WTA 2025 Review: A New Big Three? Sabalenka, Gauff, Swiatek

Torrey Hawkins (00:01.858)
Alvin, heard it right here.

Number one and two next year will be Rebecca and Cocoa Golf. I think that Sabatlinka will be doing good to hold on the top three.

Alvin Owusu (00:08.963)
Mm-hmm.

Alvin Owusu (00:12.504)
Jeez.

Alvin Owusu (00:17.486)
Wow, what a way to start a podcast. is, that's, I mean, we might as well just stop now, because the internet trolls are probably throwing all their fingers at all their keyboards right now. But that's fine, that's fine. Hey, hey, hey, hey, if I had a couch, you know where my feet would be right now. But let's just, I mean, let's just get into it. That's the three WTA 2025 year end review.

Torrey Hawkins (00:29.899)
hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate

Alvin Owusu (00:47.226)
And you know, at this time of year, a lot of our other podcasts, tennis podcasts, brethren are going to be doing their wrap ups here. It's kind of nice to do right before Thanksgiving here in the United States. And it's been a very I think it's been a very interesting year on the on the WTA tour, to say the least, but not only on the on the court, off the court, but for us here in in in best of three land, we just we just hit our one year. And it's been a it's been a.

Torrey Hawkins (01:04.447)
say the least.

Torrey Hawkins (01:13.261)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (01:16.022)
It's been a grind. We've been out here grinding and it's been a lot of fun and having this space to go on record and talk about the things that we're seeing in a very public forum makes watching tennis for me even much more enjoyable because it forces me to be critical about what I'm seeing and not just enjoy the ride, really think relatively deep about the tennis that we're watching.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17.835)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42.733)
Yup, yup, yup. I had a quick flashback. I don't know even who sung the song. Crying, did. I just had a, I just had a, I know it was you. Clips, that's right. That's right, that's right. So that.

Alvin Owusu (01:50.254)
Oh, oh I do that. Clips, that's clips. Those are my boys. 757, VA, stand up. It's a yeah, I actually saw them in concert like a couple, like two months ago. They were back on tour. It was a full circle moment for me. But yeah, those are my guys.

Torrey Hawkins (02:04.137)
no way. that's awesome. Yeah. Well, there's grinding right there for you and hats off to you. That's off to you. This was I know your brain child. Absolutely. You told me a year ago that I'd be doing some podcasts, I'd be like, I guess killing me. But, know, I don't even get connected. You know, it's just it's been an absolute fun ride. I have.

I'm to tell you on a personal Alvin, I appreciate you bringing me along for this ride. have not had so much fun watching tennis as I've had in this last year. That is one part of the podcast. That is one part. The quality of tennis has been off the charts. mean, phenomenal tennis, especially on WTA side. And I think it's one part.

We're starting to come out of, I said a year ago, that post Serena era and the post the big three era for all intensive purposes for the men. We're starting to see new champions be crowned. We're starting to see new players start to ascend to that top and the three legged stool, right? You've got great talent coming up, great quality matches and a lot of parody. And you've got a reason right to check in, to, to, to find out. And it's.

Alvin Owusu (03:26.445)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (03:32.902)
Many, many, many times, as I'm sure you have, I've been wrong about my prediction walking in, but it's also continued to shape what I'm seeing because you're starting to see many of these players are young. They're still trying to prove themselves. They're still figuring some things out. And so what I said at the outset, which I'm sure we'll get into later and unpack a little bit, I'm just starting to see a whole new level of tennis.

back in the day, Alvin, you remember this, there was the grinder, there was the aggressive baseliner, there was the all quarter. That was kind of all it was. Over the next two, three generations, you've seen that morph, right? They now call it a counter puncher, right? And then it was the, you know, the aggressive baseliner who could finish, you know what I mean? And then there was the

Still the off court game, but that player was kind of, you know, going the way of the dodo. him and retired and Pete was only doing it because he was getting a little older and long in the tooth and so on. And, and Roger Sam was starting to come in a little bit, but again, he was on the other side of 20, not on the, on the, on the, on on the fat side of 20. And you started seeing the styles were morphing. And what I call morph is when two styles come together and out of that, right.

You've got a player. Gail Monfey was one of the first morphs that I called. He was the, he was the counter puncher who had a big serve. So he was the aggressive baseliner morphed with, you know, with the, with the, with the grinder slash counter puncher, uh, to the point that I, and I remember I coined the term back then. He's like a counterpuncher because you get them on the run. He's dangerous. Right. And I was, Gail just retired. So you can imagine here we are now 15 give or take years later and that

The tectonic plates are still moving. Alvin. There's more. You've got to have more. The top that ever before you've got to have wheels. You've got to have length and leverage, and you've got to have both sides of the ball, forehand, backhand serve return. And that's what I'm starting to see in the end of this year tournament without unpacking too much of it too quickly. It's showing me that some of the current top.

Torrey Hawkins (05:58.261)
don't have all of the answers with some of the new upstarts. And that's why I'm saying it. So I'll throw the.

Alvin Owusu (06:02.475)
Well, let's kind of break it down there though. we talked about this a little bit before and I'm gonna, this is how we're gonna proceed in today's episode as opposed to just kind of running through every single player in the top 25, top 30, whatever it might be. Kind of broke this up into groups here, right? So we've got the, what I'm calling the top of the mountain group. And obviously the rankings are what the rankings are, but the task was for both of us to give our top

We're gonna go top three players this year and then we'll leave one for honorable mention. And then we'll go into our who is that in that next up group. as we kind of refine this, it's like, okay, if we live in a world where two players don't make WTA finals next year, like don't finish top eight, who are they gonna be the players that usurp them? And then we'll go into kind of buying.

Torrey Hawkins (06:52.326)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (07:00.205)
players who were buying their stock and players whose stock we're selling and we might also touch on some of our favorite matches this year. So I wanna start where we should start, which is the very top. Okay, all right. And to mention, like, this is kinda the same thing you talked about, The parity this year, we had four different women win Grand Slams, right? We had, you know, Sabalinka had a very dominant year, but it wasn't dominant in the way that you...

Torrey Hawkins (07:27.018)
But thank

Alvin Owusu (07:27.845)
She was dominant with her consistency, she was always there. She finaled all four, three of the four, finaled three of the four Grand Slams. that's a really, she had a fantastic year, but other ladies were also, yeah, hands down. was, I mean, she did all the things, right? She won a slam, she finaled some slams, she got to the semi-finals of the one that she didn't final. She won one thousandth.

Torrey Hawkins (07:29.939)
Right. Right. Right.

Three of the four. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (07:43.39)
Hands down.

Torrey Hawkins (07:52.361)
Dope. Got to the finals of the WTA finals, of the WTA finals. Right? Right.

Alvin Owusu (07:55.115)
Got to the very finals of the very last tournament of the year. was the, if you're gonna win a Slam, you gotta go through this right here. All roads go through Arena. And think for that reason, we both had her, number one. Hands down, hands down. We've waxed poetic about her. Podcasts over podcasts over podcasts over podcasts.

Torrey Hawkins (08:02.858)
All roads go through arena.

Torrey Hawkins (08:11.923)
And stuff.

Torrey Hawkins (08:17.706)
100 % 100 % 100 % well, and, and well-deserved. let me say that. However, it also, her lack of dominance at racking up some of the slams this year also speaks to some things. And that's what I know we'll get into that later, but that also tells you that as consistent as she has been and is rightfully year in number one, the

Alvin Owusu (08:23.35)
Very much so.

Torrey Hawkins (08:46.952)
There are a few styles that match up very well to her that I think don't bode well for her going into 2026. I don't want to pontificate too far, but I think it's important to note.

Alvin Owusu (08:56.992)
Well, yeah, let's touch on that though, because I think earlier in the year I did bring up the idea that is Sabalinka having trouble closing tournaments. actually getting, she's getting to a lot of finals, but at this point I think this was probably right after, right around Wimbledon, maybe right before Wimbledon, but she had not yet won a Grand Slam and obviously she went on to do so, but we were seeing her, I posed it as,

having trouble closing tournaments. But I think if you look at the entire 52 weeks in a rear, it took Herculean career efforts for some of these women to beat her in these finals. Madison Keys played the match and tournament of her life. And that's what it took to beat arena in the third set of the Australian Open final.

Torrey Hawkins (09:27.625)
Right. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (09:40.589)
for sure.

Match your life.

Alvin Owusu (09:53.101)
She lost to Coco in the final of French Open Coco had to do everything Run for her life make balls for her life Amanda Anna some over played a One of my favorite matches of the year in the Wimbledon semifinal to beat arena sabalika

Torrey Hawkins (09:56.828)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (10:08.681)
100 % 100 % 100 % with nothing to lose. might add and everything to gain. so again, all roads go through arena and then to do all that. Right. To come into the fourth slam empty handed, so to speak, and to still knock off and do the thing and to then follow up with various success and the finals to me speaks volumes. I love arena. mean, there's no question about it. I feel.

Alvin Owusu (10:14.038)
with nothing to lose, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (10:38.697)
Not only is it well deserved, we don't need to go on anymore about her. I'm giving her the highest accolade possible and I'm calling her the Serena 2.0. I've said that from the beginning. So I don't think you can't go any higher than that. So, trust me, I love what she's done for the game. She's excited to watch. She's developed her game. She's got nuance. She's got defense now. She's got a slice. She's got different ways to hang in there. She won't just bash you. She's handled her own demons. You name it, she's done it.

Alvin Owusu (10:47.766)
Fair. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (11:09.275)
Unfortunately, Alvin, the game of tennis is all about the next shot, the next tournament, the next year. And that's where we are right now. And I am as, as concerned about our current and resident champ as I am as encouraged and thankful for her last year. And this past WTA finals was a little bit of a trimmer.

of the possible earthquake that could hit in 2026. That's all I'm going to say.

Alvin Owusu (11:43.933)
Interesting, interesting. Okay, we'll come back. I'm sure we'll come back to that. Okay, so my challenge here was with our top of the mountain list here was like, let's cut it to three and really force ourselves to be judicious here. All right, so at number two, you had Coco Golf. Yeah, I did not.

Torrey Hawkins (11:47.836)
Period.

Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (12:13.82)
at number, yeah, you had Coco at number two. Tell me why you have her there. Because you have Amanda and Samov at three, right? I also have Amanda at three, but I do not have Coco at two. So let's talk about how we feel about two, the two spot here.

Torrey Hawkins (12:35.432)
There's a, there's a huge difference to me between Eega who is a phenomenal player. And in my opinion, the current leader in grand slams, and we're not mistaken of the current players that are playing right now. she, you have to beat the man to in order to be the man, got to beat the man, right? So to speak in this case, beat the woman. And Eega has been that person and the tour is grateful for everything she's done.

This is more than a thank you for your service. This is a, she has been the WTA tour for many, many, many, many, several years and many, many grand slams up to this point. gave Coco the nod for two distinct reasons. Number one, Coco has pushed the other top three or four players farther than Ega has. Number two, Ega's grand slam came through.

someone other than arena. And that's not to say it came through Coco. And I will say that and sorry, her slam came through an Isamova in an unfortunate walkover slam. That was obviously a man's first time. Looking at the head to heads in the slams, Coco went through them all, including arena in the final. Coco.

Wasn't even playing well, Alvin. She suffered with her servant forehand for the majority of the year. If anything coming through this end of the year has showed me that Coco is has another gear left to go. I've got a motorcycle Alvin and the first time I hit six gear, I didn't know that my bike had six gears and I was like, as I'm, won't say how fast I was going. I was excited that I could go another.

miles an hour. And I was, it was, and that's what I think has happened with Coco. Now that's not to take anything away from Iga. Iga is that player, but Iga got through because Amanda knocked off Arena and she knocked off Amanda. And I feel like it was a great match with Sabalinka and Iga, but Sabalinka came out on top in that French Open semi. And so I just feel like in all these situations, had, if I had a tie break, they both want to slam.

Torrey Hawkins (14:53.371)
Right. And I got to get the head to head. got to get the head to head of the one on one I have, but golf has beaten Eega pretty routinely. So when I start looking at the situation, I said to myself, and I feel like Coco wasn't even playing great most of the year. She played well. Don't get me wrong. Didn't have a bad year. If this is a learning year, Alvin, you heard it right here. Coco golf can be number one.

Alvin Owusu (14:53.92)
Both want to slam.

Torrey Hawkins (15:19.81)
If not number two next year, without a shadow of a doubt, she's improving. And I can't say the same thing about Eega, at least not right now. Why do you have Eega? Let me answer the question with the question. Why do you have Eega and not Coco?

Alvin Owusu (15:28.14)
Okay, okay, I'm gonna write.

Alvin Owusu (15:34.508)
Let me address some of the things that you said earlier. Yes, in this year, Coco had the better of Eega. Two and oh this year. Beater four and four in the beginning of the year, beating one and one at end of the year. On clay I think it was in Madrid. Fine, but prior to that, in their career, if we're talking about their career, it's 11 to four.

Torrey Hawkins (15:37.072)
Please.

Alvin Owusu (16:01.457)
head to head. Like it's not like we're it's not it's not close. It's it's been closer recently in the last two years, for sure. But it is not like it's not close. The reason and the other hasn't been close yet. The you look at the things that they've done this year. Yeah, they both want a Grand Slam. And I think if you were going to say what's the next Grand Slam for Cocoa Golf to win after she won the US Open, you think she's going to win French Open at some point in time, like

Torrey Hawkins (16:07.408)
Fair? Fair.

Torrey Hawkins (16:14.614)
it hasn't been close.

Alvin Owusu (16:31.527)
And she, okay, so she did not have to go through Ega to get it done. She went through Irina to get it done. Fine, okay. Irina and Ega played a fantastic semifinals, one of my favorite matches of the year. Not for, it wasn't for everyone, it was for me though, I love that match. Fantastic.

Torrey Hawkins (16:47.654)
Better Max in the final, hate to say it.

Alvin Owusu (16:50.123)
Yes, I mean, it's it's it's your mileage will vary based on the style of tennis that you prefer. But you will never have to explain to anyone. You walk away with the trophy. That is yours. Same thing to be said about Ega winning Wimbledon, right? If you if you had to guess that Ega was not going to win a Grand Slam, one of the Grand Slams in her career, you probably would have thought it would have been Wimbledon. Well, she messed around. She messed around and popped one. OK, so now we're now we're in.

Torrey Hawkins (16:54.959)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (17:15.663)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:17.419)
in eight weeks we're walking into Eega trying to complete the career Grand Slam in Australia. Pretty cool, right? So I looked at these two and I was like, you know what? There are a lot of similarities here. Like they both, their record at 1000s this year wasn't great, right? They both, Cocoa won one, Eega won one. Did she win one? Yeah, she won one. Eega won a 500, Cocoa did not.

know, smattering of semifinals, three semifinals, three quarterfinals for EGA, two finals, one semi, one quarter for Coco across those 1000. So like, you know, they were there, but nothing great. The big differentiator here for me is their performance at the Grand Slams, right? EGA had a down year, finished three in the world and semifinal Australia, semifinal Roland-Garros, one Wimbledon quarterfinal of the US Open. Okay.

Torrey Hawkins (17:57.295)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (18:09.566)
Not a bad down year.

Alvin Owusu (18:16.765)
If that's a down year, we'll take it. Coco, quarterfinal Australian Open. Obviously she won French, right? So now we're about the same. First round to Wimbledon, round of 16 at the US Open. And in the matches that she, the Grand Slam matches she lost, they were bad. They were bad. But Dosa took her apart in Australia. Made her look kind of like a child.

Torrey Hawkins (18:18.062)
That's Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (18:26.468)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (18:44.235)
Lost I think you strip skin the first round of Wimbledon I'll give her I'll almost give her a pass for that one because that turnaround is really tight after Roland Garris But she showed up to play and you're a Grand Slam champion your number two playing the world You need to you need to show up and get that you get through that match. She did not that's two years in a row She got taken apart at Wimbledon last year. I think it was Navarro took her apart in a pretty raw kind of Vulnerable match. Okay, we go to US open. This is this is Coco's house. She's done well here

American crowd, Naomi takes her apart, right? So you say she's getting better, I push back and say she's effectively been the same player for three years. And for someone who has won two Grand Slams and never been number one in the world, I think this is what she is. And you say, okay, she doesn't, she won a Grand Slam without playing well, what does cook off at a Grand Slam playing well look like? Because,

Torrey Hawkins (19:43.157)
We haven't seen it yet.

Alvin Owusu (19:43.24)
She beat Arena Sablo. Okay then, okay. So that is the Cocoa Golf experience, right? It's never as bad as you think it is. It's also never as good as you think it is. She wins matches. She gets through it. Absolutely, she wins matches, right? She wins the matches, but I think my personal opinion is this kind of, yeah, the forehand might get incrementally better, but it's not gonna be a weapon. I've seen it.

Torrey Hawkins (19:52.036)
I 100 % agree with both statements and both can be true at the same time. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (20:10.916)
will tell you Alvin it was big in the WTA finals best I've seen it and I want to make a point here Alvin because I'm gonna push back on wouldn't have thought that Ega would have gotten it it's not Ega's fault that she got to the finals and played a star-struck Amanda Nessimova and won 0-0 in the final that's not her fault I will push it back on that 100 % here I will get her a presence she has no presence Alvin she beat the girl

Alvin Owusu (20:28.629)
She did that to Amanda as well. Like part of it, part of it, her presence, she...

Mmm!

Torrey Hawkins (20:39.172)
1000 % who was starstruck and played the tennis of her life the match before here. You heard it right here, Albert. I have nothing against Ega. I love Ega's game. I love her mentality. I love everything about her. This is not anti Ega, but I have to cut it in the middle. 100%. Well, you know, I get that too. I am simply saying that I got to push back on one thing. If I had to deal with the tiebreaker.

Alvin Owusu (20:54.271)
And this is not anti-coco either. is...

Torrey Hawkins (21:08.195)
And this year and the tiebreaker was head to head. And how did they play against each other and against the others, especially as the year drug on felt like with a, with a slam each to your point, a thousand, a 1000 each. Heck you even mentioned she had a 500 more than Coco did with serve struggles, forehand struggles and everything else. a miserable grand slam experience for the next, for the last two.

I felt like she finished the year looking better than she started. And that to me calls that a learning year. I don't think that Eager was playing terrible. I think she hadn't found her groove, but she hadn't found her groove because other players have displaced her. She's still as good as she always has been. She didn't have any service woes. She just doesn't have a big serve. And the girls were starting to figure out how to attack her.

and they'll do the same thing to sample like the next year and they'll do the same thing. The crowd catches you at some point. That's what makes you be number one so tough. don't, this is nothing about how good she is. It's about how much better I think Coco matched up to her specifically in the head to head and the body of work being even. have to say, look at that tournament album and I'm not going to go into depth about her Wimbledon.

Alvin Owusu (22:11.209)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (22:33.035)
win because I take nothing against Eega. But he had to Eega in my opinion played a better match against Arena in the semi than she played all Wimby. And that's just and that's all I'm as far as the toughest of the match and did not have to play did not have to play against Arena and played a very I'm just gonna say Dearing Headlights Amisamova. What happened in the US Open when they played again?

Alvin Owusu (22:47.562)
Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Torrey Hawkins (23:02.615)
I believe there was straight sets and it wasn't even, it wasn't even close. I say that to say that helped you appreciate that that was a bit of a aberration. And I only say that to say that also factors into my, I give Coco the nod? Do I give Ega? I can't say that she smacked down everybody but one player. I can say that she in that tournament escaped that one player because Amanda took her over. And again, we can always agree or disagree on that's why I love this podcast. However,

Don't sleep. Cocoa will be better next year. You heard it right here.

Alvin Owusu (23:35.658)
Will she? What does better mean? What does better mean? Is she gonna be ranked higher the next year? okay, so what is the, what does better, what does better for her look like? What does that result?

Torrey Hawkins (23:38.668)
better serve her serve her serve can't get worse. So can I get worse? It's gonna get better.

better first serve, better forehand, she won't be so easily attacked off those two wings. She still returns like nobody's business and runs the court like nobody's business. So now.

Alvin Owusu (23:57.291)
Okay, that's what difference. What difference would...

Torrey Hawkins (24:00.342)
That nets, I think that nets two grand slams next year, Alvin. That's what that nets. Now, you, are you and I gonna talk? Depending on whatever two she's playing well in. She doesn't matter the surface, Alvin, you know that. It don't matter the surface. If she's playing well, grass, grass has been her, her Nadal US Open. It's been a kryptonite at this point. People forget, Alvin, Nadal went about eight, nine years. He didn't even get to the second week of the US Open. Didn't get to the second week.

Alvin Owusu (24:03.548)
Okay. Which two? Which two?

It doesn't

Alvin Owusu (24:14.858)
grass is a problem for her. Grass is a problem for

Alvin Owusu (24:28.286)
Yeah, yeah, but he won the damn thing four times though, but I mean go on grant great sure sure

Torrey Hawkins (24:29.825)
You're saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You say that in hindsight. You say it in hindsight. Just saying. I'm telling you that I think Egas, Egas seen the better, the bounty of her career more than we're leaving. We're on the thin side of her few cents. Do I think she will still win a slam or two? 1000%. Do I think she'll win more than two? No, I don't.

Alvin Owusu (24:46.026)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Okay, all right, I think, okay, this will be a good one to keep an eye on next year. It's like, okay, now it's Team Ego versus Team Cook. I'm gonna say it like that, I'm team all of them. yeah, that's an issue to watch on. But one player, the number three player that we both agree on would be AmandaAndesamova, right? And I, you know, we've.

Torrey Hawkins (24:55.617)
Put in the archives.

Torrey Hawkins (25:06.625)
Right. And it's been some great Tennessee played. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (25:20.766)
we've waxed away about Amanda. She, okay, when you final back to back Grand Slams in a season in which you've never been into a Grand Slam final before, that says something very similar to Jasmine Paulini's, Jasmine Paulini's 2024, right? Very, very similar actually. But did it her way in that she played the best of the best and went through the best of the best, right? Got to the.

Wimbledon finals by going through Sabalenka got to the US Open final by going by avenging her Wimbledon finals loss and going through EGIS Viatek, right? One to 1000s this year got to the semifinals of the WTA tour finals. was, yeah, I think it no better way to introduce yourself to the tour. And it feels a little different than Jasmine's than Jasmine's 2024 because we'd seen flashes of this from

Amanda before, her time off from the tour comes back, she's ready to roll. I really like the way she's managing her schedule too. She seems to have a team in place and they're all on the same page about we know what we can be, so let's make sure that we're taking every opportunity to show up and be ready to go when it really matters. So you don't see her playing a lot of, she's not playing a lot of events, she's playing.

Torrey Hawkins (26:19.295)
before. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (26:47.838)
a full schedule, but I'm really excited and slightly, ugh, is it real? Like, is it real? it, it, it,

Torrey Hawkins (26:58.225)
It's real, it's real. Because she's proved that it was real in back to back events and this kind of gets it to my point for later in the episode about what she can do and there aren't many people that can stop her when she's doing what she's doing well. She's proved herself to be a third set threat that she never was really much before. She proved herself to be a mental giant where she used to cave in some matches before. Abalenki went through something similar two or three years ago.

That's no longer an issue. She believes. She believes in herself. I gained a ton of respect for her after that absolute butt-whupping where she played an awful final in Wembee and came back and said it. Looked embarrassed. Looked, you name it. Looked, you know, didn't play a great final at all and said it. Had the presence of mind to realize she played awful and almost apologized to the crowd. she did apologize to the crowd. But basically owned up to

her miserable performance and promised herself and the crowd that she would be better. And Alvin, that's a person with a lot of presence. She wasn't celebrating getting there. It was a big step for her. She missed her dad. She gave a shout out to her mom. She had her little nephew out there on the court with her. I you name it. She was just taking a hold and stride. I don't think that changes in 2026.

I've seen the girls since the days when she was 10, 11 years old playing much nine, 10 probably playing my doubles, my girls, 12 nationals years and years ago back in Atlanta, Wimbledon Lake club. Alvin, I'm telling you this girl's for real. She's going to continue to make some things happen. She is, you know, in a lot of ways, you know, with that backhand, she is the, she's the yin and yang to Sabalinka's forehand serve. She has in returns and, and, and backhand and her serve ain't terrible.

And her foreign ain't bad, you know, so you got to look at this whole thing being what it is. And so I think that we're only going to see more good things from Amanda. Just hope she stays healthy, stays fit and really is can now start to do Amanda, Anissa, Sabalinka, sorry, type consistency through the year to do it day in, day out. And I throw another little plug in there for your girl, Eva Vyontek, because she's also been Miss Fitness. She's never lost a match off of fitness, not once.

Alvin Owusu (29:18.516)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (29:18.865)
And so you know she's going to be around if anybody slips up or gets a little dinged up. So your auntie is going to be right there waiting to take him out.

Alvin Owusu (29:27.754)
Okay, all right, let's kind of go to our honorable mention, the player that we can't leave this top of the mountain without giving them a little bit bit of shine. I'm gonna go first here. I call her my little sister, even though we have no relation, then we do not know each other in the least bit, Madison Keys. What Madison Keys did this year, I...

Torrey Hawkins (29:36.479)
Thanks.

Torrey Hawkins (29:40.799)
Please.

Torrey Hawkins (29:47.495)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (29:55.868)
It will be one of the, her Australian Open Run will be one of the things, tennis memories that will be etched in my brain for the rest of my life. It was so special. Madison makes you feel like you know exactly how she feels. You feel like you're there with her. She wears it on her sleeve and she comes by it quite honestly. it was a joy to watch a player just put it together and keep it together for.

not two weeks, three weeks, because she won the warmup event right before some changes in her life. Obviously she got married and people talk about that a lot. And her husband became her coach. They're trying things differently, changed rackets, changed string. I'm not say, yeah, changed her approach, changed her approach. And with her game, it is one of high risk.

Torrey Hawkins (30:32.391)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (30:36.585)
Dup. Dup.

Yeah. Change their approach. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (30:50.875)
It's it's big. It's big tennis big first serve big forehand will pull line at times that she has no business pulling line. But for for those, especially that second week of the Australian Open, that that that magical run she she played within the the there was a bubble that a player can play within without it popping. She was on the edge of that bubble, kind of pushing out of it a little bit, but never pop in the bottle. And she like she she rode the rails.

Torrey Hawkins (31:11.324)
themselves. right. right there. For sure.

Alvin Owusu (31:20.819)
for two weeks, or a better part of a week in that second week of that Grand Slam, it was a beautiful thing. yeah, her beginning of the year from the warmup event through Australia, Indian Wells, even up to Roland Garros, made the quarterfinals there. It kind of, I would say regressed back towards the mean the rest of the year and got a little banged up, but so it goes. But I don't care. You're not taking that away from her.

Torrey Hawkins (31:26.686)
Great tennis to watch.

Torrey Hawkins (31:49.086)
She is older too, Alvin. I think you understand that as well as I do. Was in a 2017 when she played Sloan in the US Open, which was in recent memory. you know, and we haven't seen, not to compare, but we haven't seen Sloan get back to that sort of grand slam form since then. And while she looks very cute, I'm going to say very accomplished in the booth, by the way. Shout out to Sloan out there at the, in her new commentating role. She is not

Alvin Owusu (31:53.115)
Sure, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (32:18.513)
Grand Slam finals worthy at this point in her life. And I say that to say for her, for them both to be in that same final and then for one to try to get hers seven years later, you know, eight years later is a big deal. I am with you. She was always Lindsay Davenport 2.0 to me. It's ironic that Lindsay was a coach in the early days. I love the tournament for her.

Alvin Owusu (32:43.068)
Yep, yep.

Torrey Hawkins (32:48.414)
It's a little hard for me. We're closer to 2026 Australia than we are to 2025 Australia. It's a little hard for me to see that she will repeat that. And I think she's 30. It's hard to think that at 30 she will, that lightning can strike again. I'm very happy for her. Very happy for all that she's accomplished in the game. Whenever she bows out, it'll be, it'll be a wonderful career and clearly Hall of Fame. And I really hope she's

Alvin Owusu (32:55.571)
Yeah? Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (33:18.407)
going to continue to make an impact in the game at some point. I don't think she will threaten. And I want to make one side comment here. Her not having a great rest of 2025 is also what, in my opinion, puts the conversation between Iga and Coco, and Amisimov for that matter, so much in contention because the fourth winner of the slam went away a little bit. So we're now really thinking about who can repeat, who is still relevant, who's in that conversation.

Unfortunately, Madison is not at this point in time. Will she be again? I would say it's possible. It's just not likely at this point. More importantly, that also puts that much more stock on the ones that are. Make no mistake, Alvin, let me say this, the fastest serve and the fastest forehand on tour period. it's not, regardless of who's hitting a good ball, she still has it. She still owns that.

Unfortunately at 30, may not be easy to, uh, the foot speed may not be there to track down the return of said forehand and the said serve, but she will go down as one of the best to played, especially if a ball striking. And I don't, and I think she has, uh, she has, said it bubble play within herself. She maximized I'm speaking of her in past tense. Forgive me. I'm talking about this past year.

She has maximized every bit of what she had to do or what she was given. And this year proved that as if we needed any reminder of it for the last 10 years.

Alvin Owusu (34:54.193)
You you referenced, well put, the 2017 US Open when obviously Madison made the final, lost to Sloan Stevens. One day we're going to go back and look at this, that 2017 US Open. Sloan Stevens beat Venus Williams and Ash Barty in the same tournament.

Torrey Hawkins (35:09.872)
is

Torrey Hawkins (35:13.798)
Yeah. Same tournament. Was playing ball there. Was playing some absolute ball. Playing ball. 100%.

Alvin Owusu (35:17.737)
Oh my God. Like that's a, she earned that one. She earned that one. It obviously took out Madison in the finals. She beat Sybil Kova in the second round. Like she beat five seeds in that tournament to, yeah, shouts to her. She's great in the booth. Also, people who are spending more time in the booth these days, a friend of the pod, Chris Eubanks, his retirement. He's gonna be, you know.

Torrey Hawkins (35:22.876)
100%. 100%.

Torrey Hawkins (35:39.334)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (35:45.403)
on TV a little more in a suit instead of shorts. And he's obviously one of the, he's already one of the best out there doing it. And he agreed to, this is, was interesting, in October I hit him up and I was like, hey, it's been a while, but we'd love to have you come in the pod. He's like, I've been waiting for the invite, but I got to, he said, he said, I got some stuff going on right now. Let's do it after the I'll show you it up. And I was like, what do you have going on right now? And I put it in my head, I was like,

Torrey Hawkins (35:47.163)
Yep. I know it.

Torrey Hawkins (35:53.659)
Great, great.

Torrey Hawkins (36:04.527)
Ha ha ha ha ha!

Torrey Hawkins (36:10.809)
Yeah, what cryptic kind of message is that? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (36:15.793)
Yeah, I think I know what that is. then eight weeks later, seven weeks later, he makes the announcement. But Chris, I'm talking to you. We'll see you soon. All right, we'll keep bouncing forward here. It's okay, we kind of cover the top of the mountain here. And if I want to look at this through the next group through the lens of the top eight who made the WT finals, right? We've had some fairly consistent attendees in the last few years.

Torrey Hawkins (36:20.175)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (36:28.315)
No doubt.

Torrey Hawkins (36:41.199)
Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (36:45.833)
Anasimov in golf, I mean Anasimov in keys in this year, replacing Kujikova and I don't remember who else was there last year. It might've been Navarro, can't quite remember, but it's not really that important. But if we were to fast forward next year to the WTA finals, give me two players that you think would replace two players from this year's WTA finals. Or three.

Torrey Hawkins (36:56.175)
Yep. That sounds right.

Torrey Hawkins (37:11.963)
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna first start off. Yep. Let me, let me see if I, if I feel that strong about it. Number one, let me go. Rebecca. mean, that was, that was a, you know, and she's a great segue into my, into the whole conversation. Number one, let me go in reverse order. I think keys won't be there. And that's, so that's, that's my, let's, start there.

Alvin Owusu (37:15.045)
If you think if you think they're going to be there.

Alvin Owusu (37:21.449)
Oh wait, I didn't give you your honorable mention to begin with.

Torrey Hawkins (37:40.099)
And I think we're back in it and we're back in the will. I'll, and I'll come back to her back in a little bit. enough said with Rebecca winning the final. think it's a clear, it's not too, not too short of a peer to, to, dive off of on that one. The two people that I think that we are might be slipping on is, as.

that will likely be there is Mira. I think Mira is going to be right there. She was pretty close to getting it this year. I think she was nine or eight or maybe got hurt or whatever the case was before she went to the whole thing. I feel like the person that may not be there next year is besides Madison is Jasmine. I'm not sure if Jasmine is going to have the firepower to hang with this new group of Amazons that's now at the top. There is just a whole lot of power.

And as good as she is, and as good as she's going to be at the 500th and the 1000th, she's still going to be as good as she is. It's, she's going to have a little bit of the Leighton Hewitt syndrome in which

you are going to be a bit of the fly in the ointment more than you're going to be the favorite when it comes to the six footers, five 11ers like Sabalenka, Anisimova, et cetera. And so that will mean, especially going into next year, she will face them in quarters, not in semis. She will face them in potentially around the 16s, not in quarters and so on. And so just numerically, it's going to be a tough year for her to do that, to repeat what she did.

She will still be just as tough. always has been, always will be, but like it happened to Leighton, the shorter, quicker, counterpunisher type players, they tend to have a little bit smaller of a shelf life. Go back to Michael Chang days. I mean, you just, you do what you can because you're that fast, you're that quick and you're just a little ahead of the game. I just don't know if she can do that this next year. The third person I think who may or may not be there. If I had to, if I really had to just pick one and it's a tough one because I love JPEG.

Alvin Owusu (39:28.68)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (39:41.302)
A lot. I'm just saying. But JPEG to me is another one that's right there. She's right there on that Mendoza just because I could just see the next. If, if, if Mira comes of age, like I think she's capable of this next year, you got Rebecca coming, coming through there already. I just feel like there is another player and I'm not sure it's Alex, Alex Androva. I just, there's, there's three other players I think that could come in there and, and hold sway if

Alvin Owusu (39:41.384)
Here it is there it is

Torrey Hawkins (40:10.765)
They are healthy and doing what they what they can do. And, and I just don't feel like, I feel like it's she, she's still the litmus. She's still the litmus test, but she just doesn't have the weapon. Same, same thing with Jasmine to hold them off. Should they be playing well? And that's, and that's what I'm gonna say. Will it go through? Will she give it, will she give it up easily? Heck no. You're gonna have to come take it from her and same with Jasmine. I just feel like if that next level player,

Alvin Owusu (40:26.279)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (40:40.537)
If Andrusova is healthy, you know, who's the other player that I'm looking at that could actually turn the dial, you know. She's the first one I'm thinking of because of just how well she played before and has won some slams, won a slam. She just, got, there's two others out there that I feel could bump them out in addition to Mira that may upset the apple cart. And that's what I see.

Alvin Owusu (41:08.338)
Sure, and even if things hadn't worked the way they did, Mira was in WTA finals, she was in until the last week and the whole deal with her not being able to get into China so she couldn't play the event and get any points. And then Rebecca, yeah, maybe I think it was a visa issue. And then Rebecca was able to go, was able to get a few points and get in.

Torrey Hawkins (41:23.617)
Right. Right. Was it a passport thing or something? it?

Biggie's a see, yeah, yeah, right.

Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (41:35.261)
So she usurped Mira. the Mira thing is like, she's there. We feel like she's there. She just wasn't there for, know, almost on technicality. But with that being said, know, so it's either her or Rebecca. Yeah, same thing for me, Alexandra. Yeah, she's 31. She had a great year for her. But it was very, if you look at her kind of career arc this year was very abnormal. I have a hard time seeing her duplicating that next year, especially with no.

Torrey Hawkins (41:56.248)
Right, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (42:03.789)
Bye.

Alvin Owusu (42:05.018)
no real high end results. She was just like extremely consistent this year and that's kind of the difference between the top eight and the rest. It's to be 10 through 25 in the world, it's a merit of consistency, not necessarily because of your top end. I guess that's how numbers work out, right? So, but for me, I'm...

Torrey Hawkins (42:07.212)
Right. Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (42:14.85)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (42:25.42)
Nope, nope, no, no shame on her. Same with Benchits, same with a few others, right? They had some great years. It's a tour, it's a job, it's a calendar. But if we're talking about staying power, and which is thing that we're talking about, if we're talking about who can actually impose their will and who, eight times out of 10, get it done. Aussie, French, Wembee, US, then you're talking about some of the bigger guns. And that's what this year showed.

Alvin Owusu (42:30.416)
It's a job. It's a job.

It's a job.

Alvin Owusu (42:56.04)
I'll give you my kind of take on it. think the easy answer is, Miria Drava's likely going to be in. Now she did win a couple of, yeah, that's easy. That's probably everyone's call there. Easier, easier. Jen-Kin Nguyen, that's also me cheating a little bit because she was in last year. She got hurt this year. Didn't play much after Wimbledon.

Torrey Hawkins (43:08.12)
Mayor is easy. Easier.

Torrey Hawkins (43:17.32)
Mmm. Queen West.

Alvin Owusu (43:26.108)
So a lot of points rolling off. she, that's just kind of, that's a math thing. Like if she's healthy, which I assume she will be, she comes back, she's 23 years old. Like she's already shown that she is top 10 material and was in 2024 and is still entering, you know, on the precipice of entering her prime. I feel like that's, if Keys and Paolini are sliding out, then I feel like Andreeva and

and Quinn Wynn are sliding in, okay, that's actually pretty easy. I'll push myself a little bit further and say, okay, if Pegula slides out, and I'm not saying she is, I believe she could be usurped by one of two players.

Torrey Hawkins (44:06.071)
Mm. Right.

Torrey Hawkins (44:13.068)
the group.

Alvin Owusu (44:15.215)
Naomi Osaka.

She's gonna finish the year top 20. And didn't really do much until like August. But she showed her.

Torrey Hawkins (44:27.669)
Yep. Exactly. Toronto slash slash us open. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (44:32.325)
Correct, yeah, then she finals Toronto and then she semi-finaled US Open, right? That's what, and a handful of, handful of decent results at like round of 16 at Miami, round of 16 Rome. But that's really about it. with, and I say that to say, yeah, that ranking's being propped up by effectively two tournaments, but that all, those two tournaments were fairly recent and I love the form that she showed.

Torrey Hawkins (44:59.478)
Thank

Alvin Owusu (45:01.831)
in coming into the summer hard court season, right? And so that gives me confidence that she's back, like for real back, and now she's got nothing but green space in front of her from Australia all the way through Wimbledon. Like all those opportunities she missed early in the year, now she's ready to roll.

Torrey Hawkins (45:04.769)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (45:18.625)
points as well as confidence and yeah. Right. And didn't she win? 100 % sorry, didn't she win two Aussies and two US in that it wasn't that a four. So you have to you have to respect her. She could she could strike all the irons hot and have it she was she was my next player as well. Alvin is is Naomi. I'm with you on that. I think Naomi and Vanjuseva are two of the current

Alvin Owusu (45:30.065)
two Aussies, U.S.s, yeah, her when she was at the top of the game.

Torrey Hawkins (45:46.411)
Grand Slam winners, obviously Naomi won more, that are lurking in the field that could come through. And I know I keep talking about Vandrossova, but I just say it because her game actually up well to the top. And she's had wins against the top and she's always played them tough if not beaten them. And so that's why I mentioned those two and I think they're both right there. I know you're high on Nozcova, I know you're high on a few other players. You were high on Clara Towson I think before and there's some others that are coming through.

I'm a hova. I know you were big on. I'm not so sure they may get that high. I'm more betting against the spread, right? I just don't know if those other players, the Paolini's, know, the Ossie Madison and potentially Pagula are able to hang on to five through eight for the entire year. And I know JPEGs would do everything in their power to do so. I just feel like if that seeding drops,

and you start looking at the seeding of things. And now she comes up against one of those players again in the quarters and not in the semi that changes things. And so now you have to repeat the year. You've got to go through arena. You got to go through Amanda. You got to go through her back. And now that's just letting I mean to do it twice. Man, it's hard enough to do it once. So

Alvin Owusu (47:02.023)
So it's interesting, it's interesting the pagula of it. I'm usually the one that's bringing you back down to earth on pagula, but she has managed to make top eight the last two years off of not fantastic years. Last year, 2024, final US Open, right? Okay. Didn't make it past around to 64 in either of the...

Torrey Hawkins (47:28.437)
It's course nine, by the way, if I'm not mistaken. Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (47:30.023)
Yeah, but didn't make it past the round of 64 in either or the other three Grand Slams and still made top eight this year. Semifinal of the US Open. Sure, but I think that's a testament to that's a testament to her, like her as a professional. Like this year she's semifinal US Open. Like I'll show you it up in round 32. Roland Garros, round of 16. Wilmildon, first round. Like and still again, WTA finals. So it's like all she has to do is double quarterfinal a couple of.

Torrey Hawkins (47:33.631)
Yeah. Because she kicks butt on 1000s and she kicks butts at 500s. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (47:52.16)
Yeah. Yeah. And took your girl right and took your girl back in the three. I mean she had the closest match with Rebecca from not mistaken. Yeah. trust me. You ain't you ain't gotta sell me on my girl on my girl JPEG. It's. But can't you do that again? Right.

Alvin Owusu (48:00.655)
Right, it's... Yeah, I mean, so I...

I'm less confident that anyone's gonna be usurping JPEG, but if my kind of my dark horse and you've just mentioned her a second ago, Linda Noskov, who is also, she's also the torchbearer for my stock that I'm buying. Linda's done the thing that you, like quietly done the thing that you look at as a marker for a top player. I'll take you back to 2022. So Linda Noskov is 21 years old. Like let's start.

Torrey Hawkins (48:22.826)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (48:36.083)
But I forgot she was that young. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (48:36.455)
there. 21 years old. She's she's going to finish the year ranked 13. Okay, that is a that's a good sign. is that those are things where she's she's young got it boom. She's already top 20. Okay, cool. 2022. She finished the year ranked 91. Okay. 2023. She finished year ranked 41. Cut it in half. 2024. She finished year ranked 26. Damn, they're cutting it in half again. This year.

Torrey Hawkins (48:41.567)
Yep.

Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (48:58.005)
NNNN

Alvin Owusu (49:04.775)
from 26 to 13, we've cut it in half again. What I'm saying here is that's what you look for for your, like if you don't get there right away, like that's the kind of progression you're looking for. Exactly, exactly, and she's not doing it and now she's 28, she's 21, she's 21. And so I'm earmarking that, I'm earmarking that. I feel.

Torrey Hawkins (49:11.733)
100 %

Torrey Hawkins (49:16.917)
8 making incremental jumps. 100%. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (49:24.819)
Right? Good. Great. Great call. Great call.

Yeah, as as you should and she's continued to do the darn thing, which I love. And again, very good player. I just until she goes up to me and I get to see a little more of the head to head, some of the top 10 and I had a similar situation with Emma Navarro when she first came out, you know, a few years back, about three or four years ago, knew she was good. You know, of course she's good. But how is she going to she has the potential to be top 10?

How does she do against the top 10? And I think that's where I'm going with it. And I think that's where we're with the jury still out for me. think Emma has a put up or shut up year next year herself, speaking of her and where I think that Nel Noskava is one of those, she'll be a player coming up. There's two other players who we had phenomenal years and great results who didn't necessarily have the rankings, but they were pretty far out and Boko and Yala.

Which I think are also a couple that could that not necessarily top eight, but they could say certainly deserve to be honorable mention because of the way and the number and the level of players they beat slash. And results again. that's, I mentioned those two as my honorable mention from the standpoint of certainly more than flashes in the pan. And, just didn't have necessarily the, that same follow up result as they could. And yet, and yet.

did it enough times in the year for me to feel real good about their success where a girl like Louise Boisson who had a phenomenal French and unfortunately failed to quality in Wimby that to me speaks volumes about the level of ball she was playing and didn't really hear from her much for the rest of the year. So I say that to say there's a bunch of

Torrey Hawkins (51:17.406)
players coming up. It's a great year. God, we're picky. You know what mean? We're just so picky. We've been blessed to be this picky. Yeah, she got the simmies of women, but I don't know about her. I mean, think about what we're talking about. We're being very, very arrogant to a point right now.

Alvin Owusu (51:22.503)
Well, there's

Alvin Owusu (51:32.039)
You know, there's so much there that you mentioned that I wanted to talk about. Lois Poisson is a, I think that is a, her deep run at the French Open was fantastic, but almost not the thing to be paying attention to. She was an up and coming player who got hurt and then had to kind of restart again.

Torrey Hawkins (51:47.387)
BAM!

Right, right, it was Red Herring.

Alvin Owusu (52:00.023)
And yeah, she had a great run at the French Open, but she's also been playing good tennis. Like she didn't get to one minute on account of just the kind of the cutoff and the timing of it, whatever, whatever. But has also continued to play good tennis the rest of the season. Like she had a fantastic year, 30 and 14 on the year. Like she's doing it. Like she will, she will be, we will be talking about her in a different, yeah, we'll be talking about her I think at the end of the year next year.

Torrey Hawkins (52:17.501)
Yeah. She's doing it. I think she lost last round of qualities actually. for sure.

Torrey Hawkins (52:27.559)
Yeah. Just maybe not top eight is what I'm saying. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (52:28.272)
Wanna kinda go back to your Emma Navarro? Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, not yet, not yet. She's also relatively young, 22 years old, but, and I think there is a common limitation with that game style that, you know, all the things we talked about with those women who are in the top eight, like what it takes to get there. I question if that seems a bit outside of her reach. Serves also not fantastic, so whatever, we shall see. Emma Navarro.

Torrey Hawkins (52:34.023)
Yeah, not yet. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (52:54.087)
Yep, yep, yep.

Alvin Owusu (52:57.286)
Emma Navarro, okay, she's gonna finish the year at about 15, right? Which is a great year. She finished the year at eight last year. Right, and that last year was her kind of like coming out party, effectively first big year on tour and crushed it, crushed it. Maybe second year on tour.

Torrey Hawkins (53:07.827)
Eight last year.

Alvin Owusu (53:21.452)
And then this year, I mean, we talked about it as much in our year interview last year, it's gonna be hard for her to back it up. And I think with Emma and her game style, once you figure it out, you kinda got it, right? Like the players who were gonna beat her know how to beat her and it's somewhat straightforward for those high end players who can hit her off the court. So I think the onus is on her to beef up her

you her stock, right? Like it's her stock of weapons. Yeah. Kind kind of, kind of give me what you're looking for because you, you, you, you follow her game pretty closely.

Torrey Hawkins (53:51.524)
She's got to retool. He's got to retool. mean, 1000%.

Torrey Hawkins (53:59.41)
A lot of pretty close, even through juniors before she went off to UVA. Love her game, by the way. her attitude. Love the way she competes. I just, if I'm going to put her in the same, and this is a compliment, I'm putting her in the same category as and in order. Jasmine, sorry, Siontech, Jasmine, and then her in that order. They are great counter punishers. They are very

They take returns early. They do things you don't necessarily see. She of the three I mentioned, isn't as quick to take time away on the return. She of the three is a little more neutralizing and a little more dependent on errors from the other side. And she of the three doesn't have any part of her game of that three and of the top 10 that I can say.

That's a bad matchup for one, three, five, and seven in the top 10. There's not a bad matchup. She doesn't do much to hurt those other players. And that's why I think she slid from eight to 15. She's still just as good. The others inside the top 10 are just bigger, a little better, and they have strokes that can go through you. You mentioned Boisson a second ago. How many times have you seen Emma Navarro hit an inside out four at Alvin? About 75 % of the time.

Alvin Owusu (55:22.074)
You know, you...

Torrey Hawkins (55:23.6)
Right? And so now you've got the down the line backhand, which kills you. And that's to your point of with, with, with, Lois, all four of the top four have phenomenal backhands. mean, for now, not good, phenomenal. I mean, that's not even close. And the biggest way to defend the inside out forehand is a downline backhand. Well, I got news for you. All four of them had huge backhands. So you already, that's a matchup nightmare for her.

And so now you're looking at, what else does she know? Well, she's fast. She's scrappy. She has a slice. Great. These girls also can handle slides. They can also be steady. They can also outlast you if necessary. So that's what I'm getting at. just feel like her, her matchup is not that potent against the top 10. She is the same player she was last year. Unfortunately, the level has been, you know, it's like old Texas hold them. I'll see you one. I'll, I'll, I'll.

I'll see you and raise you one. And that's what the top eight, especially the top four have done this year. And it's just now she's still youngish when she's 25. Never take. So it's only going to be a matter of her when she was in school two or three years. So she had to be 24, 25. My point is she still has time to develop something, right? There's still another, another nuance she can still bring into the table, do something, but she's probably not going to develop.

Alvin Owusu (56:24.196)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (56:37.691)
Right.

Torrey Hawkins (56:47.704)
a massive forehand between now and Australia, right? She's probably not going to develop a huge serve between now and Wembe. So that's why I'm saying I just don't see it in the cards for the change too, too much. And heck, top 10. mean, how much would you change? You know, it's just to say I just don't see it matching up as well as it has in the past. Again, the ceiling has raised more than she's dropped.

Alvin Owusu (56:51.397)
And that's the.

Alvin Owusu (57:12.272)
When you mentioned Eega, Paulini, Navarro, I like that it's like in reverse order, it's like good, better, best version of a player, right? They're all kind of very, they're all very similar game styles, but the one thing that I was thinking about was like, okay, the difference, and then you said it, was like, you can do all those things, but I need you to be, can I visualize you going forehand hard cross, inside out forehand, inside in,

Torrey Hawkins (57:20.144)
It's a standard deviation. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (57:42.192)
forehand finish point, like can you do it? When you need to, can you step on the gas and go boom, boom, boom? And Ega can do it, obviously. I've seen Jasmine do it, she obviously can't do it a lot, right, because of her stature, like that's a lot to ask, but then I was like, I've never really seen Emma do it, and then you said it, like, it's like, I need that at some point, and that's your third deviation of that game style, so I'm with you there, it's like, okay.

Torrey Hawkins (57:44.176)
Go.

Torrey Hawkins (58:08.923)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (58:12.109)
She had a lot of points to defend. She didn't do terribly by going from eight to 15. Now it's like, okay, this is our baseline now. we get ourselves back to the top 10 this year? And I think that's a very similar, very but we shall see. I also feel very similar, less, maybe less well-known player, but.

Torrey Hawkins (58:18.16)
Right? Right?

Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (58:25.7)
Yeah! They're manageable. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (58:32.314)
No, no, a reach, but manageable.

Alvin Owusu (58:41.797)
Also a very similar story. Uh, Dana Schneider, lefty, uh, German played at NC state, um, 2024 hits the tour finishes 13 in the world, right? I she won five titles or something like that. was like, Whoa, that came back. What is that? Um, extremely crafty, like a lot of matches under her belt, like at the collegiate level. And then obviously moving into the, you know, to the women's tour, but

Torrey Hawkins (58:58.916)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (59:10.701)
this year started off almost horribly. Did not have a great year, but was able to kinda get it back together a little bit towards the back end of the year. She did one to 500 down in Mexico towards the end of the year, but was able to kinda salvage that ranking. went from 13 to 21. And a very similar story there. Like not a lot of firepower, but left-handed, not right-handed, and crafty. So.

Torrey Hawkins (59:30.18)
Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (59:37.013)
I like that, that's one of those players she's on my buying stock list. I trust the lefty, yeah, of course I do, who can manipulate the court, right? She can work, seriously, who?

Torrey Hawkins (59:45.352)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Torrey Hawkins (59:52.134)
She throws in a drop with the best of them. Good God, she does that and she sells it. And she can follow it up with a pretty decent rip forehand when she can. know, at least she can take a line on you all day. She's one of those lefties that keeps you off balance. She doesn't just hook you, let's see pattern all day. She'll slap line on you all day long. And I like that part of her game. I'll be honest, she's the one I'm looking forward to. She's that.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:03.651)
Yeah, I should go check that thing line. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:18.319)
She's that threat that's always lurking in a tournament. I feel like in some ways, kind of feel like Yala might be a similar version, I would hate to play Schneider. You know what mean? Or coach against her. Yeah, yeah. I think that's all she was, but yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:00:37.539)
Right. And she's not German, she's Russian. said German, she's not German, she's Russian. Maretsa, Daneera Safina, I think is her coach. But she's, I'm gonna get that corrected, okay.

Torrey Hawkins (01:00:46.915)
Right. Yeah. Denarra was a phenomenal player. I remember watching Denarra out there, man. I love watching Denarra. Man, she was good. She just hit a clean ball. And she had just a tenth, just a tenth of Moratz Moxie and just...

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:08.495)
She would have won. Does she win a couple of slams? think she won a couple of slams. Or did she get as much the finals?

Alvin Owusu (01:01:15.013)
I think she won one. I think she won, I should remember this. We covered this recently. think she did win one.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:17.167)
I thought she won one and got to a couple finals.

Anyway, yeah, love Denar, love Denar. Great, great, great, great call right there. Buy and then sell it.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:30.245)
Before we totally, well before we pivot, there were two players that you mentioned and I wanna make sure we cover them somewhere, because I don't rest on over there. Victoria Mboko and Alexandra Yala, right? Both in the top 50, Mboko's 18 in the world right now, Alex cracked the top 50. I think you're a little higher on Alex than I am. I enjoy her, I don't.

Torrey Hawkins (01:01:36.003)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:01:59.686)
expect a ton more, mostly from that firepower standpoint. Why are you higher on her than I am?

Torrey Hawkins (01:02:12.91)
Feel like she will only get a little bit better. She will only get the skills that are already there. There's enough firepower to go through the top 20. I don't think she'll get much past top 10 because I think there's a wall there. think there's a there's we got Appalachians and then we got Rockies and then we got, bam, we got Mount Everest and K2 up there as you get to that to the top eight and top five. But I think she matches up very well to the top 20. Obviously, she's already there right now.

And like Mboko, I think they both have holes in their games, but I think they manage them both pretty well. Mboko needs to show up to serve. And I think Alex needs to get a little bigger of a serve, but she doesn't have a terrible serve now. And I feel like her style, her coming forward are pluses. Also Lefty, which I know you like. And I feel like with the exception of being a little more cagey like Schneider, I feel like she actually matches up better. And her backhand.

is pretty darn good, Alvin. I feel like when a lot of the lefties, I feel like if they're hiding the backhand or protecting a backhand, kind of like, I see a lot of good players. was just watching some stuff before we came on the air with Janice Chen and a beautiful player. Nice game, kind of a throwback, but kind of an honest Jabbur will play with with a slice. But I just don't know if that's going to make it inside the top 20 going forward. I love her game, love watching her.

Alvin Owusu (01:03:13.987)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:03:38.827)
I think she's a player to watch for next year. She's just, but you're not going to beat people, Stephie Graff style in 2026. You just not, you know, you just, and it helps you appreciate how big Stephie's serve and how big Sebby's foreign was back in the day. So Ayala to me has all the parts that have a little bit of improved serve. I think she will be top 20 for sure. And she matched up well against better players this year to get there. It wasn't like she just went through and

And she knocked off some players out of it to get where she did. And then it didn't have a couple other bad tournaments to follow up. Just didn't necessarily finish. And she's not going to be a top ten or don't get me wrong, but I feel like she's closer to being complete than Vicky. I think Vicky's got great game, but she might, that serve could be some issues. And I say that after watching another black player who played phenomenal for two or three years and has two slams now, who's now finding the time to work the serve progressions in there, you know.

Get that serve worked out now and she could be a, I'm talking about Mboko could be a true, a true top 15 top 12 player going forward. If she gets that worked out, I think Ayala is a little closer to there already. We'll see.

Alvin Owusu (01:04:53.474)
Yeah, kind of two things there. Like, Ayala, they're, sure, mean, being lefty, and this is very similar to what I talked about with Emma Navarro, right? The ability to, you know, go cross court with forehand, go inside out with the forehand, and be able to sting inside in. that's like a tried and true pattern that any righty who is going to be able to take their game to someone should be able to do. For the lefties, it's a little bit different, right? There's, you're gonna get a lot of, ideally you wanna go like,

Torrey Hawkins (01:04:54.742)
Honorable mention category for sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:22.414)
cross court forehand to a righty's backhand. You wanna kinda stay in that space, but then when the righty eventually pulls line or leaves one middle, more so pulls line, the ability to cut that ball off, move at an angle, and hit that backhand hard cross court, it's almost more impactful than, sorry, hit that backhand cross court, it's almost more impactful than being able to go around and hit the inside out forehand because it does kinda come back.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:38.46)
yeah, back in line.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:44.054)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:50.176)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:05:51.717)
a little bit to a righties running forehand, which then puts the lefty a little bit in a precarious position based on where you hit it. I say that to say she has that shot. She can go lefty, heavy, roll, cut off the angle, take the backhand hard, cross, and you can make a living off that shot. If you can do that well as a lefty, especially one who's not tall, using your speed as a weapon to cut that ball off, fantastic. Vicky Mboko.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:52.822)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:05:57.804)
Right, right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:02.796)
Yeah, that's our shot.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:22.498)
The big story is starts the year at 330 something in the world, finishes the year top 20. Also starts the year off, she's playing in the minor leagues, the challengers of the WBA Tour. Starts the year off winning 22 matches in a row, four straight titles. Loses to Coca-Golf in Rome in three sets. That was kind of her breakout, who the hell is this girl? And then double qualities.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:27.756)
Yep. 331. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:06:35.925)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (01:06:52.204)
Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Makes, I think she made, she did win a match at one of those, she won two matches at Roland Garros. But, and then coming off of Wimbledon gets into the main draw of DC and that's where I saw her in person. I watched her match with Rebecca and intently I did not miss a ball of that match from sitting right next to Rebecca in his box. Like I was in that match and I was watching it and I was like, yeah, she's good.

But she's mentally extremely tough, extremely tough. Like Rebacchina came out, opened up the kitchen, sink on her, and she was, I mean, she took the haymakers, settled, and then proceeded to start building her way through that match. She did not win that match, but then she was able to, the very next tournament, bring it back around, beat Rebacchina in Canada, win the Masters 1000, unfortunately dropped, kind of dropped off, beat Osaka in the final, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:07:46.059)
beating Osaka in the

Alvin Owusu (01:07:51.909)
did not have a fantastic rest of the year, but also ran into some pretty tough players, got some bad draws, little banged up, probably a little tired, and then rounds out the year by, I think she won a 250 at the end of the year, beat Ayala, to double check that one. Yeah, the talent's there. She's got the firepower, backhand's fantastic. I would like, she will clean up the forehand.

She will, and she will clean up the surf.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:22.155)
She will clean up and, and, and the serve and she handles pace like nobody I've seen her at her age and level handles pace extremely well, which makes me feel like and can deliver it. you you always talk about can absorb pace as, as if it's as if you're storing it somewhere and you're just delivering a shot almost off pace. She redirects extremely well. She can absorb and redirect, which I think is a very, two skills and she doesn't both well. her serve wasn't terrible.

Alvin Owusu (01:08:29.292)
Handles pace well.

Torrey Hawkins (01:08:51.915)
It just, just feel like technically you actually said, had sent me some footage of that. was like, yeah, I could see that thing breaking down a little bit. Make no mistake. She's around. And I felt like both players have won enough to believe that they belong. And I think that's the biggest thing that I see for both of them going into this next year.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:07.5)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:09:12.164)
Yeah, couple categories left here. I'm gonna save best matches of the year for last actually. I was gonna do it next, we're gonna do it last. Buying stock, we've touched on it a little bit here. Noskava Schneider for me. Leila Fernandez, god it feels like Leila Fernandez has been on tour for 27 years. But she's only 23 years old. And she's gonna finish year top 25, so.

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:25.034)
Mm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:09:34.921)
Hehehehehe

Alvin Owusu (01:09:41.271)
Layla in the back half of this year, once we got into the US hardcore, like started to, I don't know, I'm not gonna say she, I don't feel like she's that much different of a player, but it started to feel like she understands who she is as a player. She oftentimes strikes me as someone who is kind of not in between game styles, but trying to do more than she maybe she can do. And it seems like she has now found her way of winning.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:09.386)
Middle ground.

Alvin Owusu (01:10:09.924)
tennis matches, think, yeah, her middle ground. I feel like a player who is seated in the back half of seeds for a grand slam is about where she belongs, kind of considering the amount of firepower she does have. And then my last one is Peyton Stearns, and Peyton's about to, Peyton's testing me. She is testing me, she is testing me. I just,

I'm gonna go ahead and buy the stock now. She's sitting at 63 in the world. I feel like next year's her year. And if it's not next year, then it's not gonna, it ain't gonna happen. But I feel like Peyton Stearns, I just, really enjoy watching her play tennis. She's one of those ones that like, if she's playing, I'm watching. But yeah, I need her to start winning some more tennis matches. And not losing to 40 year olds in DC. That's what I need, actually.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:50.398)
Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:10:58.696)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so you're buying the stock though. You're buying it.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:10.786)
I'm buying it because it's cheap and readily available right now. So I feel like it's going to be worth something soon.

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:13.546)
Fair, fair, right, right, Yeah, it's like you're, it's like Bitcoin right now. Here's my thought. I've already told you my two or three. I think we agree on Mboko and Ayala. think El Saca, I think has been well documented. That's not even a stock. That's more of a bond at this point in the hedge fund. We know she's only gonna continue to play some decent tennis. I am buying Alvin.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:35.288)
Dude!

Torrey Hawkins (01:11:42.153)
And I've already talked about Vondrasova. I think if she's healthy, I think she's gonna continue to some big things. I love her game. I love she's left the album. She has a nice fly. She has a big forehand. She can work the court. She's won it and she's beaten some of the top in route. And I feel like she was on her way to this year, just got a little dinged up. And had she been healthy in Wimby, I think she could have done some more things. And ironically, I don't feel as strong about Krijikova.

Alvin Owusu (01:11:47.16)
You love Vondie. You love Vondie.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:11.421)
who also want to be who I don't think can necessarily repeat as much because I think she's got to do more to be in shape to be sharp to be whatever and then in the years to come.

The person I think I'm buying the stock on the most album for this next year is that I think we'll have a better year than we've seen to date. I'm buying Mahova. I think she's only going to continue to, I think she's feeling like she's going to be left out if she doesn't. think she's, I've always thought she was a good player. I think she will make, I think she'll make a run toward that top 10, top 12 this year and has not done so up to this point in time. Also,

Alvin Owusu (01:12:42.403)
Oooh.

Torrey Hawkins (01:12:53.607)
buying. And this will be a this will be one for you that you probably won't won't, you know, won't won't get I actually think that and you'll get a kick out of this one. I think that Emma Navarro will actually maintain slash improve toward her just because of her heart and her fight.

As much as she didn't have a lot, don't think she's, I'm buying her stock to leave it where she's at. I don't think she drops. She just too much of a fighter. She's too much of a winner. She's already proved that. Like you feel about Peyton. You know, I think we both kind of agree with McCartney Kissel being one those players that I'm, and she's my next one. They're only gonna keep getting better. They're gonna keep getting more seasoned. I feel like Enla is the foremost of that group of the American college players that are continuing to move on. They're starting to kind of make some,

makes them hay and where I don't feel like players like Sophia Kinnon and Danielle Collins are going to be around much going forward just due to age and everything else. So I feel like she's going to be right there. The player that I think is going to, that I hope comes out to kind of shock some players, I'm hoping, I'm hoping. Hope is not a strategy. The great Adam Gosty is,

Alvin Owusu (01:14:09.773)
Hope, hope, hope is not a strategy.

Torrey Hawkins (01:14:19.72)
And she's in that same, you know, mold. just hoping that Ashlyn Krueger can do her thing, Alvin. I just feel like with her stature and with her and with everything else, I'm just buying her stock because she is somewhere in that top 50 range. I think she could be top 20 if she continues to move forward. I've seen a few little upstart players, you know, Lise and...

Alvin Owusu (01:14:30.773)
Yeah, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:14:47.24)
the little girl, Christian, the little Romanian girl, they're all good little players, but I just feel like at the end of the day, you need somebody that can bang a serve, that can actually go through some players and not just beat some players on their good day, on her good day and on their bad day. And that's where, know, Lise and Christian and I to say it, even Kazakina to a degree, they just, they need some help, you know, if you're going to beat them. Who was the other?

Donna, Donna Vekich and who's the other one that had a pretty good year this past year? Got to a bunch of quarters and I got to a couple quarters in around 16. You sent me a podcast about her coach talking. European player. I think she got to quarters of US, quarters of Australia. Good player, but I don't see them pushing the envelope. Whatever her name was. Her name will come to me.

Alvin Owusu (01:15:37.443)
Yeah, I what you're talking about. I just can't come to them right now. Sure, sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:15:43.175)
But my point is I say that to actually Kruger, Lynette, that's exactly what it Magda Lynette. exactly. Those kind of players, those kind of players to me are ones where I feel like they're just great tour pros. They're great tour pros. They're solid all day long, but nothing against them. Right. And they're going to and they are going to be there as they're there as good as a day as long. However,

Alvin Owusu (01:15:46.549)
Magdala net was it Lynette?

Alvin Owusu (01:15:51.447)
Magnolina, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:01.473)
Yeah, yeah. It's a job. It's a job.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:11.537)
They're not necessarily, they're there to beat you on your bad day. will point manage and game and set manage you out of a match. Feel like that's actually the feather in the cap of the Ashton Krueger's and she can just get her serve down and hold and really start getting some breaks in there. She's the female equivalent in my opinion of the Alex Mickelson. Just needs to contain it all and put it all together. And they're fun to watch when they're playing well. You can really see in them.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:39.201)
Interesting.

Torrey Hawkins (01:16:40.8)
That's why I gotta go with her because of the upside is where I'm going to at. Is there a lot per se to prove to me that she has that? Not necessarily, but there's a whole lot that she has shown. And to me, if I have to buy upside, I'm buying an upside with a six foot tall girl with a huge surf and a nice forehand. So I gotta go with it. You know what mean? I'll err on the side of six feet.

Alvin Owusu (01:16:46.189)
Sure, sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:00.139)
Right, exactly, exactly, exactly. That's fair. You mentioned...

Sure, that's safe, that's safe. You did mention a player that I, which is interesting because I have her on my selling stock list. So you're buying Carolina Mojave and this is gonna pain me to say I'm actually pushing all my Mojave stock in. I Mojave is like, she is, I've said this many times on this, she's my favorite player to watch. I love watching Carolina Mojave but.

Torrey Hawkins (01:17:23.179)
Ugh, don't do it. man, man.

Alvin Owusu (01:17:35.779)
Part of being a high performing professional tennis player is being able to perform professional tennis player things on a regular basis. And the same thing, maybe this is something that's going on in the Czech Republic, I don't know what's in the water, but she is not healthy enough. And now we're pushing 30. Not to say 30 is the end of the road or anything, but if you're healthy coming to 30, that bodes well for you to play to 33, but she's often injured.

And when she's playing, she's a delight to watch play and she's an extremely effective player when she is playing. But if we can't play enough, now our rankings starts to suffer and we're not getting the ability to work our way into tournaments. We're having to grind through the first few matches and she almost grinded herself into the ground at the US Open and wasn't able to bring the goods when she needed to at towards the end of that tournament.

Torrey Hawkins (01:18:24.677)
That's true.

Alvin Owusu (01:18:32.79)
So I'm actually pushing my Mojave stock in. I want off of that narcotic.

Torrey Hawkins (01:18:38.501)
That's a, that's a fun. It's a funny mention. I would have said the exact same thing for Paula Badosa in the exact same. would have just inserted a different name, although she was hurt for the good chunk of the year, but the same kind of, so I can't argue with the logic. You know, at some point, some of this is an emotional play here, right? It's more emotional and a tie and a preference of play than it is the numbers.

But I feel the same thing about Baut Paula. After her beat down of...

Coco, I don't think she played a good match slash played a match that I can remember, you know, after that, I she came back a couple of times and wasn't quite ready. You know, felt like I felt like I didn't see her for the remainder of that of the of the year. And let's face it with all the tall timber coming in there now, it's going to be very hard for her to get back to the top 10. So as you also, like I said, numerically will start to fall into those top four, top eight sides of the draw.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:12.866)
Cocoa.

Alvin Owusu (01:19:19.65)
It sure felt, yeah, it felt that way, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:19:41.446)
round of 32, round of 16, much earlier. And I don't know if Paula's going to beat her best friend, Arena, anytime soon. I mean, let's just be honest. mean, she's, Arena's a lot of things. Consistency is one of them. And she's pretty good on all wings. And if I had to say, well, who could she beat in the top four? I'd have a better answer.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:05.332)
Yeah, to Paula's credit, she does, she's often injured, but when she does play, she does enough to stay relevant. She will play the 1000s and she consistently will get to the round of 32, pop a R16, and then you do that enough over the course of the year, that's your, again, it's a job.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:16.569)
Yeah, for sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:27.68)
Right, like enough to get invited back next year. Enough to maintain a top 30 ranking. Like she'll be seated in Australia. Like lot of points to defend in Australia, because I she semi-finaled it last year, but that's tough sledding. Another player that I...

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:28.281)
Dumb.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:31.715)
Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:20:37.711)
Sure. A lot of points to defend.

And that's why I thought her, her ranking was going to. I'm sorry. I want to say those real quick. And that's also why coming, coming up that fast, it's going to be hard to play that level of tennis. And that was her one big tournament last year. So, you know, it's going to be very, very difficult numerically to repeat it in such short order and to have the same year. And without that numerically, she falls into the Venus fly trap. Go ahead.

Alvin Owusu (01:20:48.855)
Yeah, well...

Alvin Owusu (01:21:10.338)
Yep, and I'll even tack on, upvote the same thing with Belinda Bencic. Great year coming back, getting back to the level she was at pre-child. I just don't, yeah, I'm just not, no, just not for me. I don't think that that's real. I watched a lot of her matches and I'm like, some of the draws that she got through, some of the weirdness she kind of avoided, I don't.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:15.109)
For sure.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:23.577)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:21:39.523)
feel like that 11 ranking is, that's a house of cards right there. I don't buy it. I don't buy it one bit. I don't buy it so much that I'm willing to sell all of that. I don't want that, I don't want that sock. And then Alina Svitolina, not to knock on the moms or anything, I feel like the, I feel like the families, well, you know, obviously married to Gael, who you mentioned earlier, they have a child.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:44.525)
Yup. Yup.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:50.603)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:21:57.329)
Hahaha!

Alvin Owusu (01:22:07.746)
The guy all hung it up the end of this year. She is 31. She shut her year down early, I think right after the US Open. She was like, I'm done for the year. It just kind of feels like post child, she came back, had two really good years, two really strong years, evolved as a player. Not just got back to the level she was at, she evolved as a player, added weapons. I feel like she is maybe moving into a point in her life where...

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:24.045)
you

Yeah, you're with that.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:35.456)
There are other things that might be more important. We'll see, I don't know her, she's not my friend. I don't know, she didn't tell me this. This is just what I'm, this is the tea leaves that I'm reading. Tea leaves that I am reading, yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:22:47.012)
Yeah, that's your reading. I'm pushing off on Yelena Ostapenko. I'm selling. think she is, you know what I mean? Let's put that out there. Of course, Layla, you mentioned earlier, I have another album that I think that has had some decent results, but I just don't know if I see her. I agree with you on Svidlina.

Alvin Owusu (01:22:55.653)
Hey, that makes two of us.

Torrey Hawkins (01:23:13.619)
heck of a heck of a player been around for a long time that has done a great job and congrats to her and my face and I could see them. You know, they'll be they'll be fine. Right. The player that I think that this may be a bit, you know,

We talk about Layla, Emma Rodicano album. As much as I was impressed to see her come back, feel like Emma Rodicano is not, she didn't come back enough for me to feel like she can withstand the quicksand that is becoming the top 20. She looked good. She's looking better. And then I just, I just keep seeing issues, injuries, hurt.

Alvin Owusu (01:23:39.202)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:00.183)
this, that, which, which is fair, but I kind of got a feeling like if, if you've won one and we all know that that was a bit of a, a bit of an aberration, her and Layla's final feel like she understands the level she's been coming back now for five years. And I feel like five, four, three, how many years has it it been, has it been four things? Been four, three, three things. Been three years. When is she her and Layla play? What about 2020?

Had to be 2020. Five years. It's 2019? 2021? Was it COVID?

Alvin Owusu (01:24:33.681)
No, it wasn't 2020. It was like no, was like 2021 21 21. Yes,

Torrey Hawkins (01:24:42.403)
21. We are four, 20. We are four years later. And I'm while she's better. She's not four years better. And so in my opinion, the labyrinth of the top eight continue to push the next player down. If I'm going to sit here and talk about JPEG has a chance of getting pushed to five through eight status. Well, she's already there. You know, you already know what I feel about, you know, what I feel about the rest of them.

Alvin Owusu (01:24:43.892)
No, cover this 2020.

Torrey Hawkins (01:25:12.674)
So that's going to push that next tier down. That's going to push the next tier down. I don't think, you know, you got a handful that are going to push out some top twenties. What does that do to Emirat Akana? Pushes her 25 to 32. And now it began numerically. She's going to face those players who she's never beaten. But she's going to face them earlier. So I was really, really encouraged that she played some pretty good tennis. was really hoping she would.

stay the course and maybe show you that she is starting to gain ground. I felt like Osaka gained ground and started to show you her form from before and showed you that she's still finding it a little bit. I saw Emma play as good as she played before, but everybody else is a lot better. And that's

Alvin Owusu (01:26:13.793)
Okay, that's fair. And Emma, feel like Emma, there's a pretty clear cut ceiling for her. I think it's whether or not she can consistently get to that ceiling. I feel like she's a little better than 25 in the world. I could see her creeping into the top 20. Do I see her getting into the top 10? No, because she has, there's some things in her game that will not allow her to.

beat those players like a Sabalenka or an Iga or, mean, she beat Anna Samova, think, once this year, but that feels abnormal.

Yeah, so yeah, I think the ceiling with her is probably a little bit higher than 25 in the world. think she can get into the top 20, but we've kind of seen her bump into the Sabalinkas, bump into the, even the Kalinskaya she has trouble with, like Eega. It's like if someone can dictate with the forehand and she can get pushed around a little bit, that's just kind of, that's what she is. But.

Torrey Hawkins (01:28:31.872)
Yeah, Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:28:58.371)
Still no big surf, still no, not a huge weapon off the return. Her game looks good, cute girl, but she just doesn't do much more past that. And I feel like, you know, she is, she's in a very precarious spot because she's still carrying around this, but I won the open once before baggage a little bit. I should be getting back to that level instead of looking at it as the, you know, as the.

as the moonshot that it was before.

Alvin Owusu (01:29:30.241)
Sure, My last player of stock that I'm pushing in, this is gonna be a little, this is an odd one because she's so young, 22 years old. Clara Towson. Not for me, not for me. I just can't, she's gonna finish a year right around 12, 13 in the world, which sounds fantastic, but that is a,

Torrey Hawkins (01:29:42.626)
Mmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:29:48.61)
Okay. Okay.

Alvin Owusu (01:29:59.746)
That's a, she finaled a 1000. I think it was, wasn't Toronto, it was the other one. I don't know which one she finaled, but she finaled a 1000. Simi finaled another one. But besides that, like, round of 32 Australia, round of 32 Roland-Garros, round of 16 at Wimbledon, round of 128, like, first round bounce at US Open. When I watch her play tennis, there's nothing about her game. Obviously, big serve, big four, and she hit the

out of the ball, but she does not move well and that is a non-starter for me as far as like I'm gonna believe in your ability to build upon this. So that's a, which is, she's been on the tour for a while, it's like maybe four years or so, she came on tour kinda early and has had some injuries, has kinda found her game. Okay, she's 22, she's top 15 in the world.

Those are things that you, I just spoke positively about, let it not go for the same thing, but numbers aren't everything. They're not everything. So I'm just, it's just a, I'm gonna go ahead and put that on the board. I don't think she's backing that up next year.

Torrey Hawkins (01:31:10.949)
Yep. Yep. No, it's going to be for him to be sure. It's a lot of, it's a lot of people. And I'll be honest, Alvin, when I look at the top 30, there's 10, there's 13 players that I could see that may not be in that top 30, you know, next year for any, as it always is, but for, for various reasons. And so again, it's going to make sure to say, it's going to make sure to see for next year. I'm curious. The top.

I'm curious to see what you got. You know what mean?

Alvin Owusu (01:31:42.05)
Yeah. So this is an interesting one for me. You mentioned earlier Madison Keys versus Egos Fiatik, semifinals Australian Open. I'm gonna open that one up even further. I'm cheating a little bit. Madison's entire second week at that event was, it just felt like one long match that was amazing. Fourth round, she beats her back in a 6-3 in the third.

Torrey Hawkins (01:31:50.592)
It was a great match.

Torrey Hawkins (01:32:02.014)
Right, what's phenomenal tennis.

Alvin Owusu (01:32:11.563)
quarterfinals she beats Fidelina 6'4 in the third. Semifinals beats Ega, match tiebreaker 10'8 in the third. Finals beats Sabalinka 7'5 in the third, right? That was a fantastic way to start the year. I remember when that tournament finished up, was like, my God, what an Australian Open, what an Australian Open, what a run for Madison. So I'll choose the Ega match as my favorite because she fought Ega.

I always say if you can get through the first hour on court with Ega, you're doing something. You gotta take on that first initial wave. And some people end up in the locker room before that wave is over. Right, but Madison fought it off and was able to like, okay, got out of that first set 5-7, but then was able to stick it back to our 6-1 in the second set and then we were in our match.

Torrey Hawkins (01:32:47.669)
Yep. Yep. Right.

Most end up in the locker room.

Alvin Owusu (01:33:10.099)
and then the back and forth in that third set was, was phenomenal. So that's my, I'll say that was my favorite match of the year. What about you?

Torrey Hawkins (01:33:21.395)
I'm going to have to go with Coco and Sabalinka in the French final. It was good tennis from Coco. Coco had not been playing great.

per se, and at that point in time, I didn't think she was that good of a clay court player. I have to mention this with the asterisk of Fiontech and

Sabalinka in the semi, which I thought was ball striking, probably the best match I've seen all year as far as absolute just hidden of the ball unloading on each ball. But the tactics that she chose, the things that she was doing, the things she had to do in that match, things I have not seen Coco do to date. And that's why I'm going to give that to her. And it was her second slam. I felt like she's continued. I felt like she

Alvin Owusu (01:33:51.809)
in the semi.

Alvin Owusu (01:34:00.083)
Unloading, unloading.

Torrey Hawkins (01:34:18.304)
I felt like she grew a lot in that that tournament and that match. And I felt like that was a, it wasn't just a win. It was another level of maturity and another level of understanding. I can win different ways. And that's why it was a big one for me. I a hundred percent agree with you on everything Madison related for the, for the Aussie. Um, and I just felt like, or it's hard for me to give a semi-final of my top top.

But when we come to 3-4, clearly that Sviatntec and the Sabalinka match in the French and for that matter, the Anisimova, Sabalinka match, Simi and the Wimby were up there pretty high. But what we're talking about, that was one of my favorite for what it was.

Alvin Owusu (01:34:46.282)
Sure, sure.

Alvin Owusu (01:35:09.448)
Yeah, and we had a lot of, we did these lists independently, we had a lot of crossover here, so Ega versus Sabalenka, Roland Garros was my second favorite match of the year. I felt like through the screen I could feel both women had something to prove, and they were just like, no, I'm going through you. We're not, there's no BS about this match. Up until that point they had never played in a Grand Slam before, which is kind of crazy.

Torrey Hawkins (01:35:26.174)
Oof.

Torrey Hawkins (01:35:32.04)
Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:35:36.125)
Bye. Right.

Alvin Owusu (01:35:37.695)
considering how they've been one and two kind of back and forth the last two or three years. And yeah, they were just going off on each other and it was amazing to watch. It was so much fun. So yeah, that was my number two match as well. I had a little bit further down, Anna Samova versus Sabalinka, which you touched on in Wimbledon. And that's a fun matchup. Like that's a fun matchup. aren't, there are only a few players that can really take the racket out of.

Torrey Hawkins (01:35:59.058)
Yep, very much. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:36:07.756)
I ran into Sabalinka's hand and Amanda Anasamova is one of them. yeah, maybe, definitely two, maybe three. And so like that was the kind of, not coming of age, but like welcome to the party moment for Amanda Anasamova, taking down Sabalinka in the semifinals in Wimbledon. Yeah, that was like, you could feel the, you know, she was getting tired.

Torrey Hawkins (01:36:12.255)
There's one of them. Yeah. One of them, maybe three, maybe two. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:36:35.78)
Sabalinka was holding on trying to get across the finish line. It was just a, it was a really, it was a beautiful match to watch. was a beautiful match to watch. also a beautiful, Rebacca versus Von Drusova at U S open was, it was like on, it was on, on Louis Armstrong.

Torrey Hawkins (01:36:43.411)
Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:36:56.038)
you

Alvin Owusu (01:37:01.246)
It was a night match. was, think, I can't remember who was playing in this in an ash. It was not like very well attended, but those women were just, they were also unloading in the ball, but they were both doing the best version of themselves out there. Von Drosselro ends up winning that match and then pulling out in the next round. like Rebecca is going hard. Vondie's going like lefty hooks, drop shots, carving, absorbing pace, redirecting. was just, it was masterclass from both of them.

Torrey Hawkins (01:37:15.912)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:37:24.284)
No. No.

Torrey Hawkins (01:37:30.109)
Yeah, yeah. Who is she going to play the next round? Sabalenka?

Alvin Owusu (01:37:30.912)
So that was a that one was a lot of fun for me

I believe so. Yeah, and then she pulls she goes out she goes out and hits the next day and then like before the match and then pulls out Yeah

Torrey Hawkins (01:37:37.278)
Yeah, that's, and she pulled out. Yeah. Right. And could, it couldn't. Yeah. Right. That's, that was until, and that's why I keep giving you girl Von Gisova so much love. Cause I'm like, oh, she had a similar Wimby too. She was right there. think she can't, can't have pulled up a little lame and won the matches and didn't, didn't do so well. But that's those matches like that is why I still feel like she's relevant. I agree with you. I think, and again, and the heck of a match for, it's kind of funny how you start, I almost want to do a

A take on all of

Rebecca and his losses this year in slams. I almost want to do a recap because you mentioned Madison for Ozzy. I almost want to find out who did you run into because for you to do the thing you did at the WTA final, who did you run into? know, Wemby, I think I know I remember that match because she lost that one, but was kind of dinged up, was taped up. I don't remember what happened there in the French. you know, obviously 1000 is a long year, but that was a, you know,

So there was a bunch of roadblocks, you know, for for Rebecca up until this point in time.

Alvin Owusu (01:38:46.378)
So she lost to Ega at Roland Garros in the round of 16. And then she lost to Claire Towson at Wimbledon. Which is a weird match. A little weird match. But yeah, that's a.

Torrey Hawkins (01:38:50.536)
Right?

Torrey Hawkins (01:38:55.95)
Claire. Right. Yeah. Right. And I think she was dinged up in that match and that may have been because I felt like Clara went through that match and was looking like the player to beat and then kind of went out just kind of like got blitzkrieg in the next round herself. And I was like, I was like, you didn't get really tested from what the match before, you know what mean? So, yeah, kind of had a chance to had a chance to improve her stock and then, you know,

Alvin Owusu (01:39:14.773)
Right, right.

Torrey Hawkins (01:39:24.155)
Let it go, say, but.

Alvin Owusu (01:39:25.94)
And then I know you, you, the year last one was a Rebecca and I versus seven link in the WTA finals.

Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:39:34.929)
And I don't mean it so much that the quality was just unbelievable. Although it was solid. was, it was in the laying down the gauntlet of the match. actually thought the JPEG match he played was actually a lot closer in score, but it just, the tactics between the two.

Atlanta Rebecca has the ability to hit a high percentage cross court winner on ball six. You're like, how did you hit six better than you hit one? You how did you hit ball eight better than you ball three? You know, how do you and what cross court it wasn't like she has to flirt with line and go up and stance.

Alvin Owusu (01:40:02.91)
You

Torrey Hawkins (01:40:21.021)
She goes open stance to go back cross, which is kind of weird. A lot of people are late. Most of us are late on balls. have to go late, go straight, right? And she's late and goes cross. And it's a little unnerving. And I think that's what hurt. That's what hurt. Sal Blinken that match is like, where are you going with that ball? And she's hitting it service box corner, not cross court in the corner. She's...

Alvin Owusu (01:40:45.226)
And it's so cool to see with her, because to your point about she'll hit ball eight bigger than ball three, it's like they're in a rally and then she'll hit that winner and it's like Sabalinka hasn't even come out of her split step yet because how the hell did she hit it so much bigger than the ball previous off of a well-hit ball? It just kind of makes no sense.

Torrey Hawkins (01:40:56.784)
Yeah.

Yeah. Right. He messes up the calculus, Alvin. She messes up the calculus. You typically hit a little bigger so you can't get hurt, but you hit bigger. You get hurt worse against against Rebecca when she's playing. Well, it's she's a she's a she's a very, very unique player to play against. And she's she's limber. She's tall, but she's mobile. I mean, she gets clean. You know, she's.

She can, she serves big. has, she has good, has both, she has returns. I mean, there's, there's not a lot she doesn't do well. mean, given her, keep getting her mind right. If she has her mind right, buddy, you know, this girl's gonna be dangerous next year. She's gonna be dangerous for real. And that's what's gonna be, it's gonna be interesting next year.

Alvin Owusu (01:41:47.72)
And then my, we'll finish up here, my last top match of the year. I'm gonna go with Barborba Krachikova against Taylor Townsend, US Open. That was a fun, fun match. you know, I think is one of those matches where yeah, I wanted Taylor to win. think a lot of us Americans wanted Taylor to win. But I think Taylor.

Torrey Hawkins (01:41:58.715)
And then, yeah. Yeah, that was a match.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42:12.419)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:42:17.083)
If Taylor had won that match, gone to the next round and lost, she wouldn't have gotten any more out of that than if she, than she did losing that match. Like she introduced herself, especially with the, with all that happened with Osta Penko first round. And then she backs that up by beating Mira Andreeva in the second round. And then we, we progressed our way through the tournament and we get against, we come up against a former Grand Slam champion in Krachikova and she had Krachikova. She had that match. She just couldn't get over the, get over the finish line.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42:26.871)
For sure.

Sir, la drama.

Mm-hmm.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42:43.599)
Dead direct.

Alvin Owusu (01:42:47.007)
with the entire American crowd pulling for her. Babs was able to pull that match out and Babs post-match speech was so gracious. Like, you I know you guys wanted, were not cheering for me. I know you wanted Taylor to win, but I appreciate you cheering for good tennis and hopefully you'll pull for me tomorrow. It was a masterclass winning speech on not on quote unquote enemy turf. was that match, that match had everything from right now. I love matches on Louis Armstrong as well. it's.

Torrey Hawkins (01:42:50.32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:43:05.305)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Torrey Hawkins (01:43:15.035)
Oh my God, great, great, great tennis. It was a great term for a great term for Taylor. You know, I agree with you 100%. That was a, you know, just, just great, great. Who did Taylor play the round before that? And what not to paint? Who, who did she play the one before this was a mirror was mirror the match that kind of came out out of the woodwork? You're I think you're right. That was a heck of a match. That was a heck of a match. mean, you know, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:43:29.119)
I think Mira, she beat Mira the round before that. think that was, yeah. I was in Arthur Ashe for that match, because she played before Novak played against Cam Norrie, and I was just like, Jesus, she is beating Mira like Mira stole something from her. And Mira did have some, I was like, yeah, Mira doesn't, maybe not so great against players at slams in their home country. I don't know, maybe that's what it

Torrey Hawkins (01:43:45.762)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey Hawkins (01:43:55.97)
Yeah. I'm chalking out to her being 19 or whatever her role she is. mean, you know what I'm You know? Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (01:43:56.329)
Cause she lost the bossana in French open as well. just, it just, I don't know. I don't know. don't know.

Alvin Owusu (01:44:05.097)
Fair, fair is also pretty late too. Night matches are weird. Well, let's stop there. That was a good one. Had fun looking back on the year here. We'll get back together later on. And it was a great year. It was a great year.

Torrey Hawkins (01:44:13.403)
Absolutely. God is a great, just a great year, Alvin. mean, we, you know, I know this episode went long, but God bless. There was so much good tennis, man. mean, I mean, I'm looking back, like, you know, even you mentioned Taylor, I left Taylor off my buy it and sell it. Cause I was like, such a great year, but I'm curious. Can she repeat it? And say, I'm like, yeah, I think she can. Like, but like it was just, but you had to cut it off somewhere. You know what I mean? I mean, that's when we're sitting here.

Alvin Owusu (01:44:23.551)
So let's cover, let's cover.

Torrey Hawkins (01:44:43.588)
thinking about line number six, seven and eight of a top five, you know, and hey, we've got about, you know, that's, that's a good, that's a good year. So many players that are, that are reckoning for your, you know, that are competing for your attention. Just, just great tennis and hats off to the ladies on the tour this year and the, and the WTA in general. I mean, they got a lot right. I really hope that they continue to make it be as player.

Alvin Owusu (01:44:53.117)
It's a good year. It was a good year. It's a good year.

Torrey Hawkins (01:45:11.641)
I'm to say sustainable going into next year, because I feel like if they do that, they're there buying the stock of the WTA because it's really being, it's, really holding its own and being a very good entertainment product to watch.

Alvin Owusu (01:45:27.272)
As the kids say, keep that energy, keep that same energy. And with that, best of three, we are out.

Torrey Hawkins (01:45:30.073)
For sure.