Backhands and Compliments: A Tennis Podcast

We’re back to take you through the play-by-play of our second annual pilgrimage out to Tennis Paradise, aka Indian Wells! We spent five days in the desert watching a ton of tennis and collecting our own little DeuceMoi anecdotes. In this episode: how to have The Best Day Ever(™), who Timothée Chalamet was rooting for, and how to have your favorite player repost one of your videos into their photodump. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram @backhandsandcompliments , Twitter @backhandspod , Bluesky @backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok @backhandsandcompliments.

In this episode (recorded back in January), we go through our 2025 predictions and set up our bingo boards! Find out which predictions have aged like a fine wine and which are already out-of-date. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram @backhandsandcompliments, Twitter @backhandspod, Bluesky @backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​@backhandsandcompliments.

*insert bad Australian accent here* G'night mate! The Australian Open and January took a thousand years to complete, but you can listen to all our distilled thoughts in one episode! We psychoanalyze Novak Djokovic and his Christmas ham thigh, gush over Jannik Sinner entering his Morgan Riddle YouTube era, and adopt Learner Tien because he’s a California guy and a Sagittarius! We also give Madison Keys her flowers for crushing the Women’s Singles tournament! 🥹 We also briefly touch on Davis Cup, mostly the literal clash between Belgium and Chile and Arthur Fils being an ~icon~. Links to Donate to help with the California Fires: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank: https://www.lafoodbank.org/fire/?refresh California Fire Foundation: https://cpf.salsalabs.org/cff-donation/index.html Pasadena Humane: https://pasadenahumane.org/ Canine Rescue Club: https://www.caninerescue.club/ GoFundMe California Wildfires: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/wildfire-relief/california?os=wtmb5utKCxk5refappFutm_sourcesyndication&ref=app New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

We’re backkk! Did you miss us? And it’s time for a new season for tennis players and this podcast. Luckily, we’re keeping it simple for our first episode back and doing a review of the Australian Open Draw! Who has a good draw? What matchups do we want to see? And which round one will have us at odds? 👀 We also discuss the California wildfires, so if you are able, here are various links to donate. And if you have been personally affected and have a link for donations, please reach out to us and we’ll add it! Links to Donate to help with the California Fires: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank: https://www.lafoodbank.org/fire/?refresh California Fire Foundation: https://cpf.salsalabs.org/cff-donation/index.html Pasadena Humane: https://pasadenahumane.org/ Canine Rescue Club: https://www.caninerescue.club/ GoFundMe California Wildfires: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/wildfire-relief/california New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

2024’s tennis season had many iconic moments, but which ones are the most memorable? Which ones will live forever in our hearts and which ones did we hate? We’re recapping the season with a tier ranking of all the pop culture moments, scandals, and personal wins we can remember. Let us know where you would put these moments! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

And with that, the 2024 season comes to a close! For once we put respect on the Davis Cup and chat about Team Italy’s repeat win! But first, we have a freak out over Sir Andy Murray coaching Novak Djokovic for the Australian Open. (The 2025 season cannot come quick enough!) How did it happen? What was that conversation like? Will AO mic up the box so we can hear what Andy says to Novak? So many questions! We resurrect the gameshow for another round, except this time Miranda has to recognize the faces of doubles’ players! And stay tuned for off-season content! We’ll be bringing you more episodes in December! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

It’s the end of an era. Not for us, but we do say adios a todos to Rafael Nadal! He retired this week in Spain at the Davis Cup, so we talk about the lack of fanfare, Tennis Channel speaking over him, and the beautiful if fragmented letter that Roger Federer wrote to him. The ATP Finals finally had an Italian win, congratulations to Jannik Sinner! But mostly we do the patriotic thing and talk about Taylor Fritz and his growth. We also psychoanalyze both Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev. Rafa might be retiring, but B&C won’t retire that bit! Plus, we have a quick lil gameshow segment where Katie shows how bad she is at recognizing people! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/backhandspod.bsky.social and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Do you want a little escape from the state of tennis, America’s election season, or the seasonal affective disorder the ending of daylight savings time brings? Well, never fear, dear listener! We have a fun time answering your questions and chatting about our favorite brand and player collabs, Formula 1, and which country we’d abolish. Plus, we give you the behind-the-scenes tea on how long it takes to make a podcast episode and what the lore is behind the intro clips! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1668086786 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

It’s American election time! Which means we discuss the very important upcoming vote results…People’s Sexiest Men in Sports list, obviously! (We joke to cope.) Our predictions include one last hurrah for Rafa and the possible inclusion of Taylor Fritz? (Will he be blonde or brunette? That’s the real question.) We also have a conversation about Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s comments about why they played the Six Kings Slam, and if you were wondering why we personally don’t support the Saudi tournaments, the Tennis Podcast does a great episode going through why you should care and why it’s upsetting. We say our goodbyes and thank yous to Dominic Thiem and consider who he could coach should he wish to now or in the future. In Vienna, rising star Jack Draper defeated a very on-form Karen Khachanov. While in Basel, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard crushed both the final and his Instagram page. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/backhanded-compliments-katie-chandler/1146384412?ean=9781668086780 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Back-to-back episodes? Look at us! We’re back to talk about the Asian Swing which included another Masters 1000 win for Jannik Sinner, two Janlitos finals (Jannik Sinner v. Carlos Alcaraz), and an appeal from WADA regarding Jannik Sinner’s doping case. And because it's us, we're bring you a DeuceMoi story from Miranda herself! Ugo Humbert’s perfect streak in singles’ finals has come to end thanks to fellow Frenchman Arthur Fils. Rafael Nadal has played his last singles match too, but we definitely put off talking about his retirement to discuss Davis Cup, of all things! The ATP Finals is sneaking up on us again, so we consider who will make it. Oh, and did you think we wouldn’t mention Taylor Fritz becoming Blondlor? We consider if he’ll be back to his natural color by Turin and whether this was a lost bet. We may have taken a hiatus, but we’re always committed to talking about the important news in mens’ tennis. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/backhanded-compliments-katie-chandler/1146384412?ean=9781668086780 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Surprise! The vault is open, and we’re finally catching up on the tournaments that have happened during our (unplanned) hiatus! In today’s episode, we’re finishing off the US Open and discussing the various Laver/Davis Cups. We recorded this back in September, but still wanted to bring y’all the content, so please be patient with us as we catch up. I mean, we couldn’t just breeze past Taylor Swift showing up to the US Open Final. Also included: Katie’s heartbreak over the Ramsbury doubles team breakup and an unexpected respect for indoor tennis tournaments. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Preorder Katie’s debut novel, out in June 2025!: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/backhanded-compliments-katie-chandler/1146384412?ean=9781668086780 Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

We are Praylor Fritz today as we discuss all that has happened at the US Open. No more mid-Slam delusions this episode, we’re actually very rational (very demure, very mindful) about our predictions and we rank who we would like to win the US Open the most. Naturally we talk about the biggest upset, Katie’s man Botic van de Zandschulp defeated Carlos Alcaraz! No choking from him (even if Juan Carlos Ferrero thought he would). Taylor Fritz is playing some of his best tennis and we are putting all of our manifesting energy into an All-American semifinal. On the other side of the draw, we talk about the star-power of Jack Draper and the sweetness of Alex de Minaur. And we call our shot on the Australian Open Final and Wimbledon quarterfinal rematch between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

We ended up quite punchy in this episode, so enjoy some mid-Slam delusion on DAY TWO. We talk about some of the upsets (rip Pablo Carreno Busta, Holger Rune, and Karen Khachanov) , the battle of the Boss Babies (Taylor Fritz vs. Matteo Berrettini) , and the retirement of iconic players such as Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem. Katie finally announces what she’s been teasing for months. She sold a book to Simon & Schuster! And yes, it’s a tennis romance novel with soulmates and rivals-to-lovers. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a B&C episode if we didn’t have a completely unhinged hypothetical question to discuss. (This week we ask, “Who would we want to see Freaky Friday bodyswap and play against each other?”) New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

An episode where we go over all the ~DRAMA~ from the last two weeks. From Stefanos Tsitsipas firing his father very publicly to a double-hit dispute between Jack Draper and Felix Auger-Alissame on match point to Jannik Sinner’s doping scandal; we’ll go through it all with all the facts and our color commentary. We also give Alexei Popyrin his flowers for winning his first Masters 1000 title in Montreal! And Jannik Sinner becomes the first man this year to win 2 Masters 1000 titles! (Katie’s bingo card is very happy about this.) New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Get ready for some slightly obnoxious U S A chants (and one ITALIA chant) in this week’s episode! Carlos Alcaraz’s incredible summer ends with a silver medal and Novak Djokovic finally claims the gold medal. (Maybe now he’ll leave us alone. Unlikely, but we can dream.) We loved that Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz took home bronze, while doubles’ specialists came through in the gold medal match. Andy Murray has officially retired (making this the second of the Big 4 to be sent off into the sunset by an American doubles team) and the Queen’s Club already renamed their center court after him. Story of the week, however, goes to Katarina Siniakova and guest! (Tomas Machac, for the uninitiated) These exes won the gold medal in mixed doubles and it has us gushing over it! In Washington, Sebi Korda wins and makes this the first time a father-son duo has won the same tournament! We briefly touch on Andrey Rublev’s transphobic and hypocritical remarks, but we’ll go more in depth once we have more of his response to the backlash. Denis Shapovalov was also in hot water in hot Washington and got defaulted. And much, much more! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Lots of beautiful tennis this week! Arthur Fils became the newest exterminator and won Hamburg for his second ATP title. But it wasn’t without its drama. In the coastal Bastad, we saw the man, the myth, the legend, Rafael Nadal, putting in the hours. But ultimately, it was Nuno Borges who took home the trophy! Of course, most of our episode is dedicated to Matteo Berrettini’s win in Gstaad! He defeated Quentin Halys (Con-ton, Al-ees) in less than an hour. And finally, in Newport we had an all-American clash but Marcos Giron wins his first title and right in time for his 31st birthday! Plus, we can’t help but speculate on the room assignments for the Olympics and talk about the Forty-Love deuxmoi story that took Twitter by storm this week. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

Did tennis happen this week? Are people talking about tennis? We sure are! Carlos Alcaraz won his 4th Grand Slam, the Channel Slam, and successfully defended his Wimbledon title! Has the US Open Curse come for Novak Djokovic at last? Along with the tennis, we also have two of our favorite segments return: Andrey Rublev Psychoanalysis Hours and the “Who is More Famous?”™️ game! Also, in big news for Roger Federer went to the Eras tour (RogERA FedERAERAs Tour). New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

With drama galore and a few cheeky Instagram stories from the most famous woman in men’s tennis, strap yourselves in for our review of the first week (and a half) of Wimbledon! We go through it all including; Taylor Fritz being our Scorpio King to both the rat and Arthur Rinderknech. Speaking of French Arthurs, we talk about how weird Hubi Hurkacz was being during his match against Arthur Fils. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Backhands & Compliments episode without a long talk about Matteo Berrettini! (A couple mentions mean *JAR*) We’re having a great time with Wimbledon this year, so let’s hope the good times keep rolling! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

We’re back to live react to the 2024 Wimbledon Men’s draw and this time, Miranda has put her insanity and genius together to create a stunning spreadsheet to help us stay on task. You can hear us react in real time to our favorites and then we systematically go through the draw, discussing who has a great draw and who doesn’t. In between our professional thoughts, we talk about Paige Lorenze and ‘clawgate’ and Andrey Rublev not playing the Olympics. New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.

It’s officially grass season, so make sure to take a look at our fresh logo! This week, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Alex de Minaur defeated Sebi Korda, matching his girlfriend Katie Boulter once again as she won in Nottingham! In Stuttgart, British lefty Jack Draper wins his first ATP title! Unfortunately, he beat one of our favorites, Matteo Berrettini. Add in some fun facts, a discussion about Bublik’s quitting, and recommending books to Coco Gauff and that’s our episode! New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102 episodes to understand who/what we're talking about. Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments, Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod, and TikTok ​​https://www.tiktok.com/@backhandsandcompliments.