Sabalenka vs Rybakina Final Set | Coco Gauff Concerns | AO 2026 Women’s QF & SF Breakdown

Best of Three Podcast – Australian Open 2026 Women’s QF/SF Review (Full Transcript)
Order: Part 1 → Part 2

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PART 1
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Alvin Owusu (00:00.628)
And welcome to another edition of the best three podcast. I'm Alvin that's Tori and we are here. I don't know day 12 of the Australian open, taking a look at the, the women's semi-finals just wrapped up. And then we're going to talk a little bit about the quarterfinals. maybe even do a little finals preview. it's busy out here, Tori. feel like I just, I just spoke to you about, some men's tennis a few hours ago and we're right back at it.

Torrey (00:16.607)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know. I know. That's what these slams are to us, man. It's hot and heavy, you know what I mean?

Alvin Owusu (00:29.666)
Yeah, this one in particular, it is both hot and heavy and not being professional media members here, we both have full-time jobs and squeezing in this coverage is a burden of love, I think, but the late nights and early mornings, yeah, labor love, there you go, but the late nights and early mornings, it is what the Australian Open's all about, right? It's bright out there, it's dark in here, but here we are. Let's get to it.

Torrey (00:32.222)
Yeah.

Torrey (00:43.93)
Yeah, labor of love.

Torrey (00:53.255)
Yeah.

Torrey (00:57.67)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (00:59.57)
what kind of start with top half of the draw? Irina Sabalinka, made pretty light work of Alina Svitolina this morning. which she has kind of continued, right? And the last, the last two matches, match against Eviovich and her match this morning against Alina, similar, not necessarily in both ladies and the way that they approach the, approach the game of tennis, but the, the deficiency between

I call them weight classes, right? We were talking before we hit record about, feel like right now women's tennis is kind of separating itself into weight classes, kind of like boxing, right? You have your Arena Sabalinkas and your Elena Rabakhanas who are your heavyweights. And you have Iga, Iga sometimes plays like a heavyweight as well, kind of depending on the surface, depending on the matchup. She's got heavyweight potential. Coco has, Coco's not really throwing punches like a heavyweight.

but she has heavy weight speed. She has an elite, exactly, but she also is six foot tall as well. So like it, it's a little bit harder to knock her off. She's not like a jitterbug or anything with her speed. She is a different kind of athlete, which is unique. And then you have people like Madison Keys also heavy weight too, the ability to break through and make things difficult for you. So I want to start there and kind of get your thoughts on that perspective and, and you know, shoot some holes in it if you feel like it doesn't carry water.

Torrey (02:02.696)
She's the Floyd Mayweather of the heavyweight club. Right.

Torrey (02:25.169)
Yeah.

Yeah, it certainly holds water. I think, unfortunately, and you said as much in the opening, it is kind of like, right? Whenever you talk about tennis, tennis is an albatross unto itself. It's so different. There's no team. There's no class. There's no, you know, there's no anything except for tennis. That who can strike that ball a little bigger, a little better, a little more often, right? And for how many times? And I think that's...

I see where you're going with it, I like it. Any analogy will have a hole or two in it. This one doesn't have any hole big enough for me to poke at it. I think it's good for the analogy. I think the one thing that I would hasten to mention is that...

The heavyweight class to me, I would include in their Grand Slam semi and final experience because regardless of your physical size and stature, which I really think to when I think heavyweight, I'm thinking about the ability to get that deep into a tournament routinely. think more so with the women's game than even in the men's game currently speaking. There's a little more disparity. I think...

the women's game has, dare I say, six heavyweights. Madison, who may be on the tail end of her being a heavyweight in this certain situation, has had a phenomenal run since 2014 when she went pro, all the way down to Arlene No More right now with Arina Savalinka. And I feel like...

Torrey (04:13.32)
In the context for which we're talking about in boxing, the heavyweight is the, that's the featured bout. That's the one you're really looking forward to seeing, right? It doesn't mean that the champs at the welts are weighting. I think you mentioned cruiser weight and featherweight and all that are any less good. They're just not quite as strong as the heavyweight in most cases. Shout out to Floyd Mayweather and others like him that have proven the ability to move up to the heavyweight.

back and still be a champion in his own weight class. I think the point I'm getting at is that right now we have six of them and varying ranges of power and varying ranges of a lot of things. Egan and Coco may not possess the same power to serve, but clearly they have Grand Slam champions in their own right. I think there's eight between them. So clearly they got a lot of firepower. It just may not be in a forehand or may not be in a...

serve but clearly they've been there they've done that they bought multiple soundtracks we know where they are the one piece that I feel this particular open produced to me was we're now starting to see a true what could be a true counter to arena sabalinka in a head-to-head power v power matchup we know why we know what ciontech can do

She counters in a different way. We know Coco, probably the best mover on the tour of all time. that's saying a lot compared to the great movers in the past. So they've been able to counter, counter punish from time to time against and use Arita's power against her in this particular matchup coming up. I'm looking forward to seeing the actual power, the power matchup on that one. Speaking of this match particular, Svidalina I thought did a great job of hanging.

She came out like gangbusters in the first game. I it came out great. I felt like Arena got a hold of her tactic and her ball within about five points. And it was so quick to see the adjustment and see how fast that she made it. My head spot, I was like, wow, that was fast. Like, I felt like a good game plan disintegrated within the first game. Like, that's not gonna work anymore.

Torrey (06:32.806)
Svendley's got a big forehand. I mean, she's got a big forehand. felt like, what does Arena do? She went back to that big backhand. She showed, okay, I can do this on both sides. How about you? And Svendley has a good backhand, but not the weapon that her forehand is. And Arena then decided to, let's match up on that side. She hit as many big backhands as she's hit, probably hit all tournament in this match today. I even threw out her classic little inside and drop shot several times. I felt.

And this is what I want to come back to the whole heavyweight conversation. And then you have the heavyweight of the heavyweights. Can they produce the same thing off both wings and with serve and with return? And now that to me is what I feel puts Arena a little bit in a league of her own. And I thought Selena had a phenomenal tournament, played great. Now we're getting to the C where the heavyweight, the heavyweight plays

Obviously we'll talk more about her back in a later but I'm curious to see how those two match up with this now being you now have the two heavyweights that have that are pretty well healed on both sides.

Alvin Owusu (07:47.714)
Yeah, yeah. And it's not just the serve, the ability to produce pace and get free points off of the serve and the same thing off of the return. Even if you break the return down, It's like, we always talk about here, one of the biggest weapons and deficiencies in the women's game is the second serve, right? Like how well you can keep the biggest weapon being the second serve return and then the biggest kind of weakness being the second serve itself. Like, so that's another,

Torrey (08:05.446)
I'm sick.

Alvin Owusu (08:17.333)
you know, space where the heavyweights tend to do a little bit better. There was a lot of graphics today showing how the difference between second serve action between Rebecca and Pagula. Rebecca was able to hit that thing about six feet off the, like getting the apex to about six feet and out wide to the backhand, which is compared to Pagula's four and a half feet. Like when you talk about the size difference in the two women, now it's like.

Torrey (08:29.465)
Yeah.

Yeah. And out. Right.

Alvin Owusu (08:41.919)
JPEG second service going right into her back in the slot and we're back in the second service going up and over JPEG's left shoulder. So like there's your market difference right there, right? But also I wanna go back a little bit to the two quarterfinal matchups that Svetlana and Arena played. So Arena played Ivo Jovic and I wanna give a little bit of space to that match because we didn't have a chance to talk about it, not here anyways. Three and O, but.

Torrey (08:47.63)
Show.

Alvin Owusu (09:10.251)
That was a highly contested first set between Sabaka, Sabalinka and Jovich. Sabaka, exactly. I saw a lot of positive things from Eva that made me very hopeful and optimistic about her future. She's not a big girl, but she is strong. She's getting stronger.

Torrey (09:18.304)
Wouldn't that play be fun to watch?

Alvin Owusu (09:39.661)
She moves well. She is not afraid to attack. She went after Sabalinka second serve. Like I haven't seen anyone go after it this entire tournament. And she did it with conviction and did it consistently. She made Arena show why she's the number one player in the world. She did not give her that match. She had opportunities to kind of wilt away in the first set. She stood and delivered. She fought through some tough service games. And then in the end, it was just too much.

Torrey (09:57.272)
Agreed.

Alvin Owusu (10:08.65)
I would say three weight classes below Irvina right now and that's just a lot to deal with over the course of an hour and a half, two sets, so on and so forth. What did you take away from that match about one Miss Eva Jovic?

Torrey (10:23.754)
and in her first Australian going especially going this deep. liked I liked first of all like her a lot love her returns. I told you in the previous podcast that she's doing a lot of this and not feeling the pressure to over hit not feeling the pressure. I compared it to Vicki Boko a little bit. I agree with you now and I think her returns are absolutely world class. I like her control of the point when she's not the one having all the power.

A lot of players do this with power. I think they rely on their power more than they rely on their timing. She had such good timing, good footwork. Even when she was hurt back, and we all know that, you know, Arena in this case can absolutely pound the ball. She has an ability to maintain balance and to redirect that same strike, absorb it from time to time, but she was never really caught by Arena's power.

and I felt like I watched that pretty much for three four of her matches going through the tournament. She was prepared for it, she understood it. She still had enough footwork and enough balance and spacing to continue to redirect that ball. She just got out hit, ball eight, nine, 10, 11, but she did not get bothered by the howitzer coming at her. In fact, a lot of times was able to counter strike for about four or five, six balls in some of those very tough rallies. Even that second set where the score kind of

where Rena kind of went away with it a little bit. Those games were still some contested games. It was just a little bit too, a little bit too little toward the end. And I feel like Eva showed me some great things for serve. All it could improve, there's no technical flaws with it. Her transition game's gonna continue to look better. The occasional, she needs to find the ability to throw on a slice when she needs to, because otherwise she's gonna run herself out of her own coverage area. But everything on

everything else, all the ingredients are there. She reminds me a lot of, you we talked about Lerntian a little bit in the previous podcast about what we like. there, what does he, what he has is great and what he can still yet get, it's only going to get better. And I feel like that's what we're seeing in Ivo Jovovich. So I'm very, very impressed by this young lady. Very impressed by how unflappable she seemed in the moment. Very,

Torrey (12:49.155)
clean. You expect a player to have one good match and then have a drop off. I never saw that. You know, so that tells us she's here to stay. And the last thing I'll say about it, Alvin, she looked like she was ready for this. Dare I say born for this. So I like her mentality. She wasn't too high, wasn't too low. It wasn't blown away by the whole spec club at all. the same time, it wasn't riding a huge wave of emotion and whatnot. I thought maybe a little bit of that sometimes what Ayala kind of had a little bit. So you know those things are kind of

emotionally charged so you don't know without those right ingredients can that still happen. Not that it's a bad thing. Whatever you need to do to kind of get in there and kind make your splash. But she didn't need it and she did this on foreign soil. Alvin, this girl, this goes me around a while and she will be swimming upstream very quickly. I can see her her rise being meteoric and potentially potentially top 10 within a very very short time, dare I say this year.



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PART 2
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Alvin Owusu (00:00.718)
So to your point about Eva Jovic and I agree with everything that you laid out there. I think that's a really good base to start from and not just base to start from in that conversation, but also we look at players and what they've got when they show up to the pro tour, right? And we talked about the same thing with Lerner Tien just yesterday or after coming out of his match or after his Australian Open. These young players show up on tour and they're there for a reason, right? They've won a lot of matches at the highest level available to them and you know,

wherever they came from, whether it be the ITF's Junior Circuit or the Challenger Circuit or whatever it might be. College, and then they get here and they have this tool set. And it's not just the tool set that they're going to have to survive with while they're on tour, this is the tool set from which they have to build upon, right? This is their base that got them here. A lot of players, some players arrive with pace, right? And power and the ability to win a lot of easy points.

Torrey (00:36.74)
College,

Alvin Owusu (00:57.282)
and then have to build in the other stuff. We kinda look at that as like maybe the Ben Shelton side of it, right? But then players like Ivo Jovovich and Lerner Tien have this ability to control the ball and not be overwhelmed by pace and use, not gonna say just savvy, but use true control of the ball to not over hit but still put players out of position. And then they add on top of that, now I have power.

to start to hurt you and take away your time. And then you add on top, okay, now the serve, both of them have technically proficient serves. And you mentioned that earlier, that's the kicker, right? You don't want to have to rebuild the serve, you want to be able to add on top of it. Coco being the other example of needing to rebuild while flying the plane, right? I'd rather be adding on enhancements while flying the plane. I think that's the case with Eva. Everything's there.

Torrey (01:45.999)
Right? Right?

Torrey (01:50.671)
Sure. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:55.502)
Like everything's there. She just needs to get used to, you know, being under that kind of pressure with these top, top, top big hitters, which I think she will. I actually, I almost guarantee she will. There's nothing wild about her strokes. Service solid, like everything's in, it's the timing's right, everything's in its place. She can finish at the net. And her return and serves are spot on. Like her approach to returning is spot on.

Torrey (02:02.947)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (02:24.886)
Her ability to execute when she wants to go big off the second server turns the spot on it's just nothing But I mean I was going back and forth with one of our listeners in the comment section They weren't really convinced that she was anything more than just the new version of Jessica Bagula and I'm like Don't let the Adidas kit fool you like these are very very different players Jessie was Jessie was she was in her mid 20s before she cracked the top 100 like this girl's Just turned 18 and she's gonna be top 20 next week. Like there's a very very big difference here

And when you look at the details, what she can do on the court at such a young age with very little experience on the pro tour, that's why I'm excited. That's why I'm excited.

Torrey (03:04.111)
her returns might be the best I've seen of a young player in a long time. It's short backswing, good power, good leg, just great timing. I wanna add something to what you said, because I don't think this is always appreciated. A power player can have control, right? And a control player can have power, right? Sometimes we speak of the two of them as if they are

monoliths and that they are one or the other. And while they are a little bit of different ends of the spectrum, when a player does have a big enough Overton window to have both, it's something pretty special. I think she's got very good power for her age and for her size and for where she's at in her career. I look at Mira Andreyeva a lot in the same lens. She's doing just fine. You asked me a few pods ago about, you know, are we worried? I'm like, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

She's got too many things she does too well. She's proven that she's solid. Where unlike Mira, I feel like she's ready to maybe downshift and move up with a few things. I don't think that about Eva. I think Eva's game is already there in that sense. What I worry about Eva is not even a worry. It's just, okay, here's what we do next. And I feel like she did everything she was supposed to do this tournament. And by getting to it, I mentioned this a little more on the men's side, you have to play that top player.

Alvin a time or two to know what you need. You know, the great line from Suge Knight, you never know what you need until you need it, you know? And that's kind of the similarity in this situation here. How do know that until you face her a time or two? You know what I mean? So that's where I feel like she's at. She now understands how to be able to counterstrike, take that return a little more often, get the serve in a few better locations, and just be able to be prepared for now I know, right now I know.

You don't know that until you know that.

Alvin Owusu (05:03.181)
Yeah, and with her, we start to think about, okay, what's coming next? You start to look at the way that her team's kinda being put together. She used to be coached by Peter Smith from USC. She's a SoCal girl from, I think, Torrance. Trained out at the same facility that Pete Sampras used to train at down there in Palos Verdes. And her current coach, Thomas Goodridge, I think it's Goodridge, Goodridge.

Used to coach a few other American women in the last 15 years or so. Allison Risk, Christina McHale, Cece Bellas. But this is a different level of player with a different high end. Can the USTA put the right team around her? Is she gonna have to go kind of on her own and find, can Thomas continue to grow with her and push her, give her what she needs to to push to the next level? I'm not suggesting that he doesn't.

I'm just saying that these things start to, when the bar is higher for the player, the bar is higher for everyone else around the player. And if she's already taking coaching tips from Novak Djokovic, you can kind of see that everyone sees things from her, sees her ability ahead of her. So it's exciting, it's exciting. We were talking about who's next, what do the US have coming up behind the existing top ranked players? And it seems like the pipeline

Torrey (05:58.594)
Yeah.

Torrey (06:08.527)
Agree. Agree.

Torrey (06:15.56)
sure.

Very exciting.

Alvin Owusu (06:27.927)
gets refilled pretty quickly around these parts.

Torrey (06:30.605)
I think coaching in general has improved Alvin. I think coaching in general has done better with the talent that has been given. think the USTA has improved a lot over the last 25 years, especially in the last 10. They've been a better resource and less of a blockade, less of a, it's not as colonial as it was before where they were just coming to take things over. And you know, again, you and I have spoken off, you know, off.

camera about the many issues with the USTA and what have you. I and talked at length with Peter over them at the US Open High Performance Coaches Symposium. we had a, you know, it's obviously years in the game, right? He's been doing this for a long time. And I just feel like there's a lot of, there's the USTA will be just fine. I also though, kind of going back to,

piggyback on the learner tan of things, he went out and got or USDA or somehow it was, was, they, got linked up with one Michael Chang. So at some point you need a, you're just going to need a, a grand slam champion in your box to help you continue to move in that direction. everybody else who's coached you, who knows is going to help you with different things. There is a certain level of belief and a certain level of mindset that you need to have.

from a coach in that box. think Juan Carlos did that for Alcáez early on. felt like the numerous Brad Gilbert did for Andy Roddick, you name it. You can keep naming the coaches. Tariq Benabilis was great for Roddick. Everything with X's and O's and got to that level was great. Got top five. mean, how much better can you get? But Brad was able to take more than I.

Alvin Owusu (08:18.089)
Yeah

Torrey (08:20.301)
Brad, in my opinion, was instrumental in getting Coco over the hump when she won her first US Open. So I just feel like those are pieces, right? I know you'd agree with me with that. That's the kind of level of players she needs in that box. Who that person is, I'm not so sure just yet, but I would love to see one of our retired former top players step up and reach out and be like, look, I was waiting for a player like this to come through. I'm here.

Alvin Owusu (08:24.439)
Sure. Yeah. Well documented.

Torrey (08:47.916)
Not only do we play similar, I can read a lot of levels. I know what you're talking about. I get you. I see where you're at. Here's what you're going to need. Here's what I needed. Here's what you're going let me help you get there a little faster. And I'm not talking about the Tracy Alston's of the world. I'm going to talk about the Chris Everts, complete different game, complete different, uh, you know, styles while they can help understand the matchup, the mindset it's, it's they need, it's going to be somebody who's, know, who really understands that. Uh,

to that level, that degree. And so I'm really hoping that she finds her Michael Chang type and to add to her box. Don't take anything else away. Add to the box.

Hey, don't sleep. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw those returns. I was like, wow. Monica was bigger. Monica was bigger and obviously had a little different weapon skill set on both sides. Monica is closer to Arena, in my opinion, than she is Eva. But if Monica's, Monica, if you listen to the pod, make a phone call.

Alvin Owusu (09:35.191)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (09:51.03)
Also, also come on, come on the pod. If you, if you're listening to, I'm going to go ahead and extend the other, the other olive branch. let's, let's, let's bounce on down. Let's bounce on down to the, the cocoa of things. Cause we didn't, we have a lot of cocoa fans who listen to this pod and I don't want to just breeze over what happened, out there with her and in Svetlana, but I guess you look at it one of two ways and I choose to look at it this particular way. Well, on its head.

Torrey (09:55.151)
Absolutely.

Torrey (10:06.219)
Ugh.

Torrey (10:09.961)
Yeah!

Alvin Owusu (10:19.851)
That was a bad day that got worse as it went on.

Torrey (10:24.35)
How so? How do you say that? I know what I think you mean.

Alvin Owusu (10:29.581)
She looked like she was, okay, when you're playing against someone like Svitolina, right, who is not going to necessarily overpower you, but will take advantage of your in court mistakes, right? You leave balls hanging, kind of like Coco does get little bit gun shy on the forehand. After she started to hit a bunch of them, she started to leave more and more of them middle short, and Svitolina was able to take forehands and inside out. Some of them were damn near.

middle of the at court, but straight through because Coco wasn't getting a lot on the ball there. And now she starts to get more more self-conscious about that side. And then her bread and butter backhand started to get a little shaky as well. And then when our weapons start to fail us a little bit, that's when things start to implode. And not to say that, obviously she was looking off the court, had some issues with her strings, talking about the roof. She wasn't making excuses. think that's, it is what it is. Everyone has to adjust.

Torrey (11:16.97)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (11:27.723)
But when you get that confluence of negative things happening against a player who's in form, playing well at the time, very smart, playing a very similar, running the very similar approach that Naomi did at the US Open, that Bedosa did at Australian Open last year. It's like the same, it looked like the Bedosa match all over again. I'll just wait, wait, wait until you feather and then I'm gonna drive with a lot of margin. The game plan is so,

Torrey (11:45.226)
was going to say, but those two last year.

It did.

Alvin Owusu (11:57.153)
well written right now if you can execute it against her, but it also takes a mature player to do it. She's losing to players who have been top three in the world, Svidolina was ranked to size number three, Naomi was former number one, but also was former number two. These are, it's not like she's losing to players 50 and out. She's losing to former high end players, current high end players. I feel like sometimes you get into matches and a lot of things are swirling in your head and you just kind of like, can't find it. Okay.

Torrey (12:14.89)
100%.

100%.

Alvin Owusu (12:26.858)
You can't find it. But on the other side, I am concerned about Ms. Coco Golf. When you start to look at her results at Grand Slams outside of the French Open last year.

Torrey (12:34.568)
Okay, bye.

Alvin Owusu (12:41.928)
a little underwhelming, a little underwhelming in that she's gone, we've kind of fallen out in the same way each time. Maybe we could even throw Welbwimbledon out because of the quick turnaround after winning the French Open and then not having much time to prepare on grass and then not being the best grass court player to begin with. Okay, fine, okay, fine. But she didn't perform Welbwimbledon the year either, the year before.

Torrey (12:44.894)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (13:07.7)
either when she lost to Ema Navarro in another very similar style match. Right? So I think you see where I'm going here.

Torrey (13:12.979)
Yep. I do.

Alvin Owusu (13:16.49)
What say you?

Torrey (13:20.49)
Some of the issues, some of the developmental planks have to be addressed. We've known that for three years. It would have, in my opinion, and I said this before, it would have been better to take off the US Open and retool and be ready for this year. Take off the whole rest of the year and retool and come back like gangbusters. You got you a second slam.

You're well on your way. Now let's retool and get things ready. I felt like that was a mistake to try to retool and then continue to play. Perhaps there were some contractual obligations. Perhaps there was some other things that she had to do. The media, which I'm so happy for her that she's continuing to do all the things and she'd become the new face of the WTA tool, which is awesome. Perhaps that had a little bit more to do with it than her decision. But I say it to say.

I said that then, I said it on this podcast, would have been a better decision to take some time off, retool, get it right, then come back and be ready for the end of the year or for whatever else. She was going to make the end of the year tournament anyway, but I went in the French, right? So I feel like that would have been a good decision. It didn't happen. I feel like she's taken a few chinks to the armor. I don't like her.

Torrey (14:41.807)
style or her preference, her proclivity of choosing to let you run her until she gets into the ball or the stance that she likes. Her on the run forehand down the line is pretty good. She almost prefers you to run her first to get that ball before she feels comfortable taking that ball. Her ball is heavy. Dare I say her stance on it.

and her ability to go on the back foot and lift that ball in an attempt to get out of your strike zone is a junior play. It's not a pro play. And I'm not particularly fond of it when most of the women in the top hundred dare I say let alone top 10 will pound. And I feel like you're giving them a lot of balls in the strike zone. You give them the ball if they like. And what I saw in the match with

Svetlana was much like I saw in the Badoza match. On another note, I feel like that's one of Emma's problems is she also likes to roll a bit. so the fact that she beat Coco even showed you even more to my point. You've just got to have the ability to flatten it out. And at this stage in the game, right, there are no more, I'm going to call it junior tactics. I got into it with the coach about some tactics some years ago.

we were talking about Sco and Donald Young and while Donald Young went on to do some amazing things, I always said one of the problems Donald's going to always have is he can't keep running junior style tactics, you know, with heavy ball and junk in the ball and slicing and off pace and, just not giving you any rhythm. That's great as a secondary or even a tertiary situation. At some point, you got to be able to go through somebody.

Alvin Owusu (16:27.765)
Right.

Torrey (16:31.721)
Right. And when will that start to happen? I feel that was one of reasons why it took Donald so long to break into the top 30 and I don't know how high he got. He did great. But I want to say it to say he relied so much on the way that he won before. And I think we're in a situation, mind you, this is very, very high altitude. If you're, if you're, if you're only able to win two slams, know, you know, you know what I'm saying? We're, you know, please take the caveat as as it was intended.

Alvin Owusu (16:52.763)
Right, we're talking about a two-time Grand Slam champion here, so let's...

Torrey (17:01.948)
But I say it to say there is a piece in there that still needs to be addressed. And there's a piece there that I feel that over the course of history, you've won a certain way. You've gotten comfortable winning a certain way. Those patterns don't change overnight. You have to literally continue to work on them and work on them, work on them enough to where they replace the pattern, the habit, the proclivity you've had before. She's used to going heavy up the line.

drawing you to her backhand side. She's used to being able to hit on the run and open stance and fighting it out from time to time. She's not used to hitting her own step up, going back behind you cross court. And you can check that box for about nine of the top 10 with her being the only exception who doesn't possess that skill. And so that's one of the reasons why I think it's alarming. Do I think she can still get it though? That's the question. Yes. Do I think she can still improve and find that ball? Yes, I do.

And I feel like that's some of the stuff I know Gavin is in the camp now. He'll continue to work on that on the biomechanics of that. I think it's just something where at some point, and I hope it's now, she takes that time off, deliberately, intentionally fixes those two pieces. It's not just the technique at this point. It is the willingness to hit it and it is the ability to go through the court. So she has both options. Alvin, if she doesn't do it now.

She will not do it over the course of the next several months. And if that becomes her norm, she will always be a leaking sieve on those two sides. And she will always, right, always only have her speed and her counter punishing skills to depend on. And if that happens, I am worried about her. Do it now. She's got a real shot at improving her game and really rounding out what she is as a player, but it's not going to happen overnight.

Alvin Owusu (18:56.639)
Yeah. And I want to, I want to make sure that I'm explicitly clear here about what we're, what we're talking about and what we're not talking about. We are not talking about the downfall of Cocoa Golf. Like Cocoa Golf is all day number currently number three in the world. I don't see her dropping outside the top five anytime soon. Right? Cocoa Golf has won a grand slam two. She has finaled another grand slam.

Torrey (19:06.779)
Hmm. Oops.

Alvin Owusu (19:23.241)
Right? She has beaten the best of the best. She's on a current winning streak against Arena Sabalinka. She has, I mean, against Ega Swiatek. She has beaten Arena Sabalinka in major matches, finals of Grand Slams on two occasions, right? Who we consider to be the Serena of this generation, right? The players that she's losing to at Grand Slams, she's not losing two qualifiers, right? It takes an extremely high level of player to bring, to even expose the weaknesses

of Cocoa Golf and then also capitalize on them. So let me be very clear that it's every player has deficiencies, but if your deficiencies lead you to winning Grand Slams, okay, fine, as opposed to your deficiencies keep you from being a touring professional who's making money. She is the face of women's tennis right now. What we're talking about here is shoring up those deficiencies to let the things that she does so well.

Torrey (20:11.472)
Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (20:22.079)
continue to soar and take her, continue to put her in the conversation for winning Grand Slams. It seems like on a hardcore right now, we're just, we're in a place where, okay, we've probably gone as far as we can go with this particular thing. She knows it. We're talking about it. like she doesn't know it. Her coaching, team knows it. She's brought people in who are very skilled at their jobs and will help her, continue to help her move towards that target. But we're not gonna ignore it.

Torrey (20:30.534)
Right.

Torrey (20:36.74)
Right. Yep. 100%. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (20:51.401)
because it does continue to show up in the same way against players who have the ability to expose it. I'll say it.

Torrey (20:58.359)
I want to add to that and with the current set of skills that are in the top 10 with her. I look at the tour back in the day, Alvin, and you and I can reflect back on the Martina Hingis years, right? There was one noticeable difference in Monica Sells not being there anymore, right? Stephanie Graff had recently retired or was about to, and you start seeing this little bit of a vacuum period, right?

Alvin Owusu (21:14.335)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (21:24.366)
There weren't a lot of big, big hitters in that timeframe. I'm not sure where the Venus and Serena things were around that same timeframe, that was that kind of era where they weren't there yet. And then they came on the scene. And then you saw Pingas, in a sense, kind of flowed into retirement a bit, you know, and then she came back with a little resurgence in doubles and that was about it, right? By the way, phenomenal career, excellent player. Talk about control the ball. She was, if anybody...

She kind of reminds me of Eva Jovic a little bit in terms of what her skill set was and complete ball control, right? So I want to make sure I give Martina Hingis her due. But then you started entering this era of Serena, Venus, Davenport, Capriotti. You started seeing what I call the Howitzers. You started seeing the absolute big guns coming out. if you weren't one of them and couldn't handle that level of ball, you probably weren't going to hang with those level of players for that much, which is why Serena.

to this day at 23 slams and some that I think Lindsay has several. There's just, you just weren't going to compete with that level if you didn't have that level of counter striking, right? Or the ability to create your own pace. I feel we're in that era again now. Madison Keys, Irina Sabalenka, Atlanta Rabakata, even Jessica Bulegula, and I say even, she's one of the bigger strikers, and Amanda Nesamova are just big.

Alvin Owusu (22:46.379)
Amanda Anderson, over.

Torrey (22:51.109)
ball hitters. So for you to not have said skill, for you to not have said ability to at least do some of the same, you're already walking in with one arm tied behind your back because you're not going to be able to do the same thing back. And I think that's one of the problems in this. If this were in an era where she just had to fend off an occasional right, um, Osteopanko or fend off an occasional Paula Badoza who was in that they're kind of lurking the draw.

I think this is the case for the Jazz of Paolini's. I think this is the case for the Eaglest Fiontex, of course for Coco and anybody else that doesn't have a true big serve and a true big forehand at some point, technically that has to be short up, but the tactic has to be short up. You better have a way of getting around that that is going to be tried and true and then your ability and confidence in it to try it in a match situation.

consistently over time. I don't know if you can change all that right now. And while I think Ecoservice improved, I think Coco's foreign's gotten a little bit bigger and a little better. It still needs more work. I just what they should have done in my opinion in US Open last year, they need to take some time and do it now before it really, before it really starts to show up and become a bit more of a habit. I don't want to be talking about this issue for slams from now.

I don't want to be talking with you next Australian Open saying, for answer. If we're still at that point, Alvin, in my opinion, I will be very concerned, even despite a rage.

Alvin Owusu (24:26.315)
That's fair, that's fair. Let's move on, let's go down to the bottom half of the draw. You know, we just talked about Amanda Andesamova and Jessica Pagula and Rebacchina and Suyatek, so it's perfect that we are now in this section. Rebacchina takes out Pagula in the semi-final this morning after beating Suyatek the round before. And Jessica beat Amanda Andesamova. I wanna start on the Rebacchina side of things. She is...

minus a little wiggle towards the back end of that second set trying to get out of that match today. nerves kind of show up a little bit. Maybe a little, I'm not gonna say lack of, complete lack of experience. We talk about her high end and her ability to be one of the people who have the skillset to maybe usurp Arena Sabalinka. You have to remember like outside of her Wimbledon Championship in 2022 and then her Australian Open final a few months later.

Torrey (24:59.875)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (25:24.323)
six months later in 2023, she has not been in the later rounds of a Grand Slam since then, right? So getting that close, being up five, three, a set and a break and having a few match points there on JPEG serve, I started to see a little bit of the nerves creep in. The feet kind of went down to...

Torrey (25:41.731)
Sure. Yeah. Nothing.

Alvin Owusu (25:43.723)
unsure territory and then the yeah, yeah kindly which which then has an it has a biomechanic effect on the on the Forehand which already is a little bit it is the weaker side of her of her two wings her offhand tends to stay pretty tight to the body Which she can compensate for when she's moving well preparing well But when those feet slow down like everything starts to get a little more compact It's a little harder to swing out a little harder to find shape when you are nervous but

as we moved into the tiebreaker, into the back end of that match, both players were about as equally as nervous and the air counts started jumping up for both of them. And then Elena was able to rely on, at some point here, I can rock a first serve when I need one. I can step up and hit a winner down the line when I need one. And that is just the, that's your slight difference in your weight classes there. Can't really make up for that. It's hard to make up for that over time and then under pressure as well.

Torrey (26:41.399)
I also felt toward the end of that match that JPEG felt a little bit of pressure to try to stay in it a little bit, knowing that Rebecca was kind of getting a little tight, kind of giving a back to her. You're forced to go hard middle a lot. You mentioned, know, feet start moving and it was starting to get a little tight. I don't disagree. I think the thing that, and this is for viewers and listeners of the pod, spacing is such a big issue to me. And you...

You recognize it when it's not there, right? It's like footwork. You recognize it when it's going wrong or is not there more so than you recognize it when it's working. You can only appreciate how well it's doing when you're playing well, but you wouldn't walk up some big clean down line for one of it. amazing spacing right there. You say, wow, big forehead. And so I say that to say the same thing here with Alana. I thought she was, she's a tall girl. She is a.

Alvin Owusu (27:30.011)
Hehehehe

Torrey (27:36.182)
very, very, very tall young lady and just when she's moving to your point strikes it effortlessly and ironically goes more cross court than you think and can strike you off the court cross court. Not just deep, can go, I call it the sweep, can sweep it almost about a three or four feet behind the service line off the court on a dart. I mean, just on a line. And so when that ball is gone, I agree with you, that's her weaker of the two. In my opinion though, that's actually to me her better shot that she gets most people with.

Alvin Owusu (27:48.009)
Right. Yeah.

Torrey (28:05.654)
because she goes behind you and you think she's gonna go line, most people would, she goes back cross and when she's missing that ball, she's also pretty tall, so that's kind of a tough angle to hit if you're not hitting it correctly or hitting it very, very precise, she loses, in my opinion, one of her weapons. I thought this match came down more to her missing a few, getting tight and Jessica realizing she didn't wanna go angle to angle. She wants to protect her.

lack of speed a little bit and play through the meat of the court and only go wide when she can. We talk about that, we talked about this a few pods ago, the middle third versus the outer thirds, right? You gotta make sure you play tactical tennis against Alana, because you start getting her on the move, you know, she moves pretty well for six feet tall and she strikes and she can hurt you on the run, cross or line, even if she's at sideline, in the sideline of the court on either side. So that's not necessarily a great option for you either.

is to try to move her. So I thought Jessica was correct in her tactics, but unfortunately, give her too many balls to the center. She still has very good control of her center shots as well. it's, it's darned if you, it's, you know, darned if you do and darned if you don't, so to speak. So I really feel like this matchup was just a tough matchup for JPEG. Great turn for her as well. I felt like this was Atlantis to lose. and unfortunately for her, was able to come out of it. I also feel like she,

didn't play her best and I feel like that actually bodes well for her in this next final. I Arena play a phenomenal match of the French against Ega and didn't come out of shark the next match as a result of it and I feel like this would give us some fireworks for this next match with her and Arena in the final.

Alvin Owusu (29:50.795)
Yeah, absolutely. We've done this before. 2023, the aforementioned last time was in a Grand Slam final was against Arena at the 2023 Australian Open. It was funny, I was actually at that event. I wasn't at that match. was, I remember.

driving by the stadium, we were coming from dinner and that match is being played and I'm like watching it on my phone and it's like I can see the stadium lit up is, Melbourne is my favorite city in the world. There's an outside chance I'll be there next year but this particular matchup I think is the one that we've been waiting for. Like this is the actual, like we've been very lucky that at the top of women's tennis we've gotten a lot of these players playing against each other quite often in the back ends of major events. So you're starting to.

get a lot of data points. These two ladies have played each other I think four or five times last year, four times splitting the results two and two. And Rebecca winning the most recent one in Riyadh at the World Tour Finals, was, that one went down to the wire. think it was, they didn't go through sets, but it was a very tight, highly contested second set that went to a tire breaker won by Rebecca. So we've seen it. Hell, they played a match last year that had three tire breakers in it.

Torrey (30:41.067)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (31:09.298)
This is the one we've been waiting for. You go back to our episode after the WTA finals talking about Rebecca being healthy, truly connected with her coaching staff right now and the way that it works for them. I've seen a lot of clips of Vukov conversating with her on the coach, I mean on the court, in the back hallways, working on different things like.

I say what you want to say about him. I may as coach in his ass off and she is she is receiving that information quite well and being able to execute on the court like what they have works. It's showing up here. Extremely excited for that match. Jessica. Yeah, let me just not talk about Jessica Pagula ever again because I'm as wrong as you are about Lorenzo Masetti and you have come over to the to the scene the light. I need to just shut my mouth.

Torrey (31:57.437)
Yeah, I have.

Alvin Owusu (32:02.065)
and not say anything about one Jessica Magula because, was that back to back semi-finals now of Grand Slams? Like this is just, apparently she is the metronome. She can receive pace well. She has been using her legs extremely well to redirect hard hit balls, especially off that forehand side. If she gets balls in the middle of the court, like she will work you like nobody's business. Like you are the yo-yo going back and forth.

Yeah, the deficiencies are they are where they are. She's not a big girl. She's not going to be able to serve you off the court. Second serve is obviously suspect, but whatever, whatever everyone's second serve is suspect. You saw what Eva Jovich did arena second serve, right? So like everyone can get it when it comes to the second serve. but with that being said, here she is again, still top 10 in the world. We'll probably end up a little bit after this tournament. I'm pretty sure that's two grand slam finals in a row, semi-finals. Okay. Cool. I got nothing to add.

Torrey (32:42.409)
Yeah,

Torrey (32:59.839)
She's with no sign of letting up either. You know what I mean? It's not like you could say, yeah, but it was lucky or yes, but she didn't play anybody. Nope. Did that. Has been doing that. Will continue to do that. And it's just a, I like that term, metronome. She is 100 % metronome for what the top two is. We said it before about she's the litmus test for top five. I dare I say she's that test now for top four, top three. And.

We'll see what happens with the next few slams this year. I hope she can sneak in there and get one. The odds are tough right now. I feel like there's lot of players that are vying for that. And unfortunately, we're back and it looks like she's starting to make her ascension to that, to the upper echelons of the game. my fandom for JPEG is clear and it's well documented, so I'm not gonna add any more to it either.

Alvin Owusu (33:54.376)
Yeah, I will finish up by saying there are the tools and then there's the mindset, right? And it seems like when she gets into these tough matches against these big hitters, you're gonna have to go through her. Like you're gonna have to beat her. And I think what she did against Madison and what she did against Amanda and Asamova, very similar. Like I'm gonna play my game. I'm gonna use the pace well. I'm going to minimize, you know,

Torrey (34:08.127)
100%.

Alvin Owusu (34:22.289)
errors in the corner and then when I get in the middle of the court, I'm going to put you in a precarious positions running traffic out. And if you're going to, mean, Madison wasn't able to bring her A game because of how well Jessica played. Amanda wasn't able to mentally keep it together early enough or long enough to be able to let her A game come out.

And that's, that is not, that does not happen in a vacuum. That is Jessica Pagulis professionalism and experience having an impact on the bigger hitters ability to hit big and play big, uh, consistently over, you know, 92, 180 minutes, uh, 92, 180, 92, 120 minutes. Um, so yeah, that's, that's just all, all hats off to her. A great, fantastic start to the year for her. Um, and then we, you know, we roll into some events that she usually does pretty well in.

Torrey (34:55.346)
Thank you.

Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (35:19.305)
after this, so yeah, my guy, that's JPEG. Before we get out of here, what are your feelings? I got nothing to say, whatever, egg all over my face.

Torrey (35:23.73)
I'm

Torrey (35:29.663)
Yeah. She's only been doing it for the last five years. She's only been it for the last five years. And I think that, and that needs to be said and understood. I hope she, when she's finished, I hope she takes over some high level position within the WTA. think she's a great face for the sport. She's got great, you know, her access and understanding of high level pro sports with her family.

Alvin Owusu (35:33.737)
I about had her buried. What are your... I don't know, seriously.

Torrey (35:59.174)
I think she's a great, you know, girl from the block, you know, type of type of player who gone pro gone top five, you know, gone grand slam finalist and multiple time semi-finalist. think she'd be a great person for the game. I feel like the game is in such a good spot right now. They need more visibility with players like her. She's well liked on the tour. She's well respected. She is. She's well spoken. There's so many.

good things about her. would love to see her even continue this, her run on a business side outside of Tennessee when she's done. I just, think the world over, think she's a very class act. She has, she's been good in both singles and doubles. There's not much you can say about JPEG that in a negative way. And she's maximized the gift she was given, Alvin, and done and over.

uh you we sometimes mention overachieve like it's a bad thing you know like it's you know like she wasn't very good but she overachieved no no she maximized every ounce of everything she's got you know it was speed something she was blessed with no you know but did she has she made up for that in spades 100 and i think those are things for her i remember this young girl hitting on the wall with my buddy adam gusky at listening to her back when she was 12 years old we were at the 12 hard courts or 12 clans can't remember which one and i'm like

Alvin Owusu (36:57.533)
Right, right.

Torrey (37:20.605)
I'm just watching this one go hit the ball and didn't look very good. In fact, I think it just lost out in that tournament. It was pretty early still. And I'm just watching this go hit on the wall and he's got to work on some things. And I was kind of laughing like, okay, Jessica Pagula, okay, nice. And again, just like I do with lot of players, I put the thought back my mind and later on when Augusta got married, I met her again and I'm like, hey, Jessica, I remember you. You hit on the wall a few years ago. I not even thinking that one day.

this girl would be gracing the semis and finals of Grand Slam tournaments. know what mean? So just has done it with just an air of confidence and hey, yeah, I'm pretty good. And so I say that to say I'm just happy to see her career as it's gone out and she's just continued to grow and could not be more proud of her and could not be more happy for her and her team for all the success they've had. Whatever she ends up doing, it'll be well deserved.

Alvin Owusu (37:56.841)
Alright.

Alvin Owusu (38:19.517)
Yep, also the streak of American women in Grand Slam finals has come to an end. We were five, I think we five in a row going into six. That's fantastic work, but we.

Torrey (38:25.302)
yes.

Torrey (38:31.164)
How many, how many semis by the way? How many, cause and how, and the number in the semis because it, you know what saying though? Because that, that numbers, that numbers has been exponential since, you know, last I can remember. In fact, in several of these we've had several Americans play each other, which in one way guarantees one will get through, but in some ways decimates the field. So I just, not that we need the numbers, but I mean, I want to mention that point because while the streak has come to an end, which is unfortunate in this, got two of the best players in the world right now.

Alvin Owusu (38:36.456)
God, I can't do that math, but we were.

Torrey (39:00.956)
Um, I feel like it has been a, I feel like that the streak does not mean that we don't have any players up and coming or players contesting. just so happened that the former, the former champ last year played JPEG right in the quarters. And so now you're in that was a quarters or had to be quarters. Um, right on 16, she played Madison, 16. So you got, um, you, got that, that.

Alvin Owusu (39:02.259)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (39:20.489)
16.

Torrey (39:27.068)
You got two heavyweights right there, you know, in the round of 16. So at some point it's going to come to an end. So I just feel like it needs to be mentioned that it's not for lack of American flags to the left of names. You know, there was a lot and there was a lot to play to each other and there was a lot. There was, there was about six of them, I'm mistaken, one little section of the draw that all played each other in the first couple of rounds.

Alvin Owusu (39:46.225)
It's an Anasimovas Anasimovas quarter had it was her JPEG Madison and then you had Kessler and you had Kruger they were all in that little block right there is like the American block and they were just beating each other up. Peyton you have the Peyton sources in there as well. Yep.

Torrey (39:55.738)
Right. Sterns. Yep. Right. right. So I say that to say there was a ton of them in that, in that clump. So, you know, we probably started the, started the tournament with, dare I say 12th, you know what I mean? Give or take if, if, if my, numbers kind of, if my eyeball is correct. So that's a lot. It's a lot of, it's a lot of players. And then to have what two or three, including Jovich, you know, left in the, so not doing too bad, not doing too bad at all.

Alvin Owusu (40:26.408)
Not too bad at all. Well, let's go ahead and put a pin in it there. We've got a fun final ahead of us. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be an early morning on Saturday morning, but I think it's going to be, I think it should be well worth the, well worth getting up and knocking out the eye crusties. Again, I'm Alvin, that's Tori, best of three, we are out.

Torrey (40:46.94)
Peace.