of the last few years. And these ladies between Muhova, Krachikova, Vondrasova, all of their games give you like,

Torrey Hawkins (17:10.101)
Yeah. For me. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:24.8)
I mean, Mohova and Krachikov are two of my favorite players on tour, like hands down. I mean, you can check the tape. I'm out here singing Mohova praises all the time, my friends, because I love variety. And in a world of tennis where we get a lot of sameness, especially on the women's side, even more so on the men's side these days, like the homogeneity of game styles, all three of these women can slip over to the continental grip and do work. Forehand, backhand.

Torrey Hawkins (17:27.828)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (17:41.663)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (17:46.923)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:54.592)
Vondie goes heavy lefty, carve you with a slice. So I'm standing up, I'm not standing up, I'm actually sitting down, but I'm gonna salute all of my Team Chequia shouts to Prague. I was in Prague in August last year, I've been there, I feel like I'm honorary. I mean, I'm not, I'm not, okay, real talk. I stood out like a sore thumb. But, it's sore like thumb.

Torrey Hawkins (18:08.609)
Yeah.

Yeah. Ha!

Torrey Hawkins (18:20.011)
I saw a black thumb.

Alvin Owusu (18:24.459)
All of these ladies are straight grinding through this tournament right now. Mojoba looked great in the first set against Marta. She looked a little hurt in the second set. I thought, okay, I'm not gonna be able to do my team checky rant in the pod later on. And then just put on her hard hat, went to work, got it done in the third set. I was so proud. She's gone through a lot this tournament with crazy ex-boyfriend popping up and whatnot.

Torrey Hawkins (18:45.963)
You do it.

Torrey Hawkins (18:50.697)
Yeah. Cheers.

Alvin Owusu (18:54.161)
And she's not all the way healthy. The wrist isn't all the way right, but she's in the quarterfinals. So here we are.

Torrey Hawkins (18:58.594)
Yeah. Yeah. Popped up that drop shot one time too many, about 30 feet in the air and still had to run it out. could tell. But to your point, Alvin, I saw that I see the same things team Cheshia is doing unreal right now. And you heard right here, three of those, all three of those will have have at least one grand slam. I would say between three of them, they have three more grand slams between three of them. And

Alvin Owusu (19:24.949)
They have three between the three of them. So Barbera currently has two in singles, like a billion in doubles. Vondie's three more.

Torrey Hawkins (19:30.646)
No, you know, I know that three more I'm talking I think the three of them have three more in them in the next two to three years If not sooner is what I'm saying. I know they have three total They have three more I feel just the level their game and how they are able to on the right day on the right surface album right draw there is The top cannot stop them if they're playing their right game and and I did I kind of gave Vondraceva

Alvin Owusu (19:39.455)
And they've, yeah, but.

Torrey Hawkins (19:58.757)
little more love on the grass court where she her lefty and a slice she has pretty good hardcore game too alvin let's let's just

Alvin Owusu (20:04.203)
Well, she won Wimbledon, she finaled French Open one year. Vondi did, Emu Hova, same thing, right? She finaled French Open, semi-finaled here, US Open two years ago, I believe. And Krzysztof Krzysztof will just pop up when to slam, like, you know. She might feel like it, she might feel like it this week, I don't know.

Torrey Hawkins (20:11.338)
Right.

Yep. And Krijikova is just, just, just whenever, whenever she feels like it and her, and her. Right. Right. If her, if, if the water, if the water pH is just right, she might just, she might just win two of them just to, just to tell you how she feels about it. I'm just mentioning to you that the women's game is so deep right now that I am at that. I was texting a friend of mine who works with Emma Navarro and I was like, bro,

Alvin Owusu (20:38.154)
yeah. yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (20:45.29)
I was like, you can't even be mad about that one. I mean, I hate to say it, but I'm like, you know, and I didn't want to say that she caught a bit of a, a bit of a fortunate situation in that, in that match at Wembee, but this was, you actually played it this time and played her tough, know, Emma did four and the third. I say it to say that to me just shows you the depth of the, of the people in the draw. What was, is, is, you even see it? Is she even?

Alvin Owusu (21:11.499)
So she's not seated. So after Wimbledon last year, so 2024, she wins Wimbledon and then just kind of like gets hurt and didn't really play much, came back, played Wimbledon, like just because she was the defending champion, she's like, I gotta go, I gotta play. And so she had like no matches under her belt, not really in great shape, almost takes out Navarro anyways, right? I think that was like probably round of, was it?

Torrey Hawkins (21:13.437)
That's all I'm thinking.

Torrey Hawkins (21:23.911)
Right, so lost a lot of points. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (21:33.02)
Bye.

Torrey Hawkins (21:37.117)
Right?

Alvin Owusu (21:39.659)
around a 32, around a 16, something like that, because they're both fairly high seed at that point. But yeah, but because she had so few points in the last 12 months, and then she obviously won one in the year before, those points drop off, that's when she dropped in her ranking. She fell outside of the top 80, but has had a really good summer. She's in good shape, she's playing good tennis, she's winning matches, and so we're getting the real

Torrey Hawkins (21:39.806)
had to be around the 16, had to be around the 16, had to be. Right. Because it was stadium court, it was when you play.

Torrey Hawkins (21:56.521)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (22:02.854)
Every

Alvin Owusu (22:08.698)
We're a critique of her right now and it's it's

Torrey Hawkins (22:10.215)
Will real Barbara please stand up? Please stand up. Please stand up.

Alvin Owusu (22:13.386)
I tell you, it's like watching your favorite tennis coach play tennis. She's just so clean on both sides. Let's bounce over. know we kind of went around the block here, but between Mojoba and Von Drostovic, let's go actually to the Krachikova Townsend match that happened yesterday. I'm gonna, okay, the tennis aside, let's put the tennis aside. Yeah, Taylor had tons of opportunities. Barbara, poor start.

Torrey Hawkins (22:17.086)
Man.

Torrey Hawkins (22:29.587)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (22:35.945)
Sure. Eight match points, was it? Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (22:40.65)
I don't know more than that, like, think it was eight. I think it was eight, but seven of the eight were, there was only one on four Sarah there. So like, it wasn't like Taylor gave the match away or anything. I think from a macro view, yeah, it'd have been great if Taylor won that match. And it'd been great if the party marched on, but I think what she, kinda key maker, came here to do was to introduce the world to Taylor Townsend. She's 29 years old, she's been around the block for, she did that.

Torrey Hawkins (22:48.614)
Right. Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (22:59.59)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (23:04.328)
Yeah. To a tale of tale. Sure. And she did that. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (23:10.282)
She was even fortunate, we were fortunate that what happened against Panko happened to her because she handled that at that time and it was, she handled it perfectly. She backed it up with great tennis. She was right there against Khrushchev. It could have been her in the quarterfinals that we're talking about. But my question, unless about the match, my question is like, can she build on this?

Torrey Hawkins (23:17.392)
Right, right. At that time.

Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (23:28.719)
Good to be in.

Torrey Hawkins (23:39.176)
See Taylor?

Alvin Owusu (23:40.179)
Can she build on this? Yeah, can Taylor build on this?

Torrey Hawkins (23:43.491)
The only thing that's going to hurt Taylor is her current ranking is going to be unfortunately just outside the top hundred and she's still going to have a little bit of some uproar. Well, she hasn't gone that deep in a lot of singles terms. That's just what it is.

Alvin Owusu (23:51.826)
Right, she's... Somehow.

Alvin Owusu (23:57.707)
Yeah, but I figured from the points one in this event, she would have been higher, but you're right. It's like she'll be like still outside the top 100. So she it's almost like she got nothing done. Not nothing, but. Well, she was like 130 something before and she picked up 30 spots. That's nice, but you're still qualities and in.

Torrey Hawkins (24:03.175)
So, where was she before? So, just saying. just saying, 30 spots is quite a bit. And she's still, in my opinion, getting better at singles. Taylor Townsend used to be the perennial upset queen in the first or second round of the tournament. But past that, the other players.

kind of got form. They kind of figured it out. realized they could keep her deep from the baseline. Taylor Townsend is realizing she can stay deep with anybody. We're talking about the girl that skips groundstrokes from his volleys for the first two minutes of warmup, right? And probably that's what got underneath pinko skin. And now she's realizing I can out hit any of you off my backhand side, which I didn't necessarily know about myself. My forehand's not terrible. I've got good volleys and I got a good serve. And I can hold.

Alvin Owusu (24:39.722)
Hehehehehe

Alvin Owusu (24:50.122)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (24:58.042)
and maybe it was more of a belief thing this whole time. And mind you, my fitness and my game have improved. And hats off to my man, John Williams, who's worked with her for the last several years and getting her to that level and believed in her potential. But a ton of hats off to Taylor. I think she's now realizing her actual potential on the singles side of things. She made a declaration that she now believes she can play singles. She's still the doubles tournament out, but she's still doing work on the doubles side.

Alvin Owusu (25:25.475)
she is her and her her Czech partner.

Torrey Hawkins (25:28.755)
Thank you. There's part of your whole check situation right there. And you heard it right here, Alvin. I'm telling you, think the girl has started a light switch has gone has been turned on in her singles play where she now believes that she can win and has the and she deserves to him with the work she's putting in. I that match was a tough one. Again, Barbara leaned in on her. Right. And on all those on all those match points and made it happen. I was impressed that

Taylor took it to match point that many times. And the fact that we're talking about, she could have closed it out, is a huge compliment to Taylor Townsend. And, Barbara had her hands more than full trying to get rid of, trying to dispatch Taylor. Quite frankly, got a little lucky and played a little big of the big moments. And I think that the culmination of not coming through perhaps was her undoing more so than the tennis, although the match points were pretty significant.

Barbara is a force to be reckoned with and I think she's coming back. The only thing I see out of all this album is, I say it again, the depth of the women's tour is ridiculous. It's just, you just don't understand it when you look at a player who won Wemby who's unseeded in the draw. Vondrasova the same. They're not even seeded and they're Grand Slam champs and slam finalists. Where does that even happen?

Alvin Owusu (26:50.036)
Same thing, same thing, yep.

Alvin Owusu (26:56.392)
Right, right. I know one more thing about Taylor though, like even after not being able to convert on those match points, I was also very impressed that she got right back to work in the third set. Like you would have assumed a lay down, something like a 6'1 or a 6'2 in that third set, but she got down a break, she got the break back. Like she was there, she was still in the match even though it felt like, know, maybe it's a different story if she was.

Torrey Hawkins (26:56.903)
You know, what, what's even happened?

Torrey Hawkins (27:07.239)
Yeah, a rollover. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (27:19.302)
Yep, competing.

Alvin Owusu (27:23.206)
serving first and not serving second, right? That's a lot to deal with, you know, trying to climb that mountain again, against a former Grand Slam champion. like again, hats off to Taylor. She trains here, but she lives here in the Smyrna-ish area. I had a, one of our listeners, Logan Stevens, you know him, I know him well, asked like, where does, where does,

Torrey Hawkins (27:36.902)
Hmm?

Torrey Hawkins (27:44.624)
Yep, of course. What up Logan?

Alvin Owusu (27:49.023)
Where does Taylor train? Like if she lives really close to us, but where does she actually train? And I'm like, you know, it's not like she trains at an academy. What does a training situation for a professional tennis player not living in Florida or Monte Carlo, right? Like what does that actually look like for them? Do you have any insight there?

Torrey Hawkins (28:05.296)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (28:08.997)
I have some insights. Melanie Daniels trained with us for a little bit when she was trying to make her her, you know, return to the tour. It's a lot easier for the girls. I'll tell you that a top college playing guy on the UTR scale is in the 12 is in the 12 to 14 range, depending on how good he is. A top female is also in the same range so she can simply go to tech. She can go over to Georgia State.

Alvin Owusu (28:33.438)
Yeah, 10 minutes down the road, pop the tech, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (28:35.526)
She can head over to Athens for all I care and she can get some really good matches in and pretty much get dusted off if necessary, not too too far from home. The men a little bit different story. know, each of those little 0.1s, 0.2s, 0.3s, 0.5s and so on get a little tougher as you get inside the 15 range where it's just rough. But I will say that to say there is a lot of talent in the city of Atlanta. There always has been.

Alvin Owusu (29:01.566)
That's true, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (29:02.894)
I just want to make a point, Alvin, before you go further. How does she train? Where does she train? Wherever she's doing it, she's doing a great job. But let me give credit where credit is due. I, Donald Young, senior, as you may know, Alvin and I were, we were rivals during that whole time. Donald Young Jr. and Skull were rivals going through. He did a phenomenal job setting up the base and the belief in Taylor Townsend at the old Tennyson motion way back in the day down at South Fulton.

Alvin Owusu (29:18.74)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (29:31.572)
South Fulton Tennis Center,

Torrey Hawkins (29:32.777)
And you heard it right here. I did not always appreciate Taylor at the time being that much of a bona fide player. There were days where Donald was coming up to us at RCS, which is now live time. And obviously he was going down there. He lives closer to there than he lived to us on the north side of town. And I remember a couple of times, Sco would tell me, yeah, I'm with this girl, Taylor Townsend, in with Calvin Campbell, you remember?

Alvin Owusu (30:01.043)
Calvin can't get it, remember Calvin?

Torrey Hawkins (30:01.941)
And Donald wasn't even there. And I'm like, bro, look, I got my own academy up top. He doesn't need to come down to visit you. No offense to this Taylor Townsend. And I remember saying the words, this Taylor Townsend girl, right? And others. And I'm laughing at a lot of this now. And I'm like, hmm, he must have saw something in Taylor then as a coach would have seen, right? And knew how much she could have, how much her game would continue to grow. And I just want to say hats off to him and Ilona for.

Alvin Owusu (30:12.167)
Yep. The alliteration is beautiful.

Torrey Hawkins (30:29.475)
working with that young girl and John Williams, of course, who's continued to work with her all these years and has continued her success. a huge shout out to Taylor for all the success she's had this tournament and will continue to have in the doubles because she is making me a believer and she has made me a believer in work. What's the old expression, Alvin? Hard work beats talent and talent doesn't work hard, right?

Alvin Owusu (30:55.795)
when talent doesn't work hard. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (30:58.37)
But when talent works hard.

Alvin Owusu (31:00.221)
You're screwed.

Torrey Hawkins (31:01.836)
unstoppable. So just saying the girl's talented man and now she's putting in hard work behind it buddy. You know, the she I think she's headed for top 20 material album. I think in the next in the next year and a half, she's top 20. I'm telling you album. She's top 20.

Alvin Owusu (31:12.817)
man, that's, that's, it's, you know, if she can get herself, I only, my big hesitation is, okay, this continues to happen with our American players, right? Even our black American players, right? US Open happens and it's the lift that the players get at the US Open, right? The hometown favorites and you know, Krijgica even mentioned this in her post match, like.

Torrey Hawkins (31:23.8)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (31:32.088)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (31:39.538)
it'd be so great if we had a Grand Slam, so I could have 14,000 fans cheering for me. It has an impact on our American players. And then what you see is sometimes the inability to keep that going. this has been a special 10 days for her. It's a special location for her. It's a special feeling she gets playing in front of the American crowd, which allowed her to get some of the match against Panko. It was a...

Torrey Hawkins (31:56.899)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (32:06.171)
A lot of that was the crowd as well, you know, against Asapenko as much as it was Taylor. But like now we're still going right back to the same grind where it's like we got to qualify to get into this next event because she's still outside the top 100. So I think the big jump is if she can get herself across that threshold, maybe even get herself like into the sixties where we start to get like direct entry into some masters 1000 events. Now we can, now we can, you know, not play all these qualified matches just to get into the first round and be a little, maybe a little taxed.

Torrey Hawkins (32:22.229)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (32:28.003)
No.

Alvin Owusu (32:36.081)
Like that's, think that's the big jump that happens if we can get there by Indian Wells. Okay, now we're talking.

Torrey Hawkins (32:44.106)
I'm saying two or three. I'm saying two more years. Alvin, don't forget her first Grand Slam win was on doubles at the French. It's not like she needed the US crowd to get her over the hump. I'm just telling you, I think the girl has some belief. Do I think there's at any age, is there a bit of a shelf life? I've gone on record about Father Tom is undefeated with one Novak Djokovic and others. But you heard right here, she's got at least two years.

Alvin Owusu (32:46.715)
She's 29 though, she's 29.

Alvin Owusu (32:55.529)
Sure. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (33:11.827)
injuries and everything else notwithstanding that she can continue and her belief right now is that she can do it and Alvin I'm here at 32 plus maybe not so much but I think she's got the ability she didn't just beat a few no names she didn't do an Alex de Manor and beat Riddle you know she beat Mira

Alvin Owusu (33:23.795)
Mm.

Alvin Owusu (33:27.451)
No, she beat a former Grand Slam champion in Uleon, North Topanga. She beat Mira.

Torrey Hawkins (33:33.525)
she beat Yelena she was max points against Krijikova I'm just saying Alvin if that doesn't give you the confidence that's all I'm saying I'm not saying that's in binding wells I'm not saying about 2026 I'm saying I give her two years she gets she it is not out of the realm of possibility for her to be at or around top 20 with her current game and to be able to culminate this success of something else that's all I'm saying

Alvin Owusu (33:39.113)
That's true. It's not the.

Alvin Owusu (33:56.852)
That's, it's, I agree with you on does she have the ability, does she have top 20 talent? That's, I think that's what we're, maybe that's what we're saying as opposed to can she actually get to the, right, that's a very, that's tricky. That's the point that I was, yeah, there we go.

Torrey Hawkins (34:03.395)
100%.

Torrey Hawkins (34:07.154)
Can she mathematically do it in the next two years? Sure. That's, that's gonna, that's gonna be tricky. That's certainly going to be tricky. She'd be JPEG more than a few times in a few tournaments going up to this level. She's had wins up to this point that have continued to kind of bother me. Like how is she continuing to even hang at this level against these level of players in singles? I know how good she's in doubles and she bought, she put two or three of them back to back in this tournament album.

Alvin Owusu (34:34.057)
Right, she did, yep. Let me, so JPEG, know, my regards to JPEG, Sabalinka and Ega, we'll get to ya. You guys are rolling now. mean, Ega had a, she was in the lurch there for a couple of rounds with some players playing their best tennis. She met a test against Kalinskaya and then now she seems like she's smoked Alexandra over today. she's where she needs to be.

Torrey Hawkins (34:35.704)
That's all I'm saying. That tells me if players on the rise. Go ahead.

Torrey Hawkins (35:00.002)
Yeah. Cheers. Yeah. The defending champ always gets a little bit of love.

Alvin Owusu (35:01.757)
Sabalink is playing good tennis. We got a whole week to talk about these ladies. JPEG's over here beating up on the Sisters of the Poor and the older players in the draw. Okay, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. We'll get there. But the match last night, or back in a Vondrasova, I think that was a tennis purist kind of match. Was it exciting? No. Was it in... Right.

Torrey Hawkins (35:11.991)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (35:21.954)
Mm.

100%.

Torrey Hawkins (35:29.14)
If you're a Von Giselle fan.

Alvin Owusu (35:31.017)
Was it impressive? Absolutely. Both ladies, game plans right on their benches. Like, look at it if you want to, this is what I'm doing. And they were both executing at the same time. was such an interesting tactical match to watch. And again, I mentioned it earlier, same thing with Naomi. Vondrasova had this wry smile on her face that just made me feel like, nah, she's like, got this, I got this.

Torrey Hawkins (35:32.931)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (35:58.432)
Yeah. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (35:58.729)
Even when it got away from her in the second set, she comes back in the third. She's like, you're not squaring up any more of these balls. Just like a lefty after a lefty's heart. It was chef's kiss type of lefty execution. I loved it in her hands.

Torrey Hawkins (36:06.674)
Right, Yeah, it was, it was. It was, it was ratatouille. It was ratatouille all day. The images were coming. Yeah, great, it's great tennis. I've loved Vondrou Sova since her, since her nascent win at the, at the, me a few years ago, but I'm gonna tell you right now, Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (36:18.79)
It was so, it was so checky. It was so checky. man. man.

Torrey Hawkins (36:33.6)
She's an artist out there. She's an absolute artist. It's beautiful to watch her work. And sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the way she sees the court. I was a big fan of Petra. Petra is the bangers lefty, right? But Vondrasova is the carving lefty with power, right? That can still bring it. She just reminds me of if the genes of Martina were to come back.

Alvin Owusu (36:34.92)
She really is.

Alvin Owusu (36:51.755)
yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (37:01.227)
pocket picking up old school Czechoslovakia, right? If they were to come back in a player, that player is Vondrasova. What's her name? Marketa? That those genes are now reestablishing in Marketa Vondrasova. And I'm just telling you, I love watching that. I love watching her for the all courtness of it. But I also like the fact that she doesn't have to. She's got a pretty good backhand, Alvin. She likes to slice, but she can bang the backhand.

Alvin Owusu (37:02.152)
So we're gonna, so we get a cool check, yep.

Alvin Owusu (37:11.452)
Marketta, yep.

Alvin Owusu (37:29.148)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (37:31.169)
She likes to volley, but she can smack the forehand and the serve album is all day long. she, Rebacca at six feet tall was one of the best returns in the game. And she was dicing her up. It's like, it's like somebody out serving Agassi on the men's side. That's context. It's not like you're talking about somebody who just kind of, ah, but they're not that good. No, no, no, no, no. Rebacca's best strength is big serve and big returns.

Alvin Owusu (37:36.802)
yeah, she was hitting dimes last night. Hitting dimes in corners.

Torrey Hawkins (37:58.569)
and you're dicing up somebody at the best of the game. That's what was so impressive to me.

Alvin Owusu (38:03.174)
And Rebecca was also playing well too. She raised her level just a little bit in the second set and was like, I can't get caught behind the baseline. I have to step up and literally redline it. And it looked very similar to Cam Norris' second set against Novak, but without as much tennis left to play on the other side. Cam redlined against Novak and like, I know you can't do this for two more sets. We all know that.

Torrey Hawkins (38:05.505)
She was playing good. Right. It was good tennis.

Torrey Hawkins (38:21.386)
Right. Right. Right. I'll push back on the comparison, but I know what you're talking about. The one set of plant out of your mind.

Alvin Owusu (38:34.844)
Just the, just one set of like, I have to bring, I have to up the risk profile.

Torrey Hawkins (38:39.444)
That's Rebacca that's normal. That's Cam's best of all time. Just saying. that no offense to TCU's finest. Just saying. I hear your point. Rebacca's Rebacca found her groove and Cam reached. And I'm just saying that in my opinion, Vondrasova still met the challenge and said, I'll see you one and I'll raise you one more. And it was just, just, it was just a beautiful thing to watch. Again, that was a round. Was that round three? Fourth round?

Alvin Owusu (38:45.672)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (38:51.528)
Fair. Yeah, okay. Okay.

Alvin Owusu (39:06.84)
That was the fourth round. Yep, that's tough. That's tough. I know. I know. That's the it's it's where we are in the we are in a golden We are in a golden period of women's tennis right now like when we talked about this earlier Women the depth in women's tennis gives us these gym matchups like right off the bat that had the that had the opportunity of shaping the rest of the tournament in round one or round two

Torrey Hawkins (39:09.234)
Alvin, that's, we're still talking. We haven't even got to the quarters yet. Two former slam champs. Man.

Torrey Hawkins (39:31.264)
Right off the rip.

Alvin Owusu (39:36.328)
like Krijikova against Navarro part three or whatever. That happened in round two. Like you see a seed, I was like, I don't care. Like this is, it's on. You can't work your way into the tournament. Like you gotta be ready to go right away.

Torrey Hawkins (39:40.576)
Hey, right, right.

Yeah. It's bad for the seat. You know what I mean? Right. I felt bad for Emma running into her that early. Anybody else, she'd been fine. You know, two more matches, maybe she'd have been more prepared. But you run into her second round, third round. Kid me. You you plan a tournament to get better toward the end. You have your, kind of peak and you got to play you up some greats and it's just to get through. That's tough. That's tough sledding.

Alvin Owusu (39:55.494)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (40:02.576)
Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (40:12.432)
Absolutely. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a break. Anna Smova and Hadash Meier are about to start. So, meh, we'll see what happens. You know, one of the interesting things there is if Amanda can get herself past this match, we get a rematch of the Wimbledon final against Swiatek. That would also be really, really dope. But yeah, we'll take a break. We'll come back and we will talk about the men's event a bit. 

Alvin Owusu (41:36.872)
And we're back. so if you're, I don't know why you would skip ahead to the middle of this for some reason, but if you didn't catch the entire beginning of this episode where we wax po-wag about the Czechia Armada, go check out, check that out, listen to the whole thing. We're gonna talk about the men's side of the tournament right now. Jannik Sender just finished up against Alexander Bublik. They had a nice hit. Jannik gave them three games.

Torrey Hawkins (41:44.159)
Hehehehehe

Torrey Hawkins (41:51.732)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (42:06.351)
I don't really wanna talk about, whatever, whatever. Yeah, we'll just do one hour. Won't even round up. Won't even round up. So, Sinner has himself into the quarterfinals playing against Lorenzo Mousseti. Lorenzo Mousseti, my boy. Looking good, looking good. Just, I mean, he's had some, he played GoFundMe the first round. Okay, whatever.

Torrey Hawkins (42:08.229)
Yeah, Yannick said, Yannick said I'll bill you. I'll bill you for the lesson later. You can pay me any time. You know what mean? You're welcome. Exactly.

Alvin Owusu (42:35.367)
gets, who did he have, Kabali and the, whatever, whatever, doesn't matter. Don't do that, Tory. He got moonar today, Hi-Bae looked like he ran out of, what does that say, American Express? Oh, it's a mustache, I see. You know what, if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcast, Tory's got a little Musetti mustache on, that's what I'm calling it. Musetti is playing, he's playing,

Torrey Hawkins (42:50.107)
You

Alvin Owusu (43:02.551)
His version of hardcore tennis right now, it seems like he's found some, ability to bring his fluid clay court game and have it look serviceable on a hardcore. This is his best hardcore performance under Grand Slam thus far.

Torrey Hawkins (43:04.255)
.

Torrey Hawkins (43:16.661)
He doesn't look bothered Alvin He doesn't look bothered and I thought Kabbalah would be able to push him a little bit I I I didn't I thought I thought Munar would just be able to do something He went through him like like a hot knife through through soft butter. I do not like giving Mousseti compliments That's why I have this on my mouth

Alvin Owusu (43:18.917)
Right, he's unbothered. He's unbothered.

Alvin Owusu (43:24.517)
Yeah, he was on fumes though. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (43:38.171)
You gave him a compliment when you saw him in person and he hasn't lost a match since.

Torrey Hawkins (43:39.786)
I know and I feel bad about it because it exactly my point and after watching him I'm like god this guy's better than I Back to my center of myself.

Alvin Owusu (43:49.403)
Yeah, yes. Yeah, yes.

But he's got a problem. He's got a problem ahead of himself. He's got a center problem ahead of himself and center's never lost to him. They haven't played since 2003 though. But since 2003.

Torrey Hawkins (44:04.25)
I'm hoping that the match goes fairly deep for both of their sakes, just to kind of reestablish the pecking order in the old Italian Federation. Now here's also what I'm saying, Alvin, at some point as a top player, you do need to get tested. Let's be honest. And neither of have been tested heretofore.

Alvin Owusu (44:22.311)
Dennis gave Yannick a bit of a test for about two hours. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (44:25.968)
Dennis gave him a strong set. Don't get me wrong. unfortunately for Dennis, you always know that Dennis does not have three sets of that level of tennis. I'm just saying, Musetti has not had that yet from what I've seen from the draw. And you heard it right here. I think Yannick is... We keep going through this like it's the mid nineties bulls. Who is going to play them in the final? You know they're going to get through. You know Carlos is on the other side.

The problem I have is I don't want the phenomenal tennis we're watching to just become the next Carlos Alcarraz Yannick Center show where the two of them are just reducing everybody else to the rudimentary forms of the game because everybody else is still pretty darn good last time I checked. I'm just saying it's very easy, especially in this.

Alvin Owusu (45:06.874)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (45:21.693)
current age, social media age, everything results are almost, we're almost sizing up players careers, right? Within minutes of a match. And they have a Herculean effort just to be back relevant in the conversation. Musetti is, was a former top five in the world this year. I, let go back to put my mustache on. Cause I don't want to give the man too much credit, but the guy is darn good, bro.

Alvin Owusu (45:44.869)
Hahaha

Torrey Hawkins (45:50.759)
So I say it to say, I'm looking forward to a good match from the two of them because of where he is. And I think that's part of the problem is we're already, when I see these straight set type affairs, Alvin, he won one, one and one. mean, Booplic is a good player, bro.

Alvin Owusu (46:09.125)
I know, and I think that's where we're talking. When you say you're looking forward to a good match with Musetti, I think what we're talking about is, you're actually hoping. And hope, as we know, is not a strategy. We have a seismic gap between the top two and the rest of them. And I think we're seeing it in this tournament. We'll talk.

Torrey Hawkins (46:23.151)
I'm hoping. And hope is not a strategy.

Alvin Owusu (46:36.135)
We're probably not gonna talk much about Carlos later, so I'll talk about it right now. He is just beating the breaks off of everyone with his B game, right? Like he's just like, I got it. And he's had this problem earlier in his career where he would make early round matches dicey, right? But now we're on a streak of seven straight finals and he's like, I'm not messing around. I'm here to win this thing. So I'm not wasting any extra energy that I don't have to. I'm even gonna take,

Torrey Hawkins (46:53.962)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (46:58.94)
Right. Yep. Right. Okay.

Alvin Owusu (47:04.719)
behind the back half volleys and win points that way too, because I don't want to play any more points than I need to. And so he is, he's so focused right now. Center is in the same camp. They're, they're just marching, you know, slowly marching towards each other. Center's looking at, you know, and this is the, this is the complete opposite of the women's like game right now, where we have this depth from one to 20, whereas like it's, it's one, two, Novak in there somewhere.

Torrey Hawkins (47:29.689)
Right. Because you can't. It's disrespectful. Yet. Right.

Alvin Owusu (47:33.786)
And then the rest of these, I'm not gonna call them chumps, I'm not. Guys who haven't done anything at the highest level, and we say yet, but we're talking about like, you know, the players left on center's half of the draw outside of Mouseti, you've got Felix Ojea-Aliassime and Alex D. Manor, like they've been around. They've been around, they're not young. So we're not talking about a yet, they just haven't, right? They just haven't. On the other side of the draw, you've got Djokovic, Alcaraz, but then like,

Torrey Hawkins (47:48.476)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (47:58.653)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (48:02.755)
Fritz and Lahetchka, like Fritz has at least been to the latter, you know, the last two days of slams in the last two, three years. like, you know, Ben gets hurt and now we got Yuri Lahetchka against Alcaraz and I'm like, it could be interesting. I they are one and one this year. So like, it actually could be interesting, but that's the five I'm thinking. I'm thinking what you're thinking. Yeah, probably not the way he's playing right now. Probably not. But yeah, so that's.

Torrey Hawkins (48:22.906)
Yeah.

Maybe, maybe not.

Torrey Hawkins (48:31.003)
Yep. Who do you have? Let's let's go to something a little more contestable. Felix and your boy, the demon. Where let's let's go there. Let's talk to me about the demons been cruising through the benefactor of a gift. I can't see a gift draw. His seeds have all lost and he is now in the favorable position. No fault of his own of playing against the guys that beat the seed. You know, like I know Alvin, if I beat the top seed,

Alvin Owusu (48:37.52)
Uh-huh.

Torrey Hawkins (49:00.188)
That was a match in my life. There's a 90 % chance that I'm going to play a little less the next day. Right. And guess who the benefactor of that has been? One Alex de Manon. Right. So.

Alvin Owusu (49:05.361)
Sure, sure.

Alvin Owusu (49:12.025)
I'm with you in that, yes, he had Sitsipass, Sarudalo, and Hatchinoff all in his small section there, right? But he is the eight seat, so he's seated ahead of all of them. You would favor him in those matches, but now he's arriving in the, you would expect him to be in the quarterfinal, but with a little more mileage on him. Right now he's, yeah, and like, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (49:30.117)
Yes. A little more miles, a lot more testing, and quite frankly, going up against another higher seat. And unfortunately, he is not.

Alvin Owusu (49:40.839)
he would have been playing, he would have been playing Zverev in this. Zverev would have been the high seed that he would have met here in the quarterfinals as a three seed. But Zverev met the resurgence of Felix Ojea-Aleisim who has, who then did the thing that you said people usually do, which is then screw the pooch the next round. He went back to back straight set wins against, against.

Torrey Hawkins (49:53.828)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (49:58.33)
I'll let it out.

Torrey Hawkins (50:02.722)
Right. That's right.

Torrey Hawkins (50:08.196)
Room left.

Alvin Owusu (50:08.646)
Yeah, then Rubeleven the very next round. like that was today. So in that in this matchup usually I'm going to give the edge to Demonor for his ability to you know scrap and make balls and and so on and so forth, but

Felix is obviously doing something right because he shouldn't have, he wouldn't normally get past Svarov anyways and I think Rubov is a little bit tired. I think he kind of ran out of gas there. Didn't really have the, know, the oomph. Right, yeah, yeah, Coleman, yeah, Coleman took it out of him. I just feel like Felix is like going to be able to hurt Alex and Alex isn't going to be able to hurt Felix.

Torrey Hawkins (50:42.49)
Five setter against Wong a few days ago.

Torrey Hawkins (50:52.536)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (50:54.998)
That could be Felix in four. I'm not in the predictions business, I don't, it's not. Felix, the one thing about Felix is that he has top pedigree. He used to be that dude in his cohort.

Torrey Hawkins (51:09.402)
Who you were looking for to make this kind of run five to seven years ago.

Alvin Owusu (51:15.438)
Right, and we're talking about the thing is that this kind of sticks with them though. Like the other guys that were in his cohort, none of them have done anything either. So when they all match up, it's like they still, like he still feels like he's better than them. And if his game is connecting, if he's at one with his game for that particular week and it looks like he is, like.

Torrey Hawkins (51:27.598)
No.

He was the French Canadian version of of the Czechia of your boy Burdick. You know what mean? Or was slated to be. Let me say this, and I hope somebody in Felix's camp is watching. What took you so long to get to the net? He finally has come to the net Alvin and starting to transition and he's got pretty good net game. I don't know why he's taken so long to get there.

Alvin Owusu (51:44.41)
Fair. Okay.

Alvin Owusu (51:56.038)
It's got good volleys too.

Torrey Hawkins (52:02.818)
that to me as I saw a bit of the match with Zverev, I saw a good bit of the match against Rubalev. He looked like he was in control. He looked like he wasn't afraid to come in. And another quick route, Misha, I know you, I hope you talk to your brother. You gotta quit second guessing the approach shot and get your butt to the net. You're taller than me. You're six, darn near six, seven.

Alvin Owusu (52:09.52)
Rubelove. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (52:31.896)
You got to bring the game into the 21st century in our, the, you call it out in the year of our Lord, 2025, you cannot continue to hope that the back court game will give you the edge in a game where you have to continue to take time away off those blistering groundstrokes. And I hope that this pissed him off enough to change or let's start getting the shovel ready for the coffin already. I felt.

what he did in that match against Zverev. And he did a little bit of again against Rublev. He was comfortable coming forward enough to throw off the hard hitter and who typically hard hitters aren't always the best passes, right? They're too busy hitting big. And my point about Felix is he came forward Alvin more than I've ever seen him come forward. And my only issue

was that I never saw with this all court game, I never saw him come forward enough. So I'm happy. I don't know what's gotten into him. I hope it stays, but I'm almost like, who are you and what have you done with Felix? I was your LA scene. Because I just feel like you're starting to play the ball you should have played five years ago. You know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (53:33.188)
Right, right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (53:41.87)
I let's let it ride.

Alvin Owusu (53:46.246)
But he's still young. I mean, feels like I don't have any notes in front of me. I think he's like 28, maybe 27. Like, he's not old. He's still young. So, he might not even be...

Torrey Hawkins (53:53.708)
When he grabbed uncle Tony as his coach about three or four, about four or five years ago, I was almost disappointed. I was like, not my choice. Not for where you need to go. I would have thought a player like an anacone, I would have thought a player who came, who comes forward a little more, maybe like a birdie, somebody who understands that level of coming in, coming forward would have been your level of a coach.

And I have to tell you, Alvin, feel like his grinding has been good the whole time, but that's his problem. He's been grinding too long. So anyway, I just want to say Felix, hats off to you, brother. Hats off to all his success. You and I have had this conversation about Feast. I'm hoping that Feast takes some notes from this and can, because I think he's simply a, French version, the retread, if you will, of Felix. And I'm hoping he takes some of this.

Alvin Owusu (54:31.302)
He's 25. He's only 25.

Alvin Owusu (54:45.382)
I hate making comparisons like same ethnicity comparisons, but in this case, it's actually spot on.

Torrey Hawkins (54:51.732)
Yeah, but just the game style. Big serve, good backhand. I'm just saying, I'm looking at games. I don't see color at this point.

Alvin Owusu (54:57.646)
Yeah, Felix served a little bit bigger than Arthur's. They both move well. I would say Felix is probably a little bit better of an athlete. I would say Arthur's a little bit better of big match player. But yeah, there's a lot of similarity there. Right, right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (55:05.272)
with that.

Torrey Hawkins (55:11.072)
Not always the first to come forward, likes to attack, but kind of second guesses the approach. Doesn't want to put his foot in the, just saying.

Alvin Owusu (55:17.858)
I, yeah, no, I'm with you, I'm with you. One last thing on Zverev though, I saw this stat that, he's lost 16 matches, 17 matches this year. Something like 16 different players he's lost to. That's wild. That says to me, the note's out. Everyone's got the game plan. And it's easily executable. Or even if he is playing well, whatever he's doing is, it's an easy riddle to solve now.

Torrey Hawkins (55:28.952)
Mm.

Torrey Hawkins (55:37.122)
Blood's in the water. He's not playing well right now.

Alvin Owusu (55:46.106)
people understand it.

Torrey Hawkins (55:46.616)
You don't lose to six different players in a year and be playing well right now. Let me say this. don't. Let's just call it a day. Here's something that I want to bring up to you and you know this better than me. You have coined the term a profile. Is he not expanding the profile that he's vulnerable to?

Alvin Owusu (55:50.278)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:08.857)
Well, he's continuing to get older and his game style is not changing. So as these players come in, the...

Torrey Hawkins (56:13.856)
That he can't change. I'm asking the 16 players, is the profile expanding? If you told me that Cocoa Golf would lose to this type of player as she happens to play four of them in a row, I would say, I'm not even worried about it. It's the same player three different ways. Just saying. Is he losing to different profiles? That's my question to you. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:36.901)
Easy, short answer, yes. Yes, there are lots of different styles of player that are beating him, but in the same way. They could all be beaten if he would do one thing differently. All of them. Not all of them. Take your Alcaraz out, take your Juggerfudge out, whatever. But he's also lost to Lerner Tien. And he's also lost to a couple of different Argentineans that he doesn't normally, like she has no business losing to.

Torrey Hawkins (56:54.295)
Those are

Torrey Hawkins (57:03.959)
Thank you. It'll be three in the world. Three or four in the world.

Alvin Owusu (57:06.117)
Right. so yeah, it's a, it's his career. I mean, do what you want to do. Like someone's into, someone will take that spot gladly. Like gladly. So.

Torrey Hawkins (57:16.343)
Do you think he falls outside of the top 10 between now and next year?

It's looking that way to me.

Alvin Owusu (57:24.901)
Oh man, that's a tricky one because he still, he still beats a lot of players. Like that's the thing, like he's, yeah, he's 43 and he's like, hey, he's 45 and 17 on the world. Like, I mean, he beat Bill, he beat Shelton in Cincinnati. Like he still beats players. He still beats good players. And then we'll lose like kind of not necessarily randomly, but like Render Kredeshin in the first round of Wimbledon, right? Like what do you, like.

Torrey Hawkins (57:34.135)
He's three and three four in the world. We don't we don't disagree with how good the guy is

Alvin Owusu (57:54.148)
What are we talking about?

Torrey Hawkins (57:55.851)
That match was a death knell to me. Rene Canesh beat him in that Wimby match and I saw him try. He could not try hard enough to beat Rene Canesh. And you heard right here, I'm not a huge fan of Rene Canesh. So here's what I'm saying. Midway through 2026, I think he falls outside of the top 10. And then I think there's enough blood in the water that he falls somewhere in the mid 20s. He has a resurgence of something. And then he kind of dips down again because he will not come forward.

comfortably enough to continue. I hope I'm wrong. hope Misha hears it, plays it for him and says, you see it right there? Even these two guys from Atlanta know better than you do and you're not coming forward. All I did was come forward. I'm your brother, right? It's the snatch. It's the snatch comparison. You're my brother. Act like my brother.

Alvin Owusu (58:36.293)
Yeah

Alvin Owusu (58:41.61)
He is the- he is the exact opposite.

Alvin Owusu (58:49.589)
Well, that's a good one, that's a good one. That's a really good one. Let's finish up with what I think to be the best of these, or not best. I'm interested in this one and I don't know why. Djokovic versus Fritz.

Torrey Hawkins (59:07.926)
Mmm.

Alvin Owusu (59:09.647)
Taylor Fritz reminds me of a defensive back in football. What's the, no, the episode's not over yet. You can't say peace. We're not leaving. We're not leaving.

Torrey Hawkins (59:19.078)
RU-TING!

Alvin Owusu (59:21.381)
know, Joker Bitch is 10 and 0 lifetime against Taylor, so you have no, like, there's no reason not to say that. I just feel like...

Torrey Hawkins (59:27.414)
You can keep talking, I'm just saying. I'm just gonna put it up there again. How about the reverse order? Routine. Sorry.

Alvin Owusu (59:34.438)
Yeah, This is his next chance is his best chance. I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying Okay, fine, yeah probably probably except for Novak hasn't He's looking better

Torrey Hawkins (59:46.397)
Let's try right handed. Let's try right handed.

RUH?

Teen.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:03.353)
Right, he handles strough, but I think a lot of that has more to do with strough than with him. He still doesn't look great. Nevek doesn't look great. He looks good.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:14.591)
Sure. He's had a trainer on the court every match up to this point. The only thing Taylor can hope is to stretch it out and get the old man a couple of injury timeouts and hope that Father Time is undefeated.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:18.55)
right.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:27.717)
Can he break him, like can he just like actually break Novak?

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:30.549)
Can he win a set? And here's my problem with Taylor's, and I'm gonna use your version, your jargon, the profile. Taylor serves big, loves the first strike, and tries to manage the point on his terms. Novak is the best returner of all time. I'm gonna say that again for those at home. Of all time. So his returns, and at his prime, I know he was breaking 56 % of the time. think one year he got up to 60 % of the time.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:50.863)
Yep. huh.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:00.566)
60 % of the time, Alvin breaking serve. We're not talking making returns, breaking serve. So you have to understand how that profile is like a bull and constrictor. Take one more breath. And that's what we're dealing with. And as far as the second ball, Novak didn't give you extra time anyway. He passes like he's unreal. And unfortunately for Taylor, he's starting to come forward and he's always been a phenomenal passer and defender.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:02.885)
That's nuts. That's nuts.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:29.581)
I don't see unless, unless there is an unfortunate medical or training or physical issue. I don't see how Taylor gets through this match. Taylor. And I have to go back to this match album. Taylor was not able to beat one of the greats without a serve and a certain Wimbledon many, what four years ago was not able to get through a non-serving Rafa.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:53.187)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:59.093)
Was it four years ago? Had to be four years ago. End the quarters. And I still hold it against him for not being able to step up and beat him through the match. Taylor is every bit of top five in the world. Make no mistake. But his five and Novak's three, I know Novak's not seated three, are a chasm different. are Grand Canyon difference apart from where they are. Just saying. Please.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:16.175)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:02:21.797)
This is, me add this. Let me submit to this to you. Okay, I'm aware of the 10 and 0 record, right? That fact. Everything you said is true. Fact. I'll go back to the last two times they played in the Grand Slam, To 2023, US Open, Novak, one four and four, right? Pretty straightforward. Australian Open the very next year. So the very next slam.

Taylor got a set, Taylor got a set, right? So you fast forward almost two years now, where are they in their journeys? They're going opposite directions. Taylor is either squarely in the middle of his primer, he's one year from it, right? And Novak is dropping sets to Zachary Zvada, dropping sets to Cam Norrie, looking...

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:52.573)
Okay.

Bye bye.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:04.849)
Going opposite directions. I give you that.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:12.509)
Hmm.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:19.769)
looking like he needs a, like he needs a, you know, like a breathing bag against Lerner Tien, right? So yes, Novak has the ability to play himself into grand slams, but he's playing against far, you know, inferior players, not real challenges. I'm not saying Taylor's gonna win the match. I'm saying if Taylor ever had a chance to make Novak sweat, it's this match on this court. Like this is, this is,

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:20.145)
Loonatien.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:42.579)
It's

Alvin Owusu (01:03:49.657)
this is his only chance actually. Like this is the chance. And so if he can get one of the first two sets and now we got the American crowd behind him, right? Now we get a little bit, maybe a little bit of an edgy Djokovic. Like now we have some things here that can start to make the real Novak, like make Mr. 24 Grand Slams, you know, show his, show his metal. Yeah, bring it out of him.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:51.608)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:57.328)
Yeah. We'll add a little bit. Sure.

The only problem is when that profile kicks in, there's a certain quadratic equation that talks about Novak digs deeper just off of pride itself. And there's very few that have beaten him when he sinks his teeth into the situation. His lock jaw, so to speak, kicks in.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:33.518)
But at some point he's gonna dig into that bag and the bag's gonna go, I'm sorry, I got nothing left.

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:38.004)
I don't know if that's against Taylor. That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to say this right now. You're correct. Taylor is a phenomenal player. 100%. He's our best American. As much as I love Ben, Taylor is a bit more accomplished. He's a better match manager, Alvin, than Ben Shelton. Here to four, perhaps the next couple of years. Ben could learn a lot from Taylor. 100%. I would also say to you,

Alvin Owusu (01:04:41.048)
That's fair.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:54.712)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:02.734)
Both coach your sons.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:07.399)
that he is our best shot at winning a Grand Slam in the next six tournaments up to this point in time. And that is no disrespect on Ben. Ben's still getting, he's still learning how to make the routine be routine. The unfortunate part about this is he's playing his particular profile matches up extremely well against the profile of a player who has won 24 of these things against bigger servers than Taylor.

And that's my only issue is that as I say, outside of something that is, you know, unfortunate and unexpected on the physical side of things, I don't see this thing being anything more than straightforward. I don't see this match not going forward, but I don't, I, I, I of course see a trainer, if not two on the side of no back rubbing something, stretching them out for some unknown reason, even if he doesn't need it. I see that happening.

Cause Novak's just that picky and that on-ring. But I just feel like Novak, I have watched Novak in this whole tournament, Alvin play better each match. I have seen Taylor play the same and I have seen Novak get more quality. I have seen Taylor play the same. And if 24 Grand slams is getting sharper and he's already got a bit of an edge on you anyway. You said earlier Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:14.212)
Hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:33.926)
Hope is not a strategy to hope that this old elder Statesman pulls a groin, has a hamstring pull something to hope for that is wishful thinking. And I kind of see Novak saying, buddy, you're in my way of greatness. I'm trying to get to Carlos and to Yannick. I have something left in the tank for both of those two gentlemen and I'm getting better every match. I don't see myself being tripped up by you.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:03.192)
Right. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:03.696)
You better bring it. And that's just what I see. And you're right here. This, as you've often said, Alvin, this could be one of his last tournaments. I don't see your boy hanging out till 2027.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:16.068)
Right, and here we are though, whoever wins this match, whoever wins this match is in the unfortunate position of having to go through both Chuck Iacobras and Yannick Sinner in the next two, more than likely, if all plays out. You're in this great place, but you're still looking up at the, you've been hiking, you've been hiking. Oh, right, I've gotten myself about 75 % of the way up this mountain. And then you look up, and it's like, oh. Right, exactly, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:26.898)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:35.826)
Right. And then you're at base camp for Mount Everest and you're like, oh geez, I finally got to 20 to 27. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:47.525)
Will say in Novak's like this would be a bit This is a huge benefit for Novak if he were to get through this match Because they are on the front end of the order of play on the you the first day as opposed to the second day He's gonna have a nice little break between the semi-finals this match will be played Tuesday night They're the second match on ash tomorrow night or tomorrow night I'm gonna say Tuesday night because you're probably listening to this on Tuesday and then the men's semi-final isn't until Friday, so he's got

he'll have three, two and half full days off. Whereas, yeah, but then again, so will Akraaz, like the winner of Akraaz Lahatchka. It helps to know that, and potentially go into that match.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:21.384)
Help see all the statesmen.

Yeah. No, Just saying. Helps the Alvarez-Statesman in the sense, I don't even know if Alvarez needs it. know what mean? The extra delay almost hurts Alvarez in my opinion. He'd be better off going for Ibiza coming back and doing his thing. I just feel like I've been watching Novak get sharper match by match. I don't even want him to win, Alvin. I would prefer for his 25th.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:37.168)
I'll go play some golf. He'll be fine.

Hahaha!

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:54.509)
search to be done and, and, and over with and he retired because I feel like, I know this is wrong to say, because there are so many other good players that need to make their mark and in the, in the game and, get their teeth into the tour. And he's just picking them off like, buddy, you're not gonna have to beat me. You're not good enough. And I'm kind of pissed that he's still around and relevant and Alvin he's more than relevant. And it's been pissing me off that

He's still in that position and Alvin, he's still hitting the good ball. I mean, he is playing good tennis.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:30.35)
So, okay, so to your point then, let me try to drum up a story here. Not a story, but like, look, let's just, okay, he keeps losing to Alcara's in center, which makes him feel like I'm still right there. He beat Alcara's and I'll show you it open, right? And he lost the center in friendship and lost the, and then, but he always has a little, he doesn't have enough in the tank at the end of the event. That's the problem, right?

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:38.027)
Sure, yeah, talk about that story.

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:53.264)
you

Alvin Owusu (01:10:00.58)
I think if he gets to play Alcarazzo as a center again, he is justified in continuing.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:06.531)
Yeah?

Alvin Owusu (01:10:08.248)
The thing that will cause him to, I think, bow out is taking a grand slam loss to somebody like a Taylor Fritz. This is now Taylor's responsibility. This is now Taylor's responsibility. This is your obligation, young man. You have to take down the dragon. It's not the other guys. You gotta do it. That gives him.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:16.393)
I would agree with you to a point, yes. Right, it's his obligation.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:30.574)
Right. If not, you who? And if the top two do it, he's hanging around another three slaps. Let's be honest.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:37.701)
Yes, if you want to get rid of this problem, Taylor, you got to take care of this problem yourself. That's the only way we're going to, that's the only way we're going to end this. I think that's I think that's a good place to stop. We're going to stop right there. Let's put a pin in it. I'm Alvin that's Tori best of three. We are out.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:41.528)
Right. That's right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:47.64)
I like it. Stick a pin in it.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:53.666)
I love it.