Ep. 61: US Open QFs Recap & SF Preview: Alcaraz–Djokovic Set, Felix Rising, Pegula–Sabalenka, Osaka - Anisimova

Alvin Owusu (00:46.06)
Absolutely. And with that, I'll say welcome to another episode of the best three podcast. I'm Alvin. That's Tori. It is another late night edition here. Something like it's Wednesday night. We are wrapping up the putting a bow in the quarterfinals. Most of our semi finals are set. We've still got one women's and one men's match to be played as a little peek behind the curtain here. We're recording this as Naomi Osaka is up one set to love against

against the best Mujova and then you've got Sinner versus Musetti after that. So we're gonna roll with what we got. We got a lot, we got a lot. We got like one and seven eighths full days here so I think we're good. But first of all, TH, how are you doing?

Torrey Hawkins (01:28.318)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:32.435)
Brother, I'm good, I'm good. Very, very excited to talk about some of today's matches. As I was saying on the outset, as we were doing the countdown, just feel like, I just feel like there's so much depth in the women's game right now. I've said it before, I'm saying it again. I wanna give a quick shout out to all my fellow USTA coaches all around the country. I had to post a pic. If you can kind of see some of it, I'll give some of them a little bit of air time.

Alvin Owusu (01:46.882)
Yeah, man, it's.

Alvin Owusu (01:59.584)
Yeah, man, I saw that picture. saw Melanie O'Dem posted some of those pictures online this week. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (02:02.087)
Yeah, Melanie, yeah, Melanie was right there with us. lot of my fellow kin, I was just wanted to, so I had to put on the shirt today and had to make sure I represented everything in, obviously in the fashion of US Open. But a quick shout out to all of you. Miss you guys already and can't wait till next year, if not sooner. But I wanted to just say, Alvin, picking up on the conversation.

Alvin Owusu (02:13.134)
There you go.

Torrey Hawkins (02:32.103)
Wow, I mean we talked about the other day 12 former Grand Slam champs in the draw. Right now that includes Vika and obviously Venus. Not 12 total, 12 different people, right? Which is in itself a pretty significant number. Several of which were not seated. Obviously Vika and Serena being the elder states women so to speak. we could be looking, and even with that.

Alvin Owusu (02:37.774)
Yep. On the women's side. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:48.343)
You

Alvin Owusu (02:56.226)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (03:00.585)
You still got the bagoulas and the anisimovas that are still wrecking havoc. Mohova, don't worry, can't count her out, have still been there and they have not yet won one and are all poised to do so going forward. So it's just such depth in the game right now. And I have to say, I'm just so impressed with the players. Those of you who've been listening for a while know how much I'm a big fan of Amanda. I've been talking about her for last six, seven months now from when she played.

Alvin Owusu (03:13.846)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Torrey Hawkins (03:29.286)
Girls 12, I remember how good, how clean her strokes were. I've seen a lot of the players who have come through over the years, Katie Vollinets and others that have just continued to just become very good tour players. But I have to say watching a man that really had this breakout year has been a really special one for me.

Alvin Owusu (03:48.91)
Yep, so just to kind of level set here, we're gonna tackle the women's half of the tournament in the second half of this podcast. Maybe if we get a little lucky, we have a full semi-final field set. If not, eh, we'll roll with it. So starting on the men's side, to put a bow on it, I echo everything you said about the women's side. We're blessed right now to be post-Serena, but also in this space where people...

We've had so much good quality tennis on the top half in the last three, two to three years that you almost forget. Like, you remember that time when Ash Barty was like the hottest thing smoking? People don't even talk about her anymore.

Torrey Hawkins (04:32.736)
almost retired because I felt like the tour wasn't quite deep enough. And she may have felt at the time that she could, man, I can win the fix of these. I don't want to put it on.

Alvin Owusu (04:39.493)
maybe. maybe. But still, but still, like, I mean, we've gone through so many iterations, right? There was Naomi, and then there was, and then there was Ash, and then there was Iga, and now there's Sabalenka, and now we have, we still have Iga, and now the cast is just widening, widening, widening, widening. So, exactly, exactly. But, but like I said, let's go over the inside. We're gonna, put that one inside to the side for second.

Torrey Hawkins (04:44.903)
Since then.

Torrey Hawkins (04:53.48)
A full cap. Yeah. Right. But it's like knives out right now. You know what mean? As far as the cast of people, there's so many people, you don't know who's there. But to your point, the men. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (05:08.779)
On the mid side, okay. So we're gonna start from the bottom since that matchup is set. All right, boom. We got another date. Novak, well let's look at it kind of backwards here. We've got Carlos versus Novak in the semifinals part, I don't know what part it is. They've done this a lot, right? And that's the beautiful thing. think there's something like one, two, three, four, five, they've played eight times in their career. Most recently, obviously, was the Australian Open. Novak takes that one down.

Torrey Hawkins (05:14.406)
Is that Fritz Djokovic? Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (05:34.864)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (05:38.51)
beat Carlos in Paris at the Paris Olympics last year, Carlos beat him at Wimbledon, you guys are aware of that, but today in the last week and a half, how we got here, Carlos is, he's almost not worth talking about right now because he's playing so damn well. Like he has tightened up all of the early round nonsense that kind of would not necessarily cause him to lose matches, but cause him to put in a little more work than he needed to put in.

Torrey Hawkins (06:07.567)
Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (06:08.193)
Right, he's locked in. He hasn't dropped a set. I think he's been in one tiebreaker. Like he is doing everything right now, entertaining and efficient.

Torrey Hawkins (06:16.376)
Yeah. Couple of those backhand droppers. Alvin, you know what got me about that backhand drop shot he hit on the net on that volley that they keep showing the highlight. Great highlight by the way. I've got my old trusty dusty wood racket here Alvin. Alvin, he looked to the side, had a forehand grip, got the reverse face.

Alvin Owusu (06:33.601)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (06:43.046)
Right, for those of us who know how to hit that kind of ball around the net. I can do that in mini tennis, Alex, Alvin. I can do it in mini tennis. I'm good enough to hit that ball in mini tennis and bring it back, playing some of my kids who do an alley to alley game. And that's one of my go-to's with a 10 year old in green dot. This man did it on the full stretch, almost Pat Cash, Boris Becker style on the full stretch, Alvin, with a drop shot reverse angle for a guy that's supposed to be a baseliner.

Alvin Owusu (07:12.341)
against a professional tennis player. Off a professional ball. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (07:12.647)
against a professional tennis player in a live match at the US Open. And he got up and looked at it and kind of smiled like, yep, that's exactly where I thought it would land. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I'm mad that the commentators didn't make a bigger deal of

Alvin Owusu (07:26.061)
Cool stuff. Cool stuff.

Nah, he's a-

Alvin Owusu (07:36.366)
mean at this point, we already had the behind the back half volley from the two days prior. It's like, yeah, Carlos is a joke in the best way possible. His matches are a gift. You can learn stuff as a player and as a coach. You can be entertained as a fan. It should come with a label like don't try this at home, because some of it you need not.

Torrey Hawkins (07:52.783)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (08:01.124)
Right. Close course, professional driver.

Alvin Owusu (08:05.485)
Exactly, exactly, there you go, there you go. So yeah, that is Carlos. On the other side of that semi-final matchup, we have Novak Djokovic, the old grizzly bear. Okay, that match against Taylor, I walked away from that match being both sad and a little pissed. Like I'm mad at Taylor Fritz. Because Taylor had, mean Taylor had,

Torrey Hawkins (08:26.084)
Right. Yep.

Why?

Alvin Owusu (08:34.131)
a job to do. And he had opportunities to do that job a little bit better. But even within the operative, that's why I was mad. But I would say I was 20 % mad, 80 % sad. The sadness comes from he just doesn't have the tools to do this job. The job of beating Novak Djokovic that particular job. And

Torrey Hawkins (08:44.964)
Hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (08:55.969)
Yeah. Good.

Alvin Owusu (09:01.261)
You know, it's when you start seeing them. And I said the same thing about Taylor. We were at this year end championship. So this is Turenne and I'm watching him play center and they have this really cool angle. And I talked about it on this podcast. It's like, you can see the moment within a rally when he gets a little bit behind from a recovery standpoint, when his, when his just below top level athleticism shows up just below, you know, average speed shows up.

Torrey Hawkins (09:09.305)
you

Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (09:30.293)
in the Manova rally and then that's when he loses it. It's not that he can't run down balls. It's that he can't stay on top of the beeps in those extremely high level rallies against those. Right, and we're talking about top three. We're talking about the top three guys, right? Just the top. He is the fourth best player in the world because, but there's a big gap between the three and the four in this instance. I.

Torrey Hawkins (09:40.653)
Right. And the extremely high level pacer drill, so to speak.

Alvin Owusu (09:57.365)
I wanted it. I think I just wanted it more than I thought it was gonna happen. And there should be...

Torrey Hawkins (10:01.39)
Sure, Novak has given you no reason to believe that it was possible.

Alvin Owusu (10:05.64)
Right, you just kind of simple stuff like does Taylor do anything better than Novak does? No. And that's.

Torrey Hawkins (10:10.105)
Right. Yeah. That was not an upset to me. That was, if anything, that was another chance of a change in regard that Taylor has not. And let's face it, Alvin, that's just, that's where he's at, right? That's his skill set. I want to take a little different angle because I like the fact that he took the third. Anytime you can take a set from guys like that, it builds belief. I said the same thing about Ben Shelton. I'm gonna the same thing about Taylor.

Alvin Owusu (10:14.761)
No. No.

Alvin Owusu (10:29.078)
Please.

Torrey Hawkins (10:41.016)
Taylor is much more composed and plays a much more efficient match than Full disclosure, I'm more of a Ben Shelton fan. mean, I've known him since he was a little kid. He and his sister, I've known Brian. I'm period. Full on, wearing the jersey. But I have to say that for Taylor because he's a more efficient match player. He manages better. He holds a serve better. He does a lot of good things. At his point in the screen, he's little older than Ben.

He just plays a little more professional. There were times in that match that I felt like I wanted him to dig deeper. I think he wanted to dig deeper and he didn't. One of the points on that little short drop and he tried to lob him instead of really taking it to him. He could have hit no back and quite frankly, he probably looking back on it probably should have or at the very least ripped it at him and ripped it past him and just to show him, buddy, I have to beat you. I have to beat the man to be the man.

And right now you're in my way, right? And I felt like that was an opportunity to squander. That point is in a sense a microcosm of where he is in the tour. He's trying to truly break into, not just numbers wise and numerical ranking. He's truly trying to break into being the top four, top three best tennis player in the world with his goals. And he has a chance to knock off the old guy and he didn't, couldn't, some may say.

won't, know, and at least, at least at this point in his career with, with a healthy Novak. And all I saw was another chance was, was, was another, you know, three or four years ago, Wimbledon when he was playing, Rafa. So what, but, but it also tells me Alvin, and we said this a little bit. I'm going to dip my toe in the water with the girls game again with Venus playing was a Peyton Stearns. You're playing a 24 time Grand Slam champ. This guy knows how to win matches.

Alvin Owusu (12:06.166)
Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (12:33.536)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (12:33.816)
How many matches has he won on bad days, Alvin? How many matches has he won not feeling 100 %? He knows that you can't take it from him. And he knows that better than anybody. How many is he won? 100 and some, 100 and some on titles. This is ridiculous to even expect a player of Taylor's very high level to even do it. What I was sad about is it means we're gonna be another three to six months, maybe a year with Novak still.

hanging around trying to get 25. He's got no reason not to. That's why I was sad.

Alvin Owusu (13:02.38)
He's got no reason. He's got no reason not to. Yeah, that's the part that I get pissed about because I ended our last episode with exactly, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (13:11.254)
Yeah, you want somebody to put him to bed, but they can't. And he's looking around like, hey, I'm still playing good tennis. What do you guys want me to do? You know what mean? I'm not mad at Novak.

Alvin Owusu (13:18.698)
Yeah, if his main problem is Sinner and Alcorazel, then he's got the same problem everyone else has and he's the closest to solving it. So why leave? Why leave? Why won't you just die? But from a tactical standpoint, what does it take to actually beat Novak Djokovic at his average to above average game? It requires a set of tools that really kind of boil down to like, yeah, you need to have the rally tolerance.

Torrey Hawkins (13:28.066)
Thank you.

Torrey Hawkins (13:32.726)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (13:48.267)
Right? You need to, you need to serve at a high level. You need to return at a high level and then you need to be able to dictate as well. Like both Yannick and Carlos will dictate from, the middle of the court. They will dictate from the corners, like flipping, flipping defensive shots into offense down the line. Like they will do, they will take lots of chances to take offense and grab the opportunity to put Novak on defense. I just saw last night, the same thing that I continue to see with Taylor Fritz when he plays against these high level players is a willingness.

Torrey Hawkins (13:54.275)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Right. No, right. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (14:17.622)
to just stay in baseline battles. And that's again, to his skillset, he does not necessarily have the obvious tools of creating offense, like creating transition opportunities, if you will.

Torrey Hawkins (14:23.49)
All right.

I'm gonna push back on creating. He can create very well. I'm not so sure he can maintain it and transition. That's your next point. He's got one of the best serves on tour, Alvin, and he's got a pretty big forehand. If that is not what offense is, I'm not sure. And he's got a good backhand. Taylor going to backhand, backhand rally is not terrible.

Alvin Owusu (14:51.628)
Yeah, but this is within the context of these other three players. I'm not even talking about the rest of them. There's no point. He's proven that. But that ain't this and this ain't that. yeah, sure.

Torrey Hawkins (14:57.218)
I'm with you. I'm just saying the guy can hit a ball. You know my problem at Taylor is he has not brought out something else. Be it the dropper, be it the swinging volley, be it anything. You know what Novak did to him about seven, eight times last night, Alvin? You saw it. He served in volley. When 24 Grand slams pulls out their game C on you and says,

Alvin Owusu (15:19.392)
Yep, NoVeg will do that.

Torrey Hawkins (15:26.592)
Let me try this on you real quick. This is I've been working on in my spare time. And you're the up and comer that's supposed to be in your prime and you're still using A and maybe some B and 24 Grand Slams brings out C game on you just to change up the pace and make a quick point of it.

Alvin Owusu (15:43.351)
Well, he did the same thing with Zverev at the French Open in the quarterfinals, I think it was, that later night match. He was just like, okay, if you're gonna stand back there, I'm just gonna serve volley, I'll drop here, you're so far back, it's not gonna matter. Again, a similar style player, right, who does not necessarily want to come up and bring the noise from five feet inside the baseline.

Torrey Hawkins (15:57.505)
Thank you.

Torrey Hawkins (16:05.046)
My issue from a coaching standpoint is he has a more well-rounded game and is older than the people that should be pushing him out. And that's Meddy, that's Taylor, that's who else is in that same boat that hit a hit a nice big ball, but can't do much else with him to hurt him.

Alvin Owusu (16:27.2)
like sits a pass.

Torrey Hawkins (16:29.342)
to Staphanos and even in this conversation, unfortunately, but to your point, Ben Shelton, Rubeleth, right? The guys that can hit the snot out of the ball, but won't do much else behind it. And I'm gonna put Mehdi first on that list because he's been there, he's beat him before, he's been in finals before. And so you gotta come away from that quote unquote Super Bowl saying, we got a butt kicked. What are we changing? Right? What are we changing?

Alvin Owusu (16:31.54)
Okay, fair, fair. Rublev. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (16:58.283)
to add to the game the next year. What's my new iteration? What's my wrinkle that I'm bringing to the game? And I have not seen one from Mehdi, Zverev or Taylor. And that's the issue I have is it's not just not, it's not fair. I don't see any inkling of it coming, which to me tells me you're gonna see more of the same.

Alvin Owusu (17:16.95)
I mean, yeah, it is what it is. And this makes me as excited as I am for the, exactly, that's all the sadness that I'm dealing with right now. And as much as I'm excited about the depth and the future of the women's game, I feel the exact opposite. I feel like I just said this two nights ago. Like the exact same thing. Like if it's not Taylor and it's not Zverev, then who is it? I'm looking back, what am I waiting for?

Torrey Hawkins (17:22.575)
Hence your set.

Torrey Hawkins (17:34.804)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (17:43.264)
And who? Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (17:46.954)
Novak's gonna be doing this at 41 at this point. I mean, but fine, but fine. There is a little further down on the Novak thing. So this is four semi-final, four slam semi-finals in a row. Had to pull out against Zverev in Australia, got beat by center in French, got beat by center while lame in Wimbledon, and now we're here again.

Torrey Hawkins (17:50.356)
I sure hope not. But to your point, it's reasonable to...

Torrey Hawkins (18:07.529)
Ozzy, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (18:14.432)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (18:16.191)
Nice little book end, got Carlos one more time in the semi. So the comparisons, I heard this earlier today and I wanted to kind of talk about it here. The comparisons kind of harken back to Serena post coming back from having her child. She made four slam finals after that time. This is very similar, but we know how Serena's quest ended.

Torrey Hawkins (18:32.702)
Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (18:40.948)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (18:47.837)
Is Novak fighting ghosts at this point? Like, I mean, even if we just look at him right now, this, this, okay, let's look at this opportunity. Is what you, did what you saw from the night prior, his match against Taylor, is that, or anything that you've seen in the, you know, last week and a half, is that enough going against what he's got ahead of him tomorrow?

Torrey Hawkins (18:53.801)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (19:05.742)
No. No. Not enough. All right. No, no, no, no. We've seen it.

Alvin Owusu (19:10.099)
Not enough. haven't seen, I haven't seen top flight Novak yet.

Alvin Owusu (19:17.168)
I mean, not this not this week. I haven't seen I haven't seen this tournament.

Torrey Hawkins (19:20.382)
We've seen it. I think the tour is catching up to him. He's still that much better. Go back to the Miami match when he put the beat down on Demetrov. To me, I haven't seen him play that high level of tennis. Quite frankly, I haven't seen Demetrov play that high level tennis since the Wimby match against Center. You don't have day sevens very often, Alvin. And that's top flight. That's your top, top, top. That is

pushing through your ceiling, okay? Of the seven days a week, you will play day seven, maybe, maybe in a match, five, six times a year, total. You will play God awful, same number. Dimitrov showed that in those two sets against Yanuk Center in whatever round that was, round of 16, give or take, was darn near untouchable, right? Serving big, smacking the tar out of the forehand.

Alvin Owusu (20:10.091)
16 I think it was.

Alvin Owusu (20:17.703)
literally served his arm off. Poor guy.

Torrey Hawkins (20:19.193)
Literally served his arm off. Could not lift the thing to even shake hands. You know what mean? That's how big he was serving and how big it was hitting the ball. Could not. Center had no answer. Unfortunately, not sustainable, not necessarily something he can do a lot. I saw him against him, which is ironic, in that Miami Open. I'm saying this to you to say he didn't play that well the rest of the tournament. And while he's been in these semis, pulled out here, bending up here, we've seen some consistent tennis from Novak out and we have.

Alvin Owusu (20:48.105)
hence the four semi-finals and yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (20:48.467)
Well, we've, hence another semi, right? But what we haven't seen is his next year or we haven't seen that be enough against the top players. And once again, it has to be understood in context. These next two young gentlemen have said, by the way, Pops, we got next. And we're the next, we're you 15 years later, like you were that five years later with the Rafa's and the feds.

And what you were doing 10 years ago is not quite enough. We've got an answer for that. I'll raise you. I'll see you one and raise you one. And that's where we are. And we appreciate you being there because you've helped us to get to where we are. now know the rest of these guys don't know. We know. And that's where we are with Novak. And here's my problem, Alvin. It won't change. They will only get better at this.

Alvin Owusu (21:40.084)
Right, and that's the part that is, I think, really good to hone in on. like, Sinner has had Novak's number, right, in the last 18 months or something like that. That seems like, yeah, I mean, that one is a, these guys play very, very similar game styles and one of them is 15 years younger, or-ish, something like that, right? Okay, that makes a lot of sense. The Alcaraz one, you he beat Alcaraz in the Australian Open this year.

Torrey Hawkins (21:50.076)
Right. More than Alcares.

Alvin Owusu (22:08.651)
and then won their prior two matchups before that. Both of those were two out of three sets. Obviously, I'll show you an open was three out of five. That match was weird. I think we all remember it. Carlos gets up on him early. Novak pulls some of his dark arts, gets in Carlos' head a little bit, and then Carlos just kinda tailed off. Okay, that was in January. And then pulled out in the next round, right? Okay, so that's in January.

Torrey Hawkins (22:18.93)
Yep. Yep. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (22:32.39)
and then pulled out.

Alvin Owusu (22:38.067)
I think we would all agree that Novak is at best that player, but more likely a nine month down the road version of that player. Like just a little bit slower, Carlos, I think we would all agree, is a little bit better than he was in January, right? So, and he has showed no signs of anything.

Torrey Hawkins (22:58.298)
might be a year and a half better. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (23:07.487)
to be concerned about in the last week and a half, in the last three months, right? Seven straight finals on the trot.

Torrey Hawkins (23:12.722)
He's looking better now, Alvin, than he looked in Wimbledon. He's looking sharper now than Wimby. it's, Alvin, the guy's been at the net as many times as he's won points at the baseline. The guy is starting to work his game C. And that has to be a very solid understanding from the coaches say, get into the net so when you need to win some of these tougher points against Yannick, you know that you're comfortable with it. That's why he's coming in so much.

Alvin Owusu (23:16.521)
Right, yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (23:42.203)
He's coming in now, it's not practice match. These guys are very good tennis players. He's coming in now to get more reads, get more balls, get more touches. But here's my point, he's coming in more and he's good at it. So he's a year better than he was in Miami and what do you call those slams, sunshine, the sunshine double. He's playing now a year and a half better than he was. He's playing better than Wimby, played some great tennis in the French, got a little lucky.

Alvin Owusu (24:00.66)
the golden sunshine double. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (24:11.545)
Alvin, he's a better tennis player right now. Period.

Alvin Owusu (24:14.43)
Yeah, and I think that's the rub. Unless Novak can get himself into a situation where he can get inside of Carlos' head and start pulling those levers, it doesn't, in my tiny little brain, it does not make sense for this not to be pseudo one-way traffic going towards Spaniard. And I think we agree there. Let's bounce around a little bit. Not bounce around, let's just move on.

Torrey Hawkins (24:18.334)
Mmm.

Torrey Hawkins (24:27.805)
Right. 100%. 100%. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (24:43.63)
Full disclosure, we're not getting to Cine and Mouseti, right? Because that match is happening, it's gonna be done by the time this video's up. Or if you listen to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Torrey Hawkins (24:51.68)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. But you gotta talk about your boy Felix.

Alvin Owusu (24:57.66)
Okay, so Felix Oje Alyasim, four sets over Alex de Menor today, could have been straight sets. He had that first set. He outplayed Alex the entire match. just got in his own way in that first set, but was able to pull it out in four. Long time, long time Felix believer here, and I'm not gonna lie, I let him go. About 18 months ago, I was like, you know what? Maybe it just ain't gonna happen for him.

Torrey Hawkins (25:03.761)
Yep. It really did. Yep.

Great.

Torrey Hawkins (25:19.399)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (25:23.357)
Sure.

Right.

Alvin Owusu (25:26.494)
but I've watched him play qualifying matches in Miami. I watched him, I think this picture right here is right before he went on in 2019 Wimbledon. I'm a fearless guy, he makes you feel good when he's out there smiling, playing good tennis. And his brand of tennis is something that everyone can cheer for. He does have an all court game even though he doesn't always put it together. Right, yeah, yeah. So this, he's using it now. I mean, I don't.

Torrey Hawkins (25:32.658)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (25:41.989)
Yep. Yep. It does. Use it. Yep. Yep. He's using it now. Finally.

Alvin Owusu (25:55.627)
It's like so, it's so simple that I feel bad trying, like I feel like I'm not explaining it properly when I'm watching him play. When I see him take down Zverev and I see him take down Rublev and I see him take down Demidor. mean, this is two top 10 players, and then another, add on another perennial top 10 player. He's had the toughest draw in this tournament. He's just mowing people down. So, not, he's dropped one set between the three of them?

Torrey Hawkins (26:15.377)
Yep. He really has. He has.

Torrey Hawkins (26:23.994)
Yup. And juxtapose that with the same, I'm going to call it thin part of the draw for lack of a better term. Guess who has not faced a higher seed up until the quarters and he's an eight seed is Alex de Menor. And I feel like it actually worked against him to not have the other players go the distance to where they would, they would have that second or third, you would have that

strong knockdown drag out to stay sharp. I think Alex Breeze, no fault of Alex, no fault of the draw.

Alvin Owusu (26:59.242)
Yeah, I don't think that, okay, maybe in regards to what he came up against today, I think the best comp for that, best prep for that would have been probably Hatchinoff. If Hatchinoff plays true to seed there, he was the nine seed and he gets their eight, nine matchup, that's a good sharpening for what he got today. I don't.

Torrey Hawkins (27:17.405)
I'm with you.

Just saying, O'Connell, first round. Machizuki, second round. Altmeyer. And he won that one because Altmeyer retired. Rady, or Ritey, or however you say my man's name from Switzerland. And now Felix. He didn't play a decent big name player, Alvin, until today. To your point, fair. And I'm saying, no fault of Alex's and no fault of the draw. I only say it to say.

Alvin Owusu (27:40.532)
Right, well they didn't get there either. Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (27:50.02)
He didn't get much testing from any of the other players that you might want to play heading into this. And I quite frankly felt like that Felix was the benefactor of playing the matches he played. He's played Rublev, he's played Zverev, he's played Safalin, you know, he's had... Right.

Alvin Owusu (28:08.872)
And without much mileage either. He got through those matches efficiently. Not five set drag outs. Yeah, he's sharp. He was sharp. And he looked at the whole time. When we start talking about controlled aggression, that is Felix Oje, alias Seam, the internal struggle in his head. He has all the firepower you could ask for, except for apparently on the, Jim Currier broke it down.

Torrey Hawkins (28:13.914)
Right. So I'm saying he's almost benefited from the toughness of the draw. That's what I'm getting at. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (28:38.11)
that backhand, he hits it little too wristy, a little too much spin, like he can't really drive out of that corner so players know that they can kind of send a lot of action there. It's a safe place to go. I think he can counteract that playing against a player who plays a little flatter through the court and by coming up a little closer to the baseline where he doesn't have to swing as hard when you're that much closer to your target. But he was like in his safe zone, like,

Torrey Hawkins (28:39.289)
Yeah. Lil' Chris, Lil' Phan. Yep, yep, yep.

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (28:56.091)
Yep. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (29:07.71)
today and like enough, I think on the first set, think he had 11 on first errors on the forehand side alone with one winner, but yet he lost that set, what, six, four? Like he was right there and he's similar on the error side and sets two and three, but was able to start to strike the forehand and really kind of just chip away at Alex, like chip away at him.

Torrey Hawkins (29:17.419)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (29:27.577)
Yeah. Right. Alex can be chipped away and that's the unfortunate thing for where he's at. And that's why I think he's a perennial, you know, well, should say he's a max top 10 player, but not much more than that because he can be chipped away. Felix has always had pretty good game all around on everything. No real weakness. Thin on the backhand potentially, but he passes well. He hits on the run well and he's pretty mobile before he got six foot four.

So we've never had a problem with his options physically with what he can do as far as court coverage. If anything likes Varev, he tends to stay back a bit too long and doesn't necessarily use that same frame and that same six foot four height to come forward enough to really make his presence known. And I think in this tournament here, what I've seen is a willingness to come forward, a willingness to take the step up number two, and then come in and follow that behind with with the volley, as opposed to waiting. He suffers from a syndrome that I

that lot of my good passers have. They pass so well, they think everybody else has good passing shots too. So they never come in because they're like, oh, I would have passed you on that. Well, you might have, but others may not. And that's one of the reasons that kind of holds them back. Scow was that way for a long time. He wouldn't come forward because he had such good passing shots. He knew, well, I could still pass him. I would pass me on that ball. And I'm like, yeah, but you're not playing you. You know what I mean? So keep that in mind. And those are some things that I think is very similar. So you gotta, he's getting over that. At least it seems to you this tournament.

And I think Alvin for, know, Felix is what 25? I feel like he's been out there for 10 years, Alex, but he's 25 years old. He's not that old. And again, I love seeing a resurgence of a guy like this. It does me good to like he's finding himself at this point. We don't know, you know, there's a great book I read by, shout out to my girl.

Alvin Owusu (31:02.782)
He's 25. God bless. Yeah. Yeah, he's... He's super young.

Torrey Hawkins (31:25.688)
Renee Lopez, who was one of the members at my club and also a sports psychologist at Georgia Tech. She had me read this book called, It Takes As Long As It Takes. And it's a great book. Everything about it is spot on the money. But we don't know how long it takes for you to get settled into being a pro tennis player. The book's not finished being written. And quite frankly, for Felix, this tournament seems like he is not.

Alvin Owusu (31:35.55)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (31:55.449)
We were gonna say resurgence because he's starting to kind of put some things together, but he's never been top five material. I don't think he's gotten any semis. I don't think he's gotten to a semi before. Maybe one?

Alvin Owusu (32:06.185)
He's semi-final is either Australia one year or Yeah, one time I think he's got one semi and I'll I'll the I'll snag it up for you here

Torrey Hawkins (32:11.373)
Right. Well, I'm going say it could be more than once or twice. So for him to be doing that now, there was, I just feel like he's doing some good things and he's starting to build on who he is. And if he can do that, Alvin, we are even more blessed as tennis fans because we're going to see a better, much improved version of Felix going forward. And like you said, you don't, kind of giving up on him because his results hadn't shown, he hadn't shown the reason to kind of put much more stock in.

And now look at him. He's not mind you, he played Alex and no offense to Alex, but Alex is not a Novak. He's not a Yannick. He's not a Musetti. He's not a, you know, even a Taylor or a who was it in the other, in the other who's in the, who's my other semi or the other quarter. I'm forgetting the names. Le Hedge, thank you. Let's go out and again, same with Yuri. Yuri's not necessarily that, that, that level per se yet either.

Alvin Owusu (33:00.827)
I was joking, Lahechka or Alcaraz. Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (33:09.752)
But the fact that he's getting there, that he's showing it, know, Ben Sheldon, gotta, can't forget Benchen Ben, who, you know, unfortunately had to retire because of the shoulder. So I feel like there's still a lot more upside that Felix is showing, but I do wanna take the win against Alex with a grand assault because of who Alex is and this portion of the draw. However, the Zverev win and the Rubelrub win, buddy.

Alvin Owusu (33:26.622)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (33:37.066)
Well, yeah, I'm not taking it with any grain of salt. Because of what he did before, I'm taking it as he's just, right, yeah, I mean, if he had done it in reverse order, right, if he had beaten, let's say he beat Rublev and then he beat Alex and then he beat Zerif, whatever, it's fine.

Torrey Hawkins (33:39.372)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (33:47.904)
Right. It's his draw now.

Torrey Hawkins (34:05.836)
Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no question.

Alvin Owusu (34:06.153)
Nine sets to one, everybody line up. But let's look forward though, because he's got a whole different problem potentially ahead of him. I think we can assume Center wins that match, right? We'll talk through that Center, we'll talk through the lens of Center-Mousseti as if, yeah. Oh, and just a quick caveat here. Felix did semifinal US Open 2021.

Torrey Hawkins (34:20.469)
with Musetti, the old Italian qualifier for number one on the Davis Cup team.

Torrey Hawkins (34:34.551)
Towards one. There you go.

Alvin Owusu (34:34.661)
He was putting together something nice there. Quarterfinal Wimbledon, semifinal US Open, Australian Open, quarterfinal again. So he was putting together a little body of work there after post-COVID. But moving forward, okay, so let's assume it's center. And if it's not, and Musetti beats him, then he's got another bag of problems to deal with there too. But let's assume it's center. What?

Torrey Hawkins (34:39.467)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (34:43.863)
Right, right there. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (34:59.393)
sure. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (35:04.281)
Is is what we I think we've seen top Felix it still doesn't feel like top Felix is enough to bother Mr. Mr. He's a he's the best returner on tour

Torrey Hawkins (35:13.708)
The one, the one thing I'm going to add that we've never seen is a confident in his element in his own Felix. I've never seen it until this tournament. I've never seen Felix play this confident ever. He's playing like he knows who he is. We've never, I've never seen it. You may have seen it then even when he won before, I kind of felt like he got through that match. I didn't feel like he really believed it. He

Alvin Owusu (35:41.985)
Yeah

Torrey Hawkins (35:42.837)
He, Alvin, he's not even loud when he's winning. It's almost a quiet determination. His fist bump is like, I got this. And I have been more impressed with that than his game. So he takes a set off center. He's in a space right now that he doesn't think he can't. And that's where you want to be. You want to be in a match where you say, you know what? I got a shot. I got a shot.

Alvin Owusu (35:50.855)
Right, right.

Alvin Owusu (35:56.073)
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you

Torrey Hawkins (36:12.075)
I'm playing well right now. Five words, I'm playing well right now. If he's playing well right now and that now is center gonna be more than handful 1000%. But now we at least get to see center play against a guy that might just be able to take a set off of him. And we might just start to see can anybody start to close the gap? He's playing as well as anybody right now. Felix, Aja or Aliasin. And that's what I like about it.

Alvin Owusu (36:13.075)
Yeah, and this is, this is-

Alvin Owusu (36:38.373)
There's something to be said about belief as well. I remember when Felix was, I was gonna say younger, a few years ago, like 1920 when they were, that cohort was hitting the scene. I remember Sysapass saying something like, I used to struggle with him in juniors. And you look back at their record, Sysapass, mean, Felix owned him. And then when they came on tour, he just like, even though,

Torrey Hawkins (36:41.569)
huge.

Torrey Hawkins (37:02.538)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (37:05.193)
I think since Bass is a little bit older, he still continued to own him. it's like that old stuff did not die. It's like, doesn't matter what our rankings are. Like you could be three in the world, I could be 20. It doesn't matter. I know you. I know you, bro. And you know me. And so I'm gonna, gonna say, I say that to say, oh, shouts to, okay, look, this has nothing to with anything. No one's gonna care, but shout out to,

Torrey Hawkins (37:10.619)
Right. Right. Right. Yep. Right. Calm down, Browder. It's the whole.

Alvin Owusu (37:35.121)
Sawyer Duncan, who reached out to me last week. Yeah, shot me a text message. SD Money, what is up? So glad that you're listening. I don't like to talk too much about people that you guys have no idea who they are, but Sawyer Duncan, one of my favorite juniors ever. We're gonna try to hit some balls next week. One of the guys I hit with knows him from Cherokee Club, like, I mean not Cherokee Club, the driving club. But yeah, SD Money, what up?

Torrey Hawkins (37:36.181)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (37:39.594)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (37:51.83)
Yeah

Torrey Hawkins (38:02.266)
S.D. Money. had to say it. The moment was just the classic Sawyer Duncan moment. And I just saw Michael Browder two weeks ago over Marietta over at Shoemaker. yeah. Yep. Yep. Still as tall and as funny as ever. it good for him?

Alvin Owusu (38:05.288)
gosh, what up, Browder? Calm down, Browder.

Alvin Owusu (38:17.04)
I run into him at Lifetime. He coaches up there at some mornings with a group of adults too. that's,

Alvin Owusu (38:26.374)
Hitting that forehand clean too. So he still hit it pretty clean. Anyways, say, okay, back to my Felix point that I'm coming around to. Felix is three in one lifetime against Yannick Sitter. Now we'll take one of those out that was a walkover. So let's call it two in one. Both of those wins were in 2022. Yannick beat him this year in Cincinnati. He beat him pretty bad, and two. This is weeks ago, right? Okay, that's recent.

Torrey Hawkins (38:31.573)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (38:50.099)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (38:52.122)
I still feel like there's some belief because I feel like Felix is just...

Not naive, but like there's enough in there that goes well, I beat him before I could do it again

Torrey Hawkins (39:03.891)
Right. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (39:07.816)
I think that matters.

Torrey Hawkins (39:10.057)
I think it matters and the more of it the better. The smarter you are sometimes the more timid and the more you've already lost the match before you walk out there, right? I like a guy that's just, I hate to use the word dumb, just dumb enough to think that you can, know, a dumb and dumber. So you're saying there's a chance. You want to believe you have a chance. And all I'm saying, Alvin, I'm not predicting the upset. I'm just saying Felix is playing about as well as I've ever seen.

Alvin Owusu (39:23.334)
A little dumb. Just dumb enough.

Alvin Owusu (39:32.252)
Yes.

Torrey Hawkins (39:37.854)
He has more belief than I've ever seen. I look forward to seeing the match. I also think those guys, know, quiet as it's kept, they want to get pushed and challenged too before they get to the other one to make sure that they're ready. They both know they're on the either side of the draw. And I think they both kind of understand they're probably going to be in the other person's final for the next several of the foreseeable future. That's not, that's just happening. I mean, no one else is

is threatening to take that part away. And I really feel like if anything Alcara has started to ramp up his version of I'm ready for you next time, bro. I'm happy that you won Wimby because I kind of stole one from me in the French, but that's about it. Now I'm back training and I'm not so, I didn't like you winning. I didn't like you winning that handily at Wimby. You know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (40:20.102)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (40:35.91)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (40:37.153)
I was a little salty. I'm giving you credit because you earned it. And I realized that I got to get back to work. But make no mistake, I'm getting back to work. And I think I'm developing a little more than you have. And I really feel like this US Open is Carlos' to lose because the way he's playing right now. He's just playing at a high level right now than Yannick. And I don't want to go too far ahead, but that's where I'm from.

Alvin Owusu (40:59.912)
No, that's fine, that's fine. All right, let's go no break. We're just jump right over to the women's draw. So earlier today, JPEG was able to take out, no that was yesterday, sorry. JPEG took out Kerchikova yesterday. She's had a good draw, Jessica, and she's done what you're supposed to do with a good draw, which is make light work of that good draw, which she's done. Not spent a lot of time on court.

Torrey Hawkins (41:04.554)
Done.

Torrey Hawkins (41:14.207)
critique of a, bye bye.

Alvin Owusu (41:28.282)
She came out ready for the work yesterday. Barboro was a little slow to start, per the usual. Couldn't throw a serve into the service box. And Jessica put foot on her throat and never took it off. There was a little bit of opportunity, like two-one in the second set, and Jessica weathered the storm and she handled it. She looked like she had plans on being in the semifinal.

Torrey Hawkins (41:34.376)
Yep. Sure.

Torrey Hawkins (41:41.256)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (41:54.91)
For sure, for sure. And you can't take away the two, three setters that Krijikova played. Emma Navarro is nobody's good match. Taylor Townsend playing the tennis of her life right now with a few match points, I might add, was a tough match to get through emotionally as well as tennis wise. And in my opinion, Krijikova was already kind of coming down off that peak. She played darn well against Emma Navarro, Alvin, to really get through that match. Emma played pretty good. And I say it to say,

Alvin Owusu (41:59.003)
Yeah, I she, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (42:25.256)
She wasn't going to play a third match phenomenal and JPEG caught her, handled her and said, okay, you know what? Sorry about what happened in your last two matches, but if you're coming in, if you're coming in this match with me a little bit, just a tiny bit behind, I'm going to take care of that. And as I always say, she is the litmus test for four or five in the world and better. And she showed that today like Barbara, you know better than coming at me with that, with that sub game stuff. You know, I will, I will take you, I will call you out on that.

And did. And she did it in, I think, an hour and 26, An hour and 26. I mean, that's the clinic.

Alvin Owusu (42:58.236)
Yeah, it was quick work. It was an interesting atmosphere in there. Like they played in Ash daytime, which is odd. Ash, an 1130 match on Ash that matters, like that carries consequences, just like in my brain doesn't make sense. Like if you're there, okay, like all the.

Torrey Hawkins (43:22.717)
But Krijikova wasn't a seed.

Alvin Owusu (43:25.018)
No, no, no, they have to play that match. It's a quarterfinals. All the matches are being played there. So there's an 11.30 and there's a next on and then there's a seven and then there's a next on. That is the schedule, I get it. It's just like, it was Tuesday. It was just Tuesday and it felt like, it didn't match. What I was seeing did not match the occasion. It was packed but it was kind of dull.

Torrey Hawkins (43:28.135)
Right? Right?

Torrey Hawkins (43:34.227)
Right. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (43:44.005)
And I you said I'm in a Thursday. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (43:54.121)
Jesse even mentioned something about after the match, like, fast forward to just the next match on was Alcaraes versus Lehechka. Still same kind of like, know, Ash is big. It can get loud. It is cavernous. It can get raucous, but like usually you think Ash, New York, nighttime, little bit of drinking, like it turns into a show, but like it's one o'clock in the afternoon. It's like.

Torrey Hawkins (44:07.219)
is the word that I would use.

Torrey Hawkins (44:21.053)
Yeah, New Yorkers haven't showed up to it yet. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (44:23.96)
Right, but like yeah, that's tough. It's like, know, this match would have been better off being played in Armstrong, but we can't do that. That's just, yeah, just a little takeaway. Okay, so the other quarterfinal that happened yesterday was, did not actually happen. was Sabalica got the walkover against Vondeshova. Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (44:42.033)
Yeah. Sorry. That was a match I was looking forward to, man. I was so looking forward to that match. Vondrusova showing that she's that good. Maybe again, some injuries and whatnot have riddled her last few years, but she was playing some good ball. I mean, that would have been a good match. And let me tell you this, Sabalenka dodged a bullet on that one. The ball she was playing, Vondrusova would have put in the work on that match. I'm not calling upset.

It would definitely gone three and that would have made going into this match that would have really pushed. Sabalink has gotten the better into that deal. Not only be in the one seed, but now getting through to the quarter to the semis without playing a tough quarter. She's going to be fresher. She's going to be more ready to go. She's more than match tough. That match won't matter, but she walks in that match like Novak did in that match years ago when Rafa beat Taylor and then walked over and then he played your boy, uh, Curios.

Alvin Owusu (45:30.151)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (45:38.876)
Yeah, not my boy. It's not my boy. Don't come here with that. Don't come here with that. So

Torrey Hawkins (45:40.402)
I'm just saying, just saying. And then he was almost cheering it on because he knew he'd have a hit that'd be, that'll be number whatever number was, that'll be number 21. In his mind, he was already counting the trophy on the, to put on the side of his bag. I just say it to say that's, this helps Arena big time to be even more fresh going into the semi-finals because she has less mileage than the rest. Yep. Yep. Last year's final.

Alvin Owusu (46:03.729)
So let's talk about that semi, so that matchup with her and JPEG, right? Well, aside here, was, Naomi is up 6-5 in the second set. She just fought off a set point, Mahova was serving 5-4. I think she was up 40-30, so this match is, I mean, every time I look over, it's like someone's stepping up and hitting winner down the line. This looks like a really high quality, high quality match, but we'll see what goes here.

Torrey Hawkins (46:10.31)
Was it not? Sure.

So that.

Torrey Hawkins (46:21.041)
Mmm.

Alvin Owusu (46:32.359)
So okay, so this matchup between Pagula and Sabalinka. Irina holds a 7-2 record against Jessie. Jessie beat her at the weird 2020 US Open that was held in Cincinnati, or Cincinnati that was held in New York, one of the two, can't remember. Cincy in New York, that's what it was. Right, yeah, the bubble. And then she beat Sabalinka at the 2023 WTA finals, right?

Torrey Hawkins (46:49.403)
Right, then see it in New York, They're bubbling the players, so to speak, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (47:01.563)
So, but besides that, okay, we got seven dubs, two losses, and all of those dubs have been straight sets outside of one. It's not a good matchup. It's not a good matchup. It doesn't seem like Jesse does much to be able to hurt Arena. And Arena can take Jesse's ball and get her moving corner to corner like nobody's business. So, I haven't seen anything, and this is no fault of.

Torrey Hawkins (47:16.101)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (47:29.688)
of Jessie's right, she hasn't really had the test quite yet, but here comes the test. How is she going to approach this match to find herself in better favor this time?

Torrey Hawkins (47:44.489)
Like Naomi did with Coco, she's going to have to play a match that she that she rarely plays. She is going to have to attack the backhand. Sorry, run the forehand to attack the backhand. She's going to have to go line sooner. She's going to have to then run the backhand and get in behind it. She's going to have to slice more. She's going to have to move a bit more. She's got to be a little more tactical.

maybe even serve a little bit of serve attack and volley. She's going to have to do things she doesn't normally do, drop shot a little more, do some things that are a kind of counter to JPEG type tennis. If she wants to win, JPEG hits the ball as clean and as big and as deep as anybody and has the middle cross, I'm gonna call it middle, ball down. Unfortunately, that middle cross is Arena's wheelhouse. And that's also why that

Alvin Owusu (48:31.889)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (48:39.813)
matchup of seven to two. Amanda Nisamova showed a few things in that matchup at Wimby with the ability to go down the line, with the ability to go there early, just to run you. I'm not really, you think it's a winner because it went past you, but I was just trying to move it to that side, to the other side, because so many players go inside out. So she takes the ball, a la Novak for 10 years. He would take you line just to not let you go inside out. And when you did go inside out, he'd take your line, right? So he did it both ways, but

I think Amanda showing me, did that with us, Sviatnatec earlier. She just has the ability to take you to the other corner where you like to camp out on the left. She's taking you running to the right. If JPEG can do that, Alvin, if she can hold serve and she can push this match, there is still a small space. It's getting smaller. There's a small space. There's the Death Star. If you can shoot these two missiles in between, it's possible to blow up the Death Star.

Alvin Owusu (49:18.407)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (49:30.631)
You

Alvin Owusu (49:34.798)
Right, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (49:38.124)
It is highly unlikely you got to use the force and you got to have Luke Skywalker at the wheel of the the tie fighter or next wing fighter. But you have, but it is possible. Is it likely? Not so much. And I'm a huge JPEG fan. It's just that her weapons match up very well to arena's weapons and arena has a serve. JPEG serve isn't the best part of her game. Good returns, but JPEG doesn't. If she is a 93.

Arena's a 98. If she is a 90, Arena's 95. Probably the only thing, the only thing I would say that they are dead even on, I think JPEG, it's gotta be return of serve. I think JPEG's return of serves are right up there with Arenas. Unfortunately, Arena serves a little bigger than JPEG's.

Alvin Owusu (50:27.815)
I'll even give JPEG, she's a little more handy at the net than Arena is as well. Yeah, transitions better.

Torrey Hawkins (50:33.828)
fair. A better doubles player for sure. And my point is, and she doesn't use that against her. She has to if she wants to, if she wants to stem the tie.

Alvin Owusu (50:42.277)
I mean, I mean, this is the, and this is, I think you're seeing this across the, actually particularly on the men's side. We talk about these players who have good volleys and we, ask them to like the ask is like, we, we want to see you come forward a little more, but it's damn hard. Like come forward on what? Like, what does arena give you? That's gonna, I mean, you're going to have to, you're going to have to create chicken, whatever, at a chicken, you know what? And, and that's, that's, that's tough sledding. That is tough sledding. Easier, much easier said than done. Yeah, exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (50:55.684)
Yep. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (51:02.665)
You got that right.

Yeah. We didn't say it was easy. We didn't say it was going to be easy. We just said it was possible. And if it's going to be possible, it's going to go that way. It will not. You cannot beat Arena Sabalinka straightforward. You cannot beat, cannot go through her. And if you're a ball striker and you're trying to outstrike one of the best ball strikers who's currently number one in the world at ball striking and in the tour and on results.

Alvin Owusu (51:12.313)
Exactly.

Torrey Hawkins (51:32.271)
who's been to so many finals and semis this year and last year and the year before that combined. No, it's proven that's not a good recipe. So that's what I'm saying. But the good thing is this is a seminal final. She played her last year. I think the moment of last year kind of got to her a little bit as well. knew that was kind of, I thought she didn't play bad.

Alvin Owusu (51:48.241)
She played well though, but she played well. The match was tight. think people, we talk about it like it was a blowout, it was like four and five, five and six. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (51:54.703)
No, was, it was, that's what I'm trying to say. It was straights though. And I give her credit. I'm only saying to have played her first final that well, that was great. But I don't think she was ever a threat to win it. She was a threat to go three. It's how I saw that match. And I think if she does something a little bit more, throws in a few more little different nuances and her camp will make sure that she doesn't fall into the play Torina's strengths match up tomorrow. And I quite frankly,

She's a savvy player as is out there. I give her the best chance to do that against her on a hardcore, right? Because Arena, let's face it, Arena is gonna play a certain way too, right? So, you know, and she's not the type to change too, too many things. She's developed a little bit of slice. She's gotten a few different ways to kind of get herself out of some trouble, but she's gonna still try to play her A game too. there's, it's just a situation you're gonna have to, she, Jessica is gonna have to find a way to use her hands to her better, to her.

to her benefit and to not let arena dictate play. If this turns into a foot race, it'll be an honest great set situation, in my opinion.

Alvin Owusu (53:02.203)
Yeah, I mean, I knew you made the comment that it's a semi, it's not a final, which I think kind of speaks to like maybe the crowd aspect of it or the, but it's still gonna be a, I think, okay, even take that, right? If it's a final, it's on Saturday afternoon, right? If it's a semi, it's on Thursday night. It's tomorrow night. So now we're talking about a night match. We're talking about the same thing I talked about earlier.

Torrey Hawkins (53:10.636)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (53:27.362)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (53:31.335)
where you don't have the finals crowd, semi-finals crowd is gonna be very, very similar, but it's at nighttime, right? Exactly, and now we have the American, like she is of New York in some way, or fashion, go Bills. I like her, and now we take that, combination of last time they played here in the final, it was five and five. It a tight match, like she was there, she was there, she was there. She's gotten through that, and now she's back again.

Torrey Hawkins (53:36.366)
Sure. A night crowd's always better than a daytime crowd. Doesn't matter the night. Thank you.

Torrey Hawkins (53:45.634)
Yep, yep, yep, cool bells.

Torrey Hawkins (53:54.146)
Yeah. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (54:01.25)
Torrey Hawkins (54:02.786)
Just saying. You're saying there's a chance. So you're saying there's a chance.

Alvin Owusu (54:04.39)
Ugh. Ugh.

I mean, there's definitely a chance. I can't come up with a good reason to say that it's clear cut. Because it's not clear cut. It's not clear cut. Okay, we're gonna drift into this Anisimova-Sviatek match, this last, and we talked about it a little bit in the open. Maybe I'll leave it there, maybe I won't. So maybe you'll hear it now for the first time.

Torrey Hawkins (54:17.486)
Right, 100%.

100 %

Alvin Owusu (54:36.966)
But Amanda really stood up and showed her gangster today against Ega. That was a fun, fun tennis match. Like hair on fire, going for it. I saw, this is like a broken record, I saw Amanda Anisimova hit backhand winners from four feet behind the baseline down the line. And I was like, I mean had the same feeling that Ega had. Like what the hell are you doing even going for that shot? Let alone trying to get there.

Torrey Hawkins (54:36.973)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (54:41.25)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (54:46.094)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (54:58.742)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (55:02.171)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (55:06.852)
Like Ega's also four feet behind the baseline because they were just in a cross-court rally and now she's running backwards diagonally. Like I can't get that ball.

Torrey Hawkins (55:09.677)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and tactically probably a bad match up for Ega to take her back in so early cross court. But Alvin, where do you take a backhand early? Cross court. You see what saying? And so again, to my point, Amanda has the ability, not just my favorite shot with the inside out backhand, she has the ability to take her backhand line off a darn near anything. And, and it's, and it just stretches you out. And Ega.

Alvin Owusu (55:34.317)
Anything. Anything.

Torrey Hawkins (55:38.381)
like coca can be can be a little thin on the foreign wing and now you have to build your point from that foreign wing just good luck with that you know

Alvin Owusu (55:45.415)
Yeah, I found that like the, I saw Amanda struggle just a little bit early on her, on the forehand to forehand matchup. I think she was having a little bit tricky time squaring up Ega's ball, but then once she did, she was able to create depth off of it, sometimes take it line, at least play that side neutral to where she could get her, get opportunities to work off that backhand side.

Torrey Hawkins (55:51.873)
Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (55:57.921)
Right, it was over. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (56:07.097)
Yup.

Alvin Owusu (56:12.024)
And then even like, know, once you're working that well on that side, you start to get eagerly in a little bit. And now the court kind of opens up for you. So it was so cool to see obviously the, you know, revenge match from the Wimbledon final. I think a level set more so than a revenge match. Yeah, just like, that's not me. That's, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (56:12.087)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (56:16.885)
Yep. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (56:27.173)
Right. I'm going to call it redemption match, not revenge because she redeemed herself. That wasn't Ega's fault that she was the first time in a situation. But I will say this to say she was not herself and we got to see the match we probably all wanted to see. And the fact that she won it was great. I just want her to go three. I'm taking a second to show that she was championship material. And I think she showed that today with the win against Ega.

not that many weeks later, you know what I mean? So, you know, that was really good to see. And quite frankly, as you know, I'm a huge Amanda fan. It's just one more very good player, you know, in the women's side that's posing a threat. And when you have that kind of sauce, know, Alvin, I think it's great. So I know you've been watching like me. We are 6'3 in the breaker.

Alvin Owusu (57:10.202)
Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (57:18.116)
Yeah, we got triple, we got match point number two here. She's a muhova serving three six down in the breaker. So we'll, yeah, we can string this bad boy out until this, at least this tiebreaker is done. I think one of the awesome things about, you know, Amanda, know, asserting herself in this conversation, like she's, she's still getting better within the course of the season. And I think because she's managing her schedule so well, like after Wimbledon,

Torrey Hawkins (57:23.198)
Yep, 6-2, Mojave came up with the goods on that one, but 6-3 in the breaker for Naomi.

Alvin Owusu (57:47.994)
She didn't go and play Canada, took that time, created a true training block for herself. And I swear, over the last six months, every time I see Amanda, she looks like she's in better shape than the last time I saw her. And that's...

Torrey Hawkins (58:00.778)
Right. And healthier to your point, able to play these tournaments through the distance. And that's been happening since what she went on this year, Alvin Qatar, maybe. And then Odoja, whatever. But Alvin, I'm going to say this. It's what's been so good to see is her mental, right? Her mental progression through. She came in this tournament talking about, don't set any expectations on myself. just look at, look what happened to me in Wimbledon. You all saw that.

Alvin Owusu (58:05.743)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (58:09.71)
Yeah, one of the one of the tournaments in the year.

Torrey Hawkins (58:29.371)
And I have learned from that. How many players do you know, Alvin, that come back after an 0-0 beat down in the final, where you're almost embarrassed? And you say that in the press conference, basically like, this was embarrassing. I just want to apologize. I was just, I was not myself, but you know what? I'm going to get better and I'm going to, and I'm going to come back and, and you will see me again, you know? And and meant it, almost apologetically meant it. Like this was not my best tennis.

And hats off to the champion. She deserves every bit of it, but you know what? I wasn't myself. And then, do you think she was waiting for this day, Alvin? Do you think she was waiting for redemption, Ro? You know what mean? Buddy. Woo. And that's what I was so impressed with this match today was she didn't play too, too big. Didn't look like she was going for too much. Stayed in the moment and just played the ball she needed to play. That match went back and forth. Had a bunch of match points there toward the end. She had had a couple of that kind of slip through her fingers.

Alvin Owusu (59:08.503)
absolutely. She was, she was ready to go from, from coin toss. Like it was.

Torrey Hawkins (59:29.013)
Would have been very easy to get mental there. Stay at the course. As you would like to say, Alvin, finish the drill. She finished the drill.

Alvin Owusu (59:35.718)
finish the drill. she's like, Amanda Smova is a gangster, right? She's not like the rest of them. She rolls solo, she keeps a small crew. She's not about the nonsense, like Freehold Township, New Jersey, stand up. She's not here for anyone's nonsense whatsoever. And I think it's really cool to have a character like that who's like,

Torrey Hawkins (59:53.664)
Yep.

Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:03.359)
in the fold and in the conversation and also only 24 years old. That's a kicker. She's also only 24 years old and she was one of the best juniors, one of our best junior prospects coming out of junior tennis six years ago, six, seven years ago. she is not a nobody. not out of, she has been bred for this. She has the pedigree for this. She believes that she has the pedigree for this and now,

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:11.467)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:19.034)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:22.731)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:31.081)
Agreed.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:31.981)
life is allowing her to, she's in a point in her life where she can really go for it. And what is, mean, she's 5'11". It's not a little girl. That is a tall woman and hits a big ball. And when she comes up against the Egas or the Savalinkas, she's not scared at all. Yeah, she doesn't move as well as Ega does. And I thought that was gonna be an issue today.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:40.243)
I will love him bro. No.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:55.863)
Yeah. Sure. Right. Right. You move great, but don't hit a bit. So last time I checked, you and me are the same.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:01.465)
But, know, rock, scissors, like I don't move while I hit a big, like whatever. Deal with that problem. Deal with that problem.

Exactly, so when we're talking about big hitters, Naomi Osaka did just wrap up this match against Muhova, so we've got Osaka versus Anisamova tomorrow.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:25.226)
Yeah.

That's gonna be a, that's the highlight reel, bro.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:30.361)
What a nice little semi-final slate we have on a Thursday evening.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:34.11)
That is going to be pretty good tennis, bro. Pretty good tennis. Pretty good tennis. I want to make one small comment for my girl, Coco Golf, because I feel like we have to mention her with with the year she's had. We have a semi Alvin without Eega and without Coco and that only makes it

Alvin Owusu (01:01:40.195)
No nonsense, like no nonsense to this.

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:02.996)
for better tennis the rest of the year and the Asia swing and obviously the rest of the championships at the end of the year and for next year. And you know, you gotta keep your head on the swivel because there are six more players between Vondrusova, Krijikova, Hrabakina, Taylor Townsend that are going to be coming in to the mix that you hadn't expected. We ain't even talking about fracking.

Lynette and other top 20 players that are continuing to do the work. We're talking, but those are getting back healthy. We're talking about new ones that are kicking down the door and saying, you forgot about me. I ain't gone nowhere. And now you've got a resurgent Naomi Osaka and you've got a, I'm finding myself and I, by the way, I found it. You know what mean? Call up the search. I found myself, you know, with my girl Amanda Nisamova. Alvin, the women's tour will be.

Unreal toward the end of this year and going into next year with so many players playing well and that kind of drama and that kind of competition is great for the game.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:10.575)
We've had, I agree, very few notes there. We've had three different Grand Slam winners on the women's side this year and none of those Grand Slam winners are in the semifinals of the fourth Grand Slam. Just let that wash over you. Yeah, it's,

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:26.601)
Let that sink in. I still think arena is a favorite, but to your point, if she blinks, if she blinks, we'd have, we'll have a fourth, we'll have a fourth either way, right? We'll have a fourth either way.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:36.985)
We ca- We-

Man, I mean, these matches are so interesting. So interesting. So Naomi, I've been kind of watching this as we're recording this match. So I don't have a ton of insights on it. But every time I looked up, was just like both women served well. One. Two, Naomi seemed like her game plan was just the plus one version of what she did to Coco.

Like she is sitting in her bag right now. She's like, she has found Quan within her game and it's, I think this can carry her. Her match with Anisimov is gonna be so good. It is gonna be so good. I'm very, I'm very excited.

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:12.777)
Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be a good match up. Both of them are good. Both of them serve well, return well. Both of them have great backhands. The one shot that I feel, and it was underrated, is Naomi's backhand.

We talk a lot about Coco because her backhand is phenomenal and on the run she's better than anybody. But there was a couple of backhand to backhand matchups that went back in the backhand that Naomi hit an open stance backhand rip angle that

Coco is one of the fastest girls on the planet on a tennis court. Period. That Coco got literally watched like.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:08.197)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:09.286)
Like that's possible. She hit it wide service box corner, Alvin, going away. In a routine deep cross court, you hit it open, which means she's a tad bit early, which tells you that she could handle more pace if you brought it.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:26.671)
Yeah. Well, you know who's going to bring a tad bit more pace on that backhand side?

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:27.636)
That's a problem. Now, oh, I'm heading me some over. And she's gonna do different. She's gonna run her to that forehand side first. And I think that was one of the things that we saw in that matchup. Now, let's go back over to JPEG and to Arena, which is also gonna be a little bit of a knockdown drag out. So we've now got a very solid, who also finished her match of straight sets, right? So it ain't like JPEG's been going, you know, been.

sledding through a litany of three setters. she had, has she had many? Let me look at, me look at. How about I say, I don't think she's played one three setter.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:01.452)
No, she hadn't played 1-3 setter.

She had a seven five in there, that's just a and four, one and three, one and five. I think she beat Andlee like two and one. it's, grinding.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:12.328)
Right? Her closest match was in mixed doubles. You know what mean? That was, which was almost two weeks ago. So I say it to say, are fairly fresh. So I'm looking forward to seeing those two styles. And then of course the winner playing each other on Saturday. Alvin, has been a very, very good US Open. The promoters and people putting the draw together could not be happier with how this thing is shaken out. And each of them.

You know, Alan, can you imagine Coco? You said it. Coco and Madison are not in and we still got, there's still two Americans in the draw. Two that you didn't necessarily see having a chance to get through straight through to the final. And both of them have a legitimate chance to get into the final. It just to me, shows the depth in the women's game, depth in the American women's game. But I'm going to say it's great for tennis because this now lets you know, buddy.

There are not many sleepers in the women's side. And it's been a long time since we've had this kind of level of depth and in different types of ways, you know, to get there. And I feel the men's game could really benefit from some of the same. We're getting there. Don't get me wrong. The men's game is getting there. But Carlos and Yannick, well, Carlos and Yannick are generational players that unfortunately met again.

Alvin Owusu (01:07:31.328)
Torrey Hawkins (01:07:37.657)
right after three phenomenal generational players and that's been the only problem is we've been almost blessed with with some greats with some goats if you will at the same time you know all in the previous in the previous eras we've had one or two that that have overlapped we've rarely had three at the same time hardly ever let alone three and then followed by two more you know what mean think about the jock the mackerel boar era you know even before it was mackerel connors and

You had Ash and Connors and even those guys back, Stan Smith. They were not all together at the same time. And now you have Pete and Andre, right? Now you have got two more right on the heels of the same. And to me, that's what's not being understood is that some of these greats have just happened to be, and you don't know when a great's gonna show up and just put the tour on lockdown. You don't know that. They don't know that. They just did it.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:33.796)
So it's in our best interest to just appreciate it. Appreciate it. We've got a lot of good.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:37.478)
Appreciate it, appreciate it and be happy that you were born in this timeframe and see it live.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:42.533)
As they would say what a time to be alive and I think we'll I think we'll we'll put a pin in it there Everyone enjoy well you probably already enjoyed Musetti versus Center because by the time you hear this it will be over So Tory you enjoy this Eddie versus Center I'm gonna do the same Again, I'm Alvin. That's Tory. Make sure you subscribe like all that stuff I don't know where you do it, but do it where you do it and we'll catch you guys on next one. That's three out

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:56.4)
Yeah.