Alvin Owusu (00:00.302)
And welcome to another episode of the best of three podcasts. I'm Alvin. That's Tori. And winner, winner, center dinner. Yannick Center holds the crown once again. today he defeated Alexander Sasha Sverov, six seven, seven, six, six, three, six, four, to capture his second back to back Wimbledon crown. hats off to the brother. He played some fantastic tennis, got

Torrey (00:08.277)
Yeah, love it.

Alvin Owusu (00:29.836)
got right with the get right over the last over the last two days. super impressive. I'm supposed to before we get started, we've we've picked up some new people around here. I'm starting to see new people show up into the best of three world. Hello, welcome. Good to see you. Glad to have you here. if you're if you're creeping, please like and subscribe. don't be a s don't be a stranger. Stick with us. but from that we can we can move forward. TH

Torrey (00:31.765)
Yeah.

Torrey (00:39.765)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (00:59.692)
That was some really good 2026 efficient men's grass court tennis.

Torrey (01:08.325)
say it was high level. I would say the first two levels in particular Alvin might just be it was a set shy of being an instant classic and it was a few sets shy of being one of the best matches of men's tennis so far this year. It started off unreal. I mean both players were just serving phenomenal.

hitting clean, I've never seen Zverev hit that big, that consistently, and to your point, that effective to date. And I was blown away by the level and, well, hard to keep that high high level, you know, for that long. It was still a joy to watch and I am the better to have seen it.

Alvin Owusu (01:58.946)
Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you that we were you know, some matches we you and I we stay close. We text throughout the match. sometimes we watch together, and sometimes we go radio silent. It just kinda depends on what the vibe is. And this was a we were we were pretty close in these first three sets. Like I was blown away at the at the level that both players were able to bring and sustain for the first two hours of this match almost. and my my continued question was

Torrey (02:23.922)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (02:28.43)
mostly for for Sasha. Like, I know we've seen Yannick Center hold this level for many, many hours, right? going into the depths of, you know, fourth and fifth sets against against Carlos and Novak. Like we know he he can stay here and do this. having won the title before obviously. I was just a little concerned, like how long can Sasha keep this level? How long can he keep it? And then after that after the second set, it was like okay, okay, yeah, this could this could shake him

Torrey (02:36.733)
Sure. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (02:57.644)
But then he came out and got right back to business in the beginning of the third set. And that was like, you know what? Win or loss, like win or lose here, he's doing he is he is showing us the next evolution of him, which is opening the shoulders a little bit, like stepping in and pounding that forehand hard to center's forehand. It was it was a delight to see that he was he was he was going for it. And I I I use the analogy, it's like

Torrey (02:57.756)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Torrey (03:17.724)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (03:25.558)
It's like when someone pops up on a surfboard for the first time and like learning how when they're learning how to surf, like, I've been trying for so long to pop up on the surfboard. Cool, I'm up on the surfboard now. How do I stay on the surfboard? And it's like but you need to learn because you're on a wave. Like you're you are now surfing and I felt like that's what we that's kind of the feeling I was getting from from Zverev when he after he got that first set and he was, you know, even in the tiebreaking second set, Okay, cool, you're in this match. Like you've ha you're you're down ten in a row to this guy.

Torrey (03:32.453)
Yeah.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (03:55.554)
Five and in the in the in the in twenty twenty six or four and in twenty twenty nine in a row before this point, four and this year up until that point. It's like okay, well you're here now. You're set a piece. Can you stay here? And inevitably, you know, it it didn't work out for him, but I'd say it's probably less him and let's put the credit where the credit's due that the the Karota is a it's a bad that's a bad man. That's a bad man.

Torrey (04:04.272)
Yeah.

Torrey (04:12.422)
Yeah.

Torrey (04:16.091)
thank you. Exactly. We just want the creative wins, Yeah. Yeah. God, he played well. I was hoping that... I say hoping. That's a bad way saying it. I was hopeful for Sasha that he might be able to take advantage of what looked like a drop-in form from Mr. Center. That was not to be the case today. And for whatever his...

you know, five set debacle early rounds and he couldn't find his forehand and this, that and the third. Hey, throw that out because he clearly found it and picked up a few more things he may have, he may have forgotten about. And it was, as you say, it had a whole lot less to do with Sasha and a lot to do with the anic. And you know what, you know, all future tennis players who are listening to this pod, have your kid become a

Alvin Owusu (04:51.725)
Ha ha.

Torrey (05:14.999)
world champion skier by the time they're 10 or 11 years old so they can know how to move and slide and be 6'4 while you're at it and have wire strength and speed and you know and make sure they have phenomenal hands you know what I'm saying while you're at it just just go ahead that one drop volley was that not the sickest I mean and Alvin

Alvin Owusu (05:21.227)
And and B six four too. Like like Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (05:32.171)
Yes. Jesus. Can we can we talk about some of the

Alvin Owusu (05:40.232)
my goodness.

Torrey (05:41.387)
I find that all five shots happen within about 1.8 seconds. serve, rip return, know, slap forehand, come in, drop volley, boom. I mean, it was over, and even the backhand dipper from Sasha was pretty good. You know, he didn't have time to go anywhere else. It was already on him. And then the drop volley, I'm like, you've got to be kidding.

Alvin Owusu (05:55.189)
It was fantastic.

Alvin Owusu (06:04.013)
I mean no no not even not even the caress drop volley. It was just the like boom. We're gonna take a break right here. Boom. Air airbag. Just pff I was yeah, the my the

Torrey (06:14.838)
When I'm teaching a lesson Alvin, when I'm teaching a lesson and I'm about to catch the ball or drop shot the ball as I'm about to say bring it in or I'm about to warm up is over, I'll try something that ambitious, right? I don't think I've ever tried that and I came in a lot. I don't think I've ever tried a drop volley. On a first volley mind you, let alone that depth, that touch off of that kind of a shot.

Alvin Owusu (06:28.535)
Ha ha ha.

Alvin Owusu (06:40.951)
Just just kill the noise.

Torrey (06:41.802)
It wasn't like he'd been hit nine times. It like he's hit 15 droppers. That was just... When you see something like that, you just say,

Alvin Owusu (06:48.715)
The his center's ascension through I mean, obviously he he, you know, did not play an event, a warm up event, so we hadn't seen him you know, post the French Open exit. And yes, he started off the tournament a little bit shaky and but progressively, like, never really got to true center form and probably until about I would say first, second set against Novak, like

Torrey (07:12.181)
I was gonna say, I was gonna say second set, I was gonna say midway through the first against Novak. He looking more like what form we've come to expect from him in terms of the high level and second and third on, he was pretty much cruising and even today. So I should have a lot to do with him not being completely spot on and played a phenomenal tie break and unfortunately the second set.

Alvin Owusu (07:18.024)
Yeah.

Torrey (07:41.107)
Center played a phenomenal tiebreak. You just could see the gear shifting.

Alvin Owusu (07:46.954)
It was like after that first set, right? you started to I was looking at both players, like Sasha was extremely he was jacked, right? He's pumped up. He had one chance in that in that set in the tiebreaker and he took it. And he was I was like, Okay, all right, we got ourselves a match here. And center looked unbothered. It w he was like he was like, Okay, let's see if you can keep up. And throughout that second set, he just he just looked like I'm I'm fine.

I'm down to set. He hasn't touched my serve. I'm getting you started to see Center closing in, like getting Sasha's serve in his in his crosshairs. And I was just like, I texted you this. I'm like, when you're serving, when you're 6'6 and you're dropping 138 hard T and it's getting squared up and coming right back at you repeatedly, like it's like Sasha was only getting through service games from hitting.

Torrey (08:39.529)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (08:45.857)
Like literally chalk flew up bait like back into the box. Sideline. Corn like the margins are so thin. When you're ta when you're c when you're serving against the best returner of you know on tour right now of this generation, that there are no holes. 133 to 138 is coming right back at you. And yet Sasha, like he held on. But I could tell, like, okay, center is winning something like four out of every ten.

Torrey (08:59.9)
All right.

Torrey (09:05.929)
Yup.

Alvin Owusu (09:15.947)
return points and he's getting back he's already get back a lot of first serves and like at some point he's just gonna put four of those ten together in the same space or take it up to five out of ten and then now we're now we're in trouble. And conversely, Sasha was nowhere close on on Yannick serve. And you know the stats are we're gonna and I wanna we wanna wanna dig into this a little bit. the stats of sir seventy plus now, seventy two, seventy three service holds in a row.

Torrey (09:41.246)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (09:45.091)
center versus Zarev with like four break points total, something like that. Total. Total.

Torrey (09:47.315)
I they said it went through, yeah, by total. I think they said center hasn't been broken. I they said some tournament like during the clay court season. mean, it was some ridiculous stat that just talked about how long. And that just shows you how well he's been playing. mean, it's just, how do you hold serve that often? And again, Zverev's returns are pretty good. know what mean? Dare I say top five in the world returns.

It was unbelievable Alvin. The level he not only continues to show but there was a concerted effort you could tell with him moving positions. He went deep, he went short, he hedged line, he went more to the center, he blocked, he ripped. He did everything he could do to try to take certain shots away. While he wasn't always successful.

He was constantly looking for an angle or for a new way to get a new attack angle on that return. And you just got that sense maybe through the third or starting the third that he was going to Sasha well before Sasha was going to sniff a break point. yeah, that kind of, you knew, Zverev Kemp knew.

Alvin Owusu (11:08.397)
Ha ha.

Torrey (11:11.57)
Everybody on the SPN tennis channel knew we all everyone knew that it was the hunt for the for the break of service of Sasha's variables come you know and we didn't necessarily know that you know well was Sasha caught some Mean returns and nothing. Yeah, one. He had a couple of balls that were like I know he had a couple big hundred plus hundred mile plus four hands cut a couple money returns But he caught some Returns he didn't break or threaten and that some of those big ones came at

down 40 love or you know it was almost an ancillary you know okay I'll give you that it was it's 40 for take now you know okay I'll give you that nice shot it's 40 30 and he finishes it out with an 8 so to me that was the tail of the tape and Roddick said it in the sets but I don't think even he predicted that it was going to be Yannick Center who got the first serve return down you know what mean he was talking about whoever's gonna master the the second serve you know return percentage he caught the first serve

Alvin Owusu (12:03.872)
Right, right.

Torrey (12:11.618)
Alvin and was starting to tag that ball. I mean how do you guess right and tag the ball flat T within a foot from the baseline?

Alvin Owusu (12:19.154)
I I I just have to assume it's not a guess because he's he's he's on it. Like he he's on it and

Torrey (12:22.544)
Yeah. Oh, when I say yes, you know what I'm saying? Read. still, on a John McEnroe, shout out, chalk flew up. On a rip, buggy whip return down off the tee, tailing away, and you're ripping that ball back big at the feet, 78 plus feet later, come on. No, no, that's just some hand attitude that most, that's more midichlorians than most people have ever, have.

That's mythical level. That's not even something that you see, level of experience over a period of time.

Alvin Owusu (12:56.342)
It's a

And we're in the we're at the point now where I mean you can you can look at the numbers and you can y obviously Riley O'Pelka's serve numbers jump off the page, but his i there's a lot left that we can maybe take him out as the best server in the game, right? Maybe the biggest serve, but let's say best server conversation that we like to have here. center is the best server in our game. He's also the best returner in our game.

Torrey (13:13.912)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (13:27.046)
I I mean the math is pretty easy when you when you get one and one together or one times one together, you end up with one and and it's today was one of those like I was just impressed by how long he was able to keep that level without a dip. Like he lost he won three sets to one and in that one set Sasha had to play the best set of tennis he's played all year to eke out a br a a s a seven five was it seven five in the breaker? think it was seven five, something like

Torrey (13:55.149)
They're on serve until that mammoth forehand out of line.

Alvin Owusu (13:57.117)
Yeah, and it yeah, and you know, I guess we can probably, you know, go over to Sasha here in a second, but it's it's im it's impressive. It's just impressive. And I know the there are there's some chatter online about this happening in a vacuum, right? Like obviously Carlos isn't here and so on and so forth. And I'm like, I don't I don't care. I've seen Carlos play Yannick and I know that on Yannick's best day he can he can take down Carlos as well. He did it here last year.

He's done it before. I'm sure they'll continue to go back and forth over the courses of their careers. I hope so. We but supposedly we're getting Carlos back for Cincinnati as their target. I would imagine to see next year's probably a fresh start. Let's just call it let's just call that a l my per

Torrey (14:26.743)
Yep.

Torrey (14:42.156)
100 % the chance them catching up a staying healthy catching up to that level and and being a threat within such a short period of time is is very very unrealistic when you need You know, and we talked with this before Alvin when you need oh I was gonna say I was gonna say probably for that level perhaps more than that You know what I mean for you probably need closer to 15 18 matches and and that's Assuming we stay healthy

Alvin Owusu (14:59.264)
Ten matches or so? Yeah.

Torrey (15:11.628)
Things like the wrist, the one that can be very, very tricky to deal with, that's a lot of, that could be a few more stops than starts, you know what I mean? Just with pain and catching one just a little bit, even over-practicing could put you a little bit over the top, you know what I mean? So you gotta be very careful. But bottom line, to your point, I know your point, you're getting that, even with center Alcraz being back, it doesn't matter. This brother's playing at a high level, and he is just absolutely putting on the afterburners right now, and it is...

Alvin Owusu (15:24.96)
Yeah, we shall we shall see.

Torrey (15:40.771)
It's something to see. mean, it's center played a great match. He played a great match against a number two seed who also played a great match. And I think that's why we're saying this. That's how good of tennis this was and it speaks to his level because it's about as good as I've seen Sasha play.

Alvin Owusu (15:53.504)
Well put. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (16:04.928)
Yeah, it is this is a a weird story, but it reminded me of when I was in high school at some point, I was doing some track work. I was running and just the high school, but I was doing some track work that my my coach had shots to Billy Yules had had put together for me. And I was running, running, running, and this guy who was a runner was also running, like a real runner, right? I'm not a runner, I was running. And he runs up next to me and he's like he's like, keep up. And like they wanted me to run with him. So I'm running with him.

Torrey (16:19.263)
Mm-hmm.

Torrey (16:24.604)
Right. Right.

Alvin Owusu (16:34.25)
And I'm running with him, and he is comfortable running at this pace. I am running with him, but I am not comfortable running at this pace. At some point, I can no longer keep this pace. While while we're here together, it will be fine, but there's a there's a point at which we will no longer be together. And I I I think that's what we saw here in this match. If I bring it back around for you, Sasha could keep this pace for a while where you're where you're locked in. It's like okay, seven six. Okay, six seven, no breaks of serve.

Torrey (16:40.766)
R-heh heh heh heh

Right, right. Right.

Torrey (16:50.695)
Right.

Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:03.136)
Okay, right back to it. We hold, break, hold I mean hold, hold, hold, hold, hold, hold, and then Well and well this the I mean even past we're third set. Like we're we're just like we're into the third set now and we've gone, you know, pfft at this point twelve, twenty-four, I don't know thirty games without a break. And then Sasha got a sniff. And then he didn't get it. And then Yannick got a sniff. And he got it. And that kind of it felt like that broke Sasha's very.

Torrey (17:08.263)
No time break.

Torrey (17:12.489)
Oh, cuz to me Yeah, yeah

Torrey (17:27.399)
Yep.

Torrey (17:30.868)
I think I think the tiebreaker was a mini break in it because I think it wasn't it like 6-0 or no it was was it it was 4-0 or 2 right but even that that was it was it was a shot or two away from being a blitzkrieg in the in the breaker you know I mean so I say it but to your point I I've had a similar experience on the track when I was at Morehouse College back in the day and running with the track team you know our conditioning was their cool down lap you know what I mean

Alvin Owusu (17:37.472)
Four four four one, something like that. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (17:58.974)
Right, right, exactly.

Torrey (17:59.824)
And so when the track coach said, basketball team to the middle track team, go in four, three, two, I'm like, go? What do you mean go? We've just done six laps, bro. And these guys had to do 50 second laps right on the track. this is after we ran. And I'm like, so that wasn't even their top speed.

Alvin Owusu (18:11.563)
Go find

Alvin Owusu (18:28.405)
Right, right. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Torrey (18:29.607)
And so to my, exactly, at that point we saw him in the calf later and I'm like, good God. Anyway, to your point, that's the level that Yannick showed today.

Alvin Owusu (18:41.535)
Yeah, and I do want to give you know, obviously all all props to to Yannick Center and what he what he the year he's putting together right now. Like obviously not the result he wanted coming out of Australia, but he did whatever. It happened. French Open was less than less than memorable for him. so now we're back, all right? Defends defends his his Wimbledon trophy check. you know, had a fantastic spring on the Clay Court on the clay court trot.

Torrey (18:57.722)
Sure, sure.

Torrey (19:02.949)
Yep.

Alvin Owusu (19:08.331)
And he looks to be back into, you know, top center for him. I'm looking forward to, you know, I'm sure his summer will be you know, he's got a nice little streak of Masters one thousand's wand going right now. So maybe he'll continue that. Maybe we'll see him in Canada. if not Cincinnati and then on to New York we go. I do wanna kind of switch gears over to Sasha Zverev here. before we talk about the some of the changes tactically that he made coming into this match. let's not

Torrey (19:33.732)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (19:38.231)
over like overlook the fact that he won the French Open.

And he then he just finaled Wimbledon. Like that's like that's the same thing Carlos did last year, right? Not many people go back to back channel. I mean, the channel slam is a whole different like to win both is wicked. To even get a chance to win both, you gotta give your hats off to the man regardless of regardless of there's no there are no qualifiers. He seven he played seven matches in in in Paris. He played seven matches in London.

that is something that does deserve some some props in its own right. but I feel like today and over the course of this tournament we've seen a I'm not gonna say new, but a a slightly improved version of Sasha Sverev. obviously he's been serving you know, he's been serving the way he's been serving for quite some time now. But I think the the the wrinkle added along with, you know, the confidence of being a Grand Slam champion is the the willingness to to go big with that forehand.

Torrey (20:29.464)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (20:45.307)
What from a from a not not only that's okay, that's what we're seeing, but what tactical changes have you seen him make in order to h in order to be able to go bigger on that forehand?

Torrey (20:54.711)
I've seen two things. Number one, he's moving up more in his core position. Number two, he is very, very committed to go after said ball. To me, that's the nuts and bolts of it. Core position and being 100 % committed into, I can hit a big forehand and I will, and I will stay with it.

where I think in so many points before, he was just so comfortable to take it line, you bring it back to his backhand, we're getting this backhand matchup, and then I just out grind you, out steady you until I'm either ready for an inside in or you break down. And I think that was the old school Sasha. And I think every once in he still gets into that mindset of, me let you give it to me instead of let me take it from you. And I think today he realized he had to take it from me at it because he wasn't giving it to him.

If I had to one last thing, think coming forward in general, he came to net a several times album that I thought was very, very notable. Obviously, I think the stats bear it out that he came forward 28 times, which was about five more than Yannick did and played some pretty solid volleys. Now, I'm not saying his drop shots is the world best because he doesn't always do a lot of them, but the first time he came in that first set, stuck that backhand volley, and when he popped that down line backhand right behind him, I was like, wow, Sasha's.

Alvin Owusu (21:51.179)
Please do.

Torrey (22:18.978)
got very underrated volleys. So I think those are, though that's the, well he didn't do that as much as he perhaps could have, especially to hold on to that serving advantage he had. Core position was better, very, very clear with his tactics about going after the forehand and again, adding the cherry on top and continuing to come forward and take away some time, which is I think, which is very smart because you you can't give him too much time. You give sir too much time. He has all options in front of him. And I think that was actually his.

part of the secret sauce was he was doing that on top of serving big. So those are the two things he has not done as much recently. He hasn't done much until recently and both reasons are why he's having so much success right now.

Alvin Owusu (23:01.781)
That's fair. that's fair. I wanna I do wanna ask a question about the I think the key differentiator here being the return of serve, right? and it's not it's not really a Sasha's Vere thing because in in center's match against Novak, like today Sasha had one breakpoint opportunity. One.

Torrey (23:04.033)
HNNNN

Alvin Owusu (23:24.625)
In the the Djokovic match, Novic Novak had one break point opportunity, right? And if you're if you're sir if you're playing against someone who is serving that well, right? Playing that well, and I know this is a this is a big like, you know, if if if kind of situation, like w what do you what do you do? Like what are your what are your what are your options? What's the what's the prog what's the the

Torrey (23:29.12)
Sure. Sure.

Alvin Owusu (23:50.325)
You know, kind of the like the the process you're going through of like what are the steps? What am I what am I trying first? What am I trying next? how would you even coach someone through you know, playing against someone who is a a fantastic server who's also serving well?

Torrey (24:04.991)
I think it's, I'm gonna take a caveat first because only one return point you mentioned. Over the course of four sets, Yannick only saw five. I five. I wanna make sure we're very clear. Both were serving at a pretty high level. And with that, and I wanna add that in because I wanna give one more feather to Sasha's cap. I wanna say his serve.

Alvin Owusu (24:17.78)
That's that's also true. Like that's that's also true.

Torrey (24:30.718)
second serve percentage was about 14 to 15 give or take miles an hour faster than Yannick's was and I even want to say his ground stroke pace for a little bit I think the stat they showed on on on screen was a was several miles an hour more than Yannick's in total in the average so I want to make sure while that may have tailed off I want yeah

Alvin Owusu (24:48.51)
Well, let's let's actually stick there. Let's stick there because I wanna go down that path about about the I think the serve miles per hour stat is a little misleading, right? When you think about t I I look at it as like, okay, Philippusis would serve really, really big numbers. Sampras did not serve as big a numbers, but I think we would agree that Sampras was probably a better server.

Torrey (25:13.384)
certainly had better spots and certainly helped serve more often.

Alvin Owusu (25:16.858)
Right. Do you think that it is it's within reason to maybe tr I mean, it's not like Alex served bad. Like Alex didn't serve bad. It's not really he didn't do anything wrong. I did text you a few times like maybe if he took some of that pace down a little bit to get a little more tail to get the ball to move out of center zone a little bit, make him chase it a little bit more. If you're gonna go to that forehand, don't go hard to the forehand on the return. I mean on the serve, like you kinda need to get him out of the window, make him reach, make him work a little bit more.

Torrey (25:36.082)
Sure.

Torrey (25:45.597)
Sure.

Alvin Owusu (25:46.794)
I don't know. It's probably nothing. Like again, it's

Torrey (25:48.611)
I would say the 15 miles an hour was a bigger deal. It helped him win the first and it helped. And I think any extra time you give Yanuk is always detrimental to yourself. So with that said, how do you get back to answer your question? How do you teach someone to return? Andy Roddick said something when Schoen played him years ago that, and I've never forgotten this, and it just shows Andy Roddick's very, very

Alvin Owusu (26:02.474)
Yeah, probably so.

Torrey (26:17.82)
high tennis IQ. He said I changed position on sco serve six times in the first game. Not first set, six times in the first game. He's got a pretty good serve. He's telling me this after the match. And then he's also telling me in very anti-rotic, like very, as a matter of fact, as only he can do, he says, and I was pissed that he didn't adjust once.

for an entire two sets. And so right there, he was telling me that not only was he minding his serve, he was looking at what Skull was doing, or in this case, not doing, for the return position. He, Yannick Center, continued to find different ways. He just kept trying different things. At the end of the day, Alvin, you're gonna find something that works, and you're gonna be a little bit in the head of the big server to say, I got you.

I got you. I'm gonna keep figuring it out until and to unfortunately to Sasha's detriment, he didn't change position enough. After that little fall he had on the drop shot, he looking at his box, asked him what he should do, this and that. When players start asking you, where should I return? You recall this back in, I wanna say it was in Australia. He was looking over at the box, Carlos was looking at the box on Novak serve, right? Should I go up, should I go back?

Alvin Owusu (27:44.447)
Right. Yeah.

Torrey (27:47.044)
When players start doing that, it tells you they don't have a very good read on the return. And these guys are phenomenal, best in the world returners. So when they start getting a little bit, yeah, it takes a lot to get them rattled about a return to serve. That's over the course of time, they've not had many good reads and that person's still holding serves. So obviously as we know, Carlos ended up figuring it out and obviously Yannick continued to adjust and find it today. But I say it to say,

Alvin Owusu (27:53.076)
Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey (28:16.505)
you just have to keep making more adjustments until you find something that works. And perhaps you never find the secret sauce. Maybe you just find a way to get five chances at a break point and eke out too. That may be all you need when the guy's serving 70 and 80%. That's all you can ask for. But the key is you keep finding, you keep doing something. Move in and cut it off and block. Novak Djokovic would cut off the forehand angle on the deuce.

Alvin Owusu (28:28.936)
Right.

Torrey (28:45.921)
and would retreat deep, almost diagonal deep on the tee on the deuce, right? Almost look like a very strongly inverted V, you know what I mean? Cutting off the corners on both and he didn't mind being deep middle because he was gonna be middle court when the return came back. And so I say that whatever you can do to have any kind of format that will allow you to give the guy different looks, make him play some different shots, block some, rip some, come over the top, buggy, whatever it takes, but keep.

adjusting because you don't know, you you may be throwing paint at the wall, but at some point something's going to stick and you're going to at the very least give that returner, that's right, that server some different looks and make him overthink a little bit. Maybe just enough to let him drop his form, drop a few firsts and give you a good look at one.

Alvin Owusu (29:32.03)
Yep. And you you mentioned Andy Roddick, so gonna take a little time out here to give Mr. Roddick his flowers. I we you know, yes. I I think one thing that I really, really appreciate about Andy is he truly gives a shit. Like he really, really cares. He is a true steward of the game. And not only towards American players like Scoville Jenkins at that time, but he

Torrey (29:48.929)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (29:59.012)
for all that he has accomplished as a professional tennis player in his in his day, Grand Slam winner, former world number one, current Hall of Fame, c Hall of Fame inductee, or Hall of Fame member, I should say. He's been in been in the in the hall for a couple of years now. he is a tennis I want to say tennis nerd who really cares about advancing the sport of tennis. And I've you know, I wasn't always erotic fan. I think I became

Torrey (30:18.806)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (30:27.751)
I think I really appreciated him more later in his career. kind of through his it's weird to say, like his humility in his post match press conference after losing to Roger. I think the heartbreaking Wimbledon loss. yeah, with the with the rain I think it was nine with the rain delay and the the whole yeah, that one. like that match was crazy and the way that he handled himself in that postmas post post match press conference, I was like, Man, that's that is a

Torrey (30:30.549)
Hmm.

Torrey (30:35.221)
Mmm.

Torrey (30:41.544)
my gosh, was that that nine? Yeah, that match was crazy.

Alvin Owusu (30:57.459)
That's a lot. That's a lot. And he handled it with utter class and grace. And I at to that point I like, Well, he's just recently gotten married and you know, when you it that'll finding a partner in life tends to tends to round ya a little bit, tends to mature a little bit. But I you know, f fast forward about I would say four years, five years from then, I was, you know, Andy and I do not know each other. I I I know who he is. I doubt he knows who I am, but we did spend some time at the same place.

Torrey (31:07.424)
Rounds out a little bit. No doubt.

Alvin Owusu (31:24.749)
at the same time he was at an academy or I was working at an academy in Texas. he was retired and he was doing a lot of hitting with Ryan Harrison at the time. Yeah. so they would come out to our club. Ryan trained there. His coach was on our staff and so I would there were many times where I was on the court, one, two courts away from Andy while they were working out. And Andy would always like our top junior boys would get on a court with him and he would hit with them.

Torrey (31:32.928)
Harrison. Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (31:53.252)
and he would also spend time sitting with them and talking to them. And he had been, you know, recently retired at that point. and that was the first time I had seen someone that good up close. I remember I've told the story in this podcast at least tw two times, but I'll like I said, we've got some new listeners here. I'll tell it again. I remember one fourth of July specifically. And he was on court one, I was on court four. They're not they're not spread out by any means, they're right there. And he and he and Ryan were doing serves and returns.

Torrey (32:00.073)
Bye.

Torrey (32:10.473)
Yeah.

Alvin Owusu (32:22.471)
Ryan was working on the second serve kick and Andy was just banging returns, right? And at one point, Ryan goes, Have you are you gonna miss? Like, have you missed one yet? Because Andy was just like cleaning returns, cleaning returns. And Andy goes, 31 out of 33. Like even post career, he's still he's still keeping track. And also, when I saw him hit volleys, Andy Ronick was not known for his volleys.

Torrey (32:39.145)
Yeah.

Right.

All right.

Torrey (32:48.947)
Right.

Alvin Owusu (32:49.287)
But when you were on the same baseline where his ball is landing, I'm looking down the line, I'm like, there hasn't been a volley that he's hit that's been short of two feet from that baseline. Like that is maybe compared to Federer, his volleys aren't great. But compared to the rest of us scrubs, that's former number one in the world. That is legit. That is legit. So Andy, all the way down to the rest of the the former players who are on the ESPN broadcast right now, shouts to Chris Eubanks. Shouts to Caroline Wozniaki.

Torrey (32:53.309)
Bruh.

Torrey (32:58.63)
Right.

Right.

That's right.

That quick?

Alvin Owusu (33:19.153)
Shots to James Blake. They legitimately made this tournament better.

Torrey (33:20.562)
They made the term big time and I would follow that up. I'll save one of my Andy Roddick stories for later, but I'm a huge Andy Roddick fan way back when he and Roddick were out there.

Alvin Owusu (33:33.501)
No, tell it now. Give it give let's let's just give him his flowers because Andy Rock is his podcast is is is the actual reason why this podcast exists. and i it doesn't doesn't r doesn't matter why, but so let's let's give it to him while we can.

Torrey (33:47.838)
So Brian Vahaley was one of our juniors that you know well from way, back when we first started UTA here in Atlanta. And Brian was starting on the tour and he and Andy were good friends. And Brian had a foundation he was doing here. I met Andy very early on. Andy couldn't have been more than 21 or 22 maybe. He was a few years younger than Brian and Brian had just finished up at UVA and was going out on the tour.

until Andy was his big draw for the Brian Vahealy Foundation. So he was dating Mandy Moore at the time. So I hung out with Andy back then. So I've known Andy for, shoot, been, it had to be early, oh, at least, at least, right? So to my point, that long ago, this might be, this is before he wins the open. that's, know, and obviously, I've known him that long. So I'll put a pin in that and some of those stories, but that just shows

Alvin Owusu (34:26.569)
Twenty five years now? Twenty twenty

Torrey (34:42.448)
then of all the people to your point about of that level of that stature not only did Andy tell me about that after the match with Sco about two or three weeks after that he flies Sco down he has him stay at his house trains with him for a couple weeks I think they had Davis Cupps come up after that and literally took care of him sent him back home but also but had the

He had the older brother, younger brother enough love for the next American kid coming up to criticize them constructively. And then he had the heart and the wherewithal to say, come stay with me for two weeks. We're going to every day. And that to me said, I'm not here just to put you down, tell you what you're not doing. I want you better. You know, I want you better.

and I'll see you in two weeks and we'll hit. And not we'll hit once. He was there for almost 10 to 14 days, Allen. To me, that's the level of, when I tell you all the coaches, all the players that had done, I still put that up at the very top for what another player who didn't have to do any of this, right? That's some stuff, the USTA, you like think what.

would do or set up or at least ask and try to organize. Andy did that himself out of no other reason other than that out of the goodness of his heart. But I say it to say, whatever, and everybody, to this day when somebody says about Andy Roddick, I'm like, buddy, Andy Roddick is the absolute man. He is one of my all time favorites and I say it every time. And having known him like I have, obviously his brother too, standing out of Georgia and was Andy's coach off and on for several years, I just, I can't say enough good things about John and Andy Roddick.

just his fast forward today his addition in the commentator booth is absolute gold I mean the brothers synopsis his he's so quick and concise if you're not careful you'll miss the goal that he's dropping he don't need 18 sentences to get to the the nitty-gritty and he is so good that I almost feel like that you almost need to Malika and the others they need to they need to be need to learn how to

Torrey (37:09.037)
him up a little better. He don't need much teeing up. The brother can tee himself up. But that's the only thing I would say is start to kind of really understand who you're dealing with there and really have him go off on a few more of his little, I'm gonna say his little rants because the brother is, he sees things on a different wavelength and his understanding of what's happening, his tense IQ is not only high, his emotional kind

intelligence of what the players are going through is also pretty high and he understands enough of the legends because he is one and he also understands enough of the of the top 10 because he was one right and I think he's he's able to walk in both worlds a little bit you know I mean he's able to be top tennis player and then legend status so he gets both he kind of he's bilingual so to speak and I and I just feel like that kind of a commentator understands

Alvin Owusu (38:00.103)
Ha ha.

Torrey (38:06.282)
what most of us may not be, we may think, but we may not be able to put a word on it, put a thumb on it. Andy can put his whole darn hand on that scale and just tell you, let me tell you what you're looking at right now. And it's just really fun to see.

Alvin Owusu (38:17.01)
Hear ye. Absolutely. Hear ye, hear ye. obviously if you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you listen to theirs. it's what we saw on TV today is very similar to or what we've seen over the last few weeks is very similar to what we get on on served podcasts. So there you go. hat ha tip of the hat to a to to Mr. Roddick and the entire ESB and crew, and those guys over at at Served Media as well. for us.

Here in the best of three world. we've we we've been running burning and churning. I I think we're gonna give ourselves we're gonna give ourselves a little bit of a break. All right, we're gonna give ourselves a break. Here's what's gonna happen. well one, make sure you like and subscribe. Two, generally my my good buddy Patrick from from Japan comes on after these Grand Slams. We'll do that because that's fun. It's a different kind of show. that's fun. And then we're gonna take a break. We're we're officially going to take a break. I think this is our first.

Torrey (38:52.746)
Yeah

Alvin Owusu (39:12.412)
break since this since we started this in the beginning of twenty twenty five. We're at like almost almost two years here running. this is our first like official like week off. We're gonna just shut it down and then and then we'll pop back up like DC time. I'm gonna I'm gonna go to DC. so if you're if any of you guys are out there and you see me, I'm hard to miss. I'll be well actually I am pretty easy to miss. I'm I'm not I'm not tall. Tori's hard to miss. I'm eas I'm easy to miss.

Torrey (39:36.392)
Hahaha

Alvin Owusu (39:42.024)
but yeah, it it'd be loved it'd be lovely to say hello, put some put some na faces with the YouTube names that I see out there. But yeah, that's what we're gonna do. T H do we have anything else for the people? This was a fun tournament.

Torrey (39:50.525)
Yeah.

Torrey (39:56.379)
I got one question for you Alvin. I hate that this tournament, I love this tournament. I love it every year. It's one of my favorites. I hate that this tournament season, this grass court season is so short. There was some talk a week or so ago making some of the news cycle about extending the grass court season. Forget the how would it happen.

Alvin Owusu (39:59.174)
Okay.

Alvin Owusu (40:15.683)
Mm. Mm.

Torrey (40:22.377)
What would move? would add? What would take away? Put that off to the side. Are you in favor? Are you not? Why or why not? Let's see.

Alvin Owusu (40:31.048)
Okay. Okay. I have been critical on this podcast of Grasscore Tennis. Or let me say I've said that it's not my favorite surface. It is indeed my least favorite surface. when we get to this point in the tournament though, I go grass is it's it is special. Wimbledon is special and it does force players to think a little bit differently. Playing on grass is different than playing on all the other surfaces. And that's the beauty of our game is that it's always a little bit different.

There are hard courts that are different from other hard courts. Hard is obviously different than clay. Clay is different in Rome than it is in Madrid. You've got altitude, right? You come here to grass and the grass in in in Germany is different than the grass in the UK. So I that is the beauty of our game. So to I say that to say at extending the grass court season, I think however they would go about doing it is absolutely the right thing to do. the fact that we only have three weeks of warm up, it used to be remember it used to be two. It was two between French Open and

Torrey (41:03.421)
Right. Yep.

Torrey (41:28.76)
Yup. Yup.

Alvin Owusu (41:30.67)
And and Wimbledon they added a third by pushing Wimbledon back, I believe.

Torrey (41:34.79)
Right, that Stella tournament almost was like a three day tournament. Remember back in the day, was like, Queens used to be, I think Queens and that Stella tournament used to be like a quick four or five day, it was like a round of eight draw, you know what I mean? And that was it. That was just for those handful of players and that was it. Done, when will it start? When will it start? Monday, you're like, oh. So to your point, very short. And you're right, it has gotten longer. What's the...

Alvin Owusu (41:49.177)
Right, yeah.

Alvin Owusu (42:01.724)
I think I I think I think we should no, I am, and I I just feel like I feel like because it is a grand slam, right? It's still a slam and I feel like the most appropriate way like obv obviously Australia is inverted because it starts well, it's down there and it starts at the beginning of the year, like we start off with this big bang, but like I love the way that the gr the clay court season evolves and then crescendos in the Grand Slam. Right? I could I would say it's probably a week too long, quite honestly. Like you have

Torrey (42:02.983)
I feel you coming around to the green side.

Torrey (42:26.694)
Correct.

Alvin Owusu (42:32.0)
three men's masters events leading up to the like Monte Carlo and then Madrid and Rome. Like that's that's a lot. and also Springland Barcelona in there and then like there's the one in Germany. Like there's there's a lot going on in that in that swing. Probably a little too much. But it does what it's supposed to do. Like it works players up and into it. and then we have this celebration of Clay Cortez at Roland Garros. I I think Wimbledon deserves the th same thing. I think we should have the ability to we should get a Masters one thousand in there. I think that would be really cool.

Torrey (42:37.414)
Right. Right.

Torrey (42:43.365)
Bye.

Torrey (42:52.912)
Yep. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (43:01.384)
to if you're gonna add something in, that might be too much, but you could do I mean you could do different locations for the two the two tours, do smaller one thousands like the one week ones, plop it right there before Wombledon and and then go from there. because it it deserves it's different enough that it deserves its full expression. And I think the more time players get to spend on it, the better they get on it.

Torrey (43:11.714)
Right. Right. Yep.

Alvin Owusu (43:27.622)
And the better they get on it, the better we are as fans, for watching them play even better grass court tennis. So that might have that might have shocked you, but I I would be when if they if my if my email inbox gets a gets an email from the from the tours asking me for my vote, they'll you've got it, guys. So go ahead and send it through. I I will okay, I'll I'll

Torrey (43:36.45)
Yeah, a little bit, but I like it. It tells me you're sucking your own way. I love it. I read with you. think it should have. You know what I like about each tournament is that they each bring a different set of skills, right? And it just helps you appreciate the

the entire body of work, right? You can't not have a volley. I say volley. You cannot have or not be adept at the transition game. You have to have some pretty money returns. You gotta understand the drop shot. It used to be on clay only, but now on the grass, it's just for the same reason. And I feel the hard court is athletic and it's pops is.

Same with indoor, right? And the other services, you just feel like each of them brings a different set of, slightly different set of skills. And I just think that Wimbledon, the grass court season is too short to, you just want to get those skills a little more sharp. And I think it makes Wimbledon be even more majestic if it had its own season that was a little longer. And I think the more, shorter it is minimizes, right? The Wimbledon experience and the grass court season.

And we've got to remember, three of the four used to be on grass when this all first started initially with the lawn tent itself. So just to pay homage to it, I think it would be great to see it be a few weeks longer. Not too much longer, and I agree with you. Clay's almost too long. know what mean? for that matter, the hard core season's bit long too. But that's holding the talk show. But I just want to throw that at you before we close the door on the green and purple.

Alvin Owusu (45:26.822)
Yeah. well yeah, I'm I I I'm for it. I'm for it. yeah, let's let's let's put a pen in it there and let's let's start our our our short little short little vacation. not vacation, but we will we will we'll our little a little sabbatical, a little a little a little sojourn, walk about. we'll put a pin in it there. Thanks for listening. I'm Alvin. That's Tori. Thank you so much for sticking with us all, Wimbledon. best of three, we are out.

Torrey (45:39.234)
Stabatical.