Putting the female gaze into ATP tennis discourse. You're welcome.
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/1668086786Follow 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 Find out which predictions have aged like a fine wine and which are already out-of-date.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/1668086786Follow 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'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?
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.
Despite the chaos of Rome and the potential for insanity at the beginning of Roland-Garros, the second slam was not very Open and not particularly French! Still, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner saved the tournament by defeating a rat to win the tournament and becoming world number 1 respectively. We talk about all of that and more, including Miranda's injury at the hands of some wet stairs at her brother's wedding, the greediness of the ATP that spans all the way back to 1991, and a Space Jam remake with tennis players cleverly titled Space Slam. 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 our 50th episode! So, we asked you guys over on Twitter for questions and you delivered! We answered! Hope you enjoy learning more about us! 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.
Crazy how the second week of Rome just didn't happen? Isn't that weird? So, we talk about the surprisingly early exits, the nightmare that was a fan's water bottle falling on Novak Djokovic, and the sad upcoming retirements. This is also the introduction of Miranda's Matteo Jar, so enjoy every little plink of a quarter when she randomly brings him up. And yes, we tend to joke about making a Formula One podcast episode if a certain rat wins a tournament. Instead, we decided to help you out if you're looking to get into F1 but you aren't sure who to root for. Don't worry, we got you! We'll tell you which driver you might like based on your favorite player! (And if you do watch, F1, please tell us which player correlates to which driver! We'd love to know!) 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 an (Orthodox) Easter miracle! Despite injections in his toe to numb it, a swollen throat, and Death on his doorstep, Andrey Rublev wins the Madrid Masters!! Turns out the power of Katie's manifestation and Jesus Christ were enough to give Andrey the strength to win. He played Felix Auger-Alissame, which isn't surprising when you see the two retirements and one walkover Felix got. Still, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy! Lucky Felix Felicis. Surprisingly, there was little nonsense happening this year and we enjoyed the tournament! 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.
Both of our lives were changed by the newest tennis movie, Challengers! We go full spoilers and scream into the microphone, so listen after you've watched the movie! We hope you enjoy this extra episode in the middle of Madrid. And if you've watched Challengers, please tell us your thoughts, headcanons, and theories! 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 recap another week of tennis, from Barcelona to Munich to Bucharest. There were lots of firsts this week, from Casper Ruud winning his first tournament above 250-level to Jan-Lennard Struff winning his first ATP title. We also indulge in some classic B&C Andrey Rublev psychoanalysis time, discuss how many matches Rafa Nadal may have left, and only spend a few minutes talking about The Tortured Poets Department (sorry in advance). 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.
Stefanos Tstisipas is not only the winner of the B&C Handsomeness Poll, but he is back to being the champion of the Monte-Carlo Masters! Add him to the list of people who have a tournament win when Novak Djokovic doesn't. Despite Casper Ruud looking fantastic in a sleek black kit, he did lose another final. But he did finally win two sets against a top opponent! And a lot of Monaco royalty was in attendance, like the Challengers' cast and half the Formula 1 grid. But this tournament really is no different than other clay tournaments; there were plenty of missed calls and tantrums in the Mediterranean air. 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 is time to reveal who is the ATP's Next Top Most Handsome Player. Or who won the poll voted on by our listeners. Who will come out on top? And who smized his way into the top three after some serious campaigning? And is this a question of male gaze vs. female gaze? And in tennis news, it was one of our favorite weeks for tennis. Three tournaments on three continents! We talk about the power of a black and pink kit, especially since it is part of the reason Ben Shelton won Houston! Casper Ruud was channeling his inner Karen Rude by trying to hit an annoying drone with tennis balls. Unfortunately, he still couldn't defend his title in Estoril and instead, Hubi Hurkacz won his first clay tournament! (Claykacz, anyone?) And of course, Miranda's prayer candle worked wonders because Matteo Berrettini won Marrakech! Meaning it had been 624 days since he lost a match on clay! (Until now. No Matteo in Monaco sadly.) 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 feeling 22! Okay, maybe we're not, but Jannik Sinner sure is! 22 wins, 22 years old, AND number 2 in the rankings! Although it's the third time the charm when it comes to him finally capturing the Miami Master's title. But the star of Miami and number one in our hearts this week is Grigor Dimitrov! Looks like last year's Beijing really set the finalists up for major career shifts. Now the question is, will anyone beat Jannik again? Another question is, why is the ATP changing the doubles format to better suit singles players? Trust that Katie has a lot of thoughts on it! And finally, make sure to tell a friend about the podcast as a special birthday gift to Miranda! 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.
Between the rains and the bees and all the flopping, the end of Indian Wells and the beginning of Miami have provided odd bits and pieces. From discussing the advertising of the new tennis movie, Challengers to the new deals brewing on the desks of executives to PR mishaps to a complaining Casper to Fergus Murphy squashing some weird beef; we cover everything on and off the court. Miami might be ankle break city (RIP Tommy Paul & Andy Murray), but hopefully, it's not heartbreak city! Can Daniil finally break the curse and give us another bingo square? 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.
This year, Katie hopped off a plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan and into Miranda's car. Listen to us recap our four days at Indian Wells and give all tea. From seeing a niche WAG in the bathroom to making Apostolos Tsitsipas laugh to contributing to Eurosport Italia, we are telling you all the little things you won't see on Tennis TV, bro. As we always say, we're not like other tennis podcasts. We're worse! 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.
Plenty of backhands and compliments this week! From charity to Holger's positive character arc to wondering why so many Germans listen to us, we cover a bit of everything. Demon (Alex de Minaur) defends in Acapulco! (Some players could learn a lesson or two, or maybe make a deal with said tennis Demon.) Unfortunately this means we don't see Casper Ruud in a sombrero this year. Unlike last year, Dubai was much less wholesome. Of course, we break out the psychoanalysis of Andrey Rublev, discuss the details and the controversy and as always, give our opinions on it. But more positively, Ugo Humbert moves to be 6 for 6 in finals and claims the gigantic ship trophy! And in Santiago, Sebastian Baez continues his incredible Golden Swing run and wins his 9th straight match and captures the title! (All while wearing purple, which is a cousin of pink, so a good kit choice
February is the time for some of our favorite tournaments and for the youngsters to come out of the woodwork and gather points to defend. (When were these kiddos born again?!) This week we tackle Rio, Doha, and Los Cabos. Sebastian Baez captures Rio in 4K! (Someone at the ATP, please give us a Masters 1000 in South America!) Karen Khachanov takes down nineteen-year-old upstart, Jakub Mensik in Doha. Jordan Thompson provides a service in Los Cabos and takes down the rat, leading to good karma and his first ATP Title win! We might have jinxed Casper Ruud though… This isn't all fun and games because we found out that UltimateTennisStatistics is no more. RIP Miranda's homepage, you will be missed. 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.
Sorry for the time off, everyone! The personified tennis ball in our logo had to go work for the tournament in Rotterdam. There was nothing we could do. All jokes aside, we're back to talk about tournaments in Montpellier, Dallas, Marseille, Cordoba, Rotterdam, Delray Beach, and Buenos Aires! It's almost enough to make us beg for a two-week Masters 1000! We also discuss the great social media content that has been coming out lately from official accounts, Morgan Riddle's Super Bowl experience, and a couple of tennis player profiles that prove it's fine to write fanfiction about players if you have a journalism degree. Finally, we finish off the episode with a game that's a trip down memory lane as we look back at some of our earliest tennis-related text conversations from 2022. As expected, plenty of our takes have aged like milk. 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.
In a delightful turn of events, the Australian Open turned out to be incredible! Two of our favorites, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev were in the final, so we were happy whichever way the cookie crumbled. We are so proud that Jannik Sinner won his first slam, even though Daniil losing from up 2 sets to 0 is a little heartbreaking. Since it is the end of yet another slam, we're in a silly, goofy mood so if you enjoy us being a little more unhinged than usual, this episode is for you. 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.
Welcome to our usual mid-slam delulu episode! In terms of tennis, we talk about the rematch of USA Claygate, Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Thankfully, Taylor won and we saw Morgan Riddle living up to a bet and eating vegemite! Once again, we see that Andrey Rublev is the pinnacle of the “f*ck yeah, concrete!” meme as he slides by Alex de Minaur in a tough five-setter. Katie gives a doubles alley update, which includes a lamenting over the loss of Ramsbury. But! Rohan Bopanna is filling the void left behind by being so close to being the oldest person to ever win a Grand Slam! Finally, we look forward to the quarterfinals and live in delusion land, hoping Taylor Fritz will win. Against Novak Djokovic. Oops. 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.
Unlike most of the ATP, we will be commenting on many things during this episode. Before getting into more serious topics, we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of round one. Like Andrey Rublev giving his fans, and probably himself, a migraine. Felix Auger-Alissame and Dominic Thiem played five sets of beautiful tennis and made Katie reconsider her position on BO5. Speaking of BO5, Jack Draper pulled out a tough five-setter in the heat and will he have post-puke clarity like Jannik Sinner? Only time will tell, although we're not sure he'll clear Tommy Paul. Miranda gives her thoughts on Break Point (28:45), which includes the episode entirely devoted to Zverev. And that transitions us into discussing some of the questions posed to ATP players like Cameron Norrie, Casper Ruud, and Grigor Dimitrov. Spoiler alert, none of them responded in any adequate fashion and we get a bit heated about it. We do mention when we discuss it if DV is a trigger for you. Listen with caution. (48:48) 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 for the first week of tennis! With the unfortunate timezone, we didn't get to watch a lot of tennis, but we're still bringing you the highlights. Like Alex de Minaur entered the top ten with three straight top-ten wins over Taylor Fritz, Novak Djokovic, and Zverev. Grigor Dimitrov defeated short-short enthusiast Holger Rune in Brisbane to capture his first title since 2017! And Andrey Rublev wins Hong Kong, a big improvement from last year when he had two straight first-round exits. And despite not playing any tournaments, Matteo Berrettini is the new main character of 2024. We live in fear of the Australian Open Draw and Break Point Season 2. And, surprise surprise, Miranda made an incredible new logo. This is ourmannolegshardoval! But you can just say he's Our Man
We watched the 2004 romantic comedy and tennis movie Wimbledon and decided to give you the full spoilery summary as well as our thoughts so you don't have to watch it yourself. 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
It's time to break out the bingo boards and give our predictions, B4 the actual start of the 2024 season
And with that, the 2023 season is done and dusted! We go over our Bingo boards and surprise, surprise, Katie's is still wildly unhinged and Miranda is a manifesting queen. Then we go through some questions to talk about the year. Like which player we became more fond of (and spoiler, you'll be shocked by Miranda's answer!) and which celebrity-tennis interaction we enjoyed the most. Katie breaks out the statistics in regards to who has a banger year and yet no one is saying anything about it. Of course, we also talk about the standard fare, like the best points, best matches, and best Twitter like. We discuss the likelihood of our faves making a comeback year. Delusional optimism as always for Matteo Berrettini and Pablo Carreno Busta! Miranda also quizzes Katie about aces, double faults, and how many matches Novak Djokovic lost this year. We may not talk about his wins, but we'll certainly remember all his losses! 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
It is what it says on the tin, folks. Listen along as we go into WAY too much detail and rank the entire ATP Top 100 into categories named after Taylor Swift songs. The Tiermaker we used is from @MedvedevMeddler on Twitter! Follow along and rank for yourself! Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/backhandsandcompliments and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod. 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.
Do you get déjà vu? We do too because this year's ATP Finals, unfortunately, followed the trend of most of the tournaments this year and we saw Novak Djokovic win…again…yay. But, never fear! We talk about whether Holger Rune should've just worn Speedos and if he should write his gummy bears off his taxes. Should Jannik Sinner should have tanked? (Spoiler: for the good of the narrative, the answer is yes. But ethically, no.) Also, has Jannik figured out how to beat Daniil Medvedev indefinitely now? It certainly looks that way after two months. And Katie got to live on Cloud Nine for a little bit and discuss her beloved doubles! Her favorite team, Ramsbury, won for the second year in a row! This doesn't come without some gripes about the lack of Hawkeye Live for one of the biggest events of the year. And Katie mourns the fact that none of her favorite doubles teams are particularly good at Jenga, so she misses out on some good ~content~. If you particularly like our tangent-filled episodes, you'll definitely love this one! 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
It's the end of the season, but there is one tournament left-- The ATP Finals! Unfortunately, the ATP decided to screw over our new schedule and start the tournament on a Sunday, so instead of talking about the few matches that have happened, Miranda and Katie take on a much more important task: ranking the outfits at the Nitto ATP Finals Media Night, obviously! Why is everyone dressed to go to their local brewery? Who is the worst dressed? Who is the best? Is Jannik Sinner secretly cosplaying as Miranda? And who would benefit the most from a cute lil friendship bracelet? And because we're a podcast for the female gaze we discuss the tennis players put on People Magazine's 21 Sexiest Men in Sports and who we would've added to the list. So, because of that we also give insight into whether we think physical appearance plays any role in who we root for and watch. Plus! Bonus! We unveil our new intro. That makes us an official podcast now, right? 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
We've ended the final Masters 1000 of the season in the basement. Literally. The most important question has been answered! Holger Rune does, in fact, eat gummy bears during matches. Hope you get that golden bag from Harbio, Holger! On the tennis front, at least the boys fought harder against Novak Djokovic, giving him a harder time, but still, not even the beautiful, brown-eyed Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov could take him down. Katie revives her Doubles Alley section to talk about all of the breakups happening over on the doubles side of the tour, and the fact that one of the doubles players, Harri Heliovaara, runs a blog spilling all of that tea. Oh, and bed bugs weren't a problem in Paris, but maybe that's because some of the players hardly got to sleep in those beds because of scheduling problems. On a serious note, we also report on the recent legal proceedings surrounding Zverev and the penalty order for bodily harm against his former girlfriend. Of course, there is no response or even a whiff of a domestic violence policy from the ATP. If discussions around domestic violence or domestic assault are potentially triggering material, we talk about it from (28:14-56:26). We do not discuss the physical acts of violence, but rather the legal proceedings and our thoughts on the matter. Finally, we end the episode looking forward to the ATP Finals and what potential groupings we could have. Will Stefanos get a Top 10 win this year? Will Carlitos meet Djokovic in the semifinal? Are the players more evenly matched than last year? 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
Two ATP 500 tournaments this week means double the fun! At least for us, because the boys were hitting this week. In Vienna, we had our 13th Stefaniil match and while it lacked the flare of drama, we got a near cradle from Daniil to Stefanos. In the final, Daniil Medvedev's curse continues and Jannik Sinner captures his fourth title this year. (Four titles for World #4!) In Basel, Felix Auger-Alissame defends his title against Hubi Hurkacz. Miranda gives the lowdown on just how bad Felix's year has been, but it seems Felix's love of indoor hard courts has saved his ranking for now. We also talk about everyone's favorite basement, Paris Bercy! No reports of bed bugs but the race to Turin is getting squirrely. 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
As two Americans, Katie and Miranda weren't able to watch a lot of the Asian swing, but that doesn't mean we won't talk about it! While we both wish Andrey Rublev would have taken home his second Masters 1000 title, we're happy to see Hubi Hurkacz do his weird close-lipped kiss of the trophy. Ben Shelton hangs up the phone in Aslan Karatsev and takes home his first ATP title and a 500-level one at that! In a moment of nightmare fuel, we think about how bed bugs could be an issue at Paris Bercy, where another (theoretical) Masters 1000 could go on the calendar, and the crazy matchups in round one of Vienna and Basel. And of course, since the release of 1989 (Taylor's Version) drops on Friday, we do what any good Swifties do. Assign tennis players to the songs on the album. Including blind placing players for the unheard vault songs! We'll give you three guesses as to who we put for Slut! 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
It's time to talk about our favorite event on the tennis calendar, the Laver Cup! A fun team-style event that is an…exhibition? A serious ATP event? No one is quite sure. Especially Felix Auger-Alissame and Gael Monfils, who got into some ~drama~ during their match. (Or is it just both of them being French?) But it doesn't matter because Team World absolutely dominated Team Europe. But who cares about the tennis when we can talk about Christopher Eubanks' soothing voice, John McEnroe probably not knowing who Fran Cerundolo is, and Andrey Rublev carrying the entire event on his slender shoulders. We also talk a bit about the actual tennis tournaments that happened, including Karen Khachanov winning his first singles title since 2018! We look forward to Turin and the ATP Finals with a healthy dose of trepidation and fear. Especially because we probably will not be able to watch the rest of the Asian swing because the time zones are tough for us. 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
The finale of the 2023 US Open was unfortunately predictable, but this episode isn't! Miranda and Katie venture away from exclusively talking about men's singles and celebrate American Coco Gauff for winning her first slam! We focus on the positives of the US Open, like the lack of a certain man we hate, Dominic Striker wanting to dance with somebody, and a great act of sportsmanship. We mourn Matteo Berrettini's injury again because we saw it live together. We talk about Lacoste being sustainable and recycling the 24-jacket for Novak Djokovic. And we round out the episode by looking forward to the Laver Cup and what doubles pairings we'd love to see on court! Hopefully, Bjorn Borg gives us a little bit of ~spice~ with the pairings. 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 and on Twitter twitter.com/backhandspod.
We're back again! After a hiatus because we're not actually that serious, Miranda and Katie are back to talk about the US Open draw before it starts! Naturally, we've waited until the very last second to make our predictions. And surprise, we're actually in the same room together! We talk about Andrey's new ATP profile picture, Holger Rune's lack of odd workout videos, and the exciting potential for a Janlitos (Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz, for the uninitiated) quarterfinal! Miranda commits to her semifinalists and finalists in real-time. And because we can never end an episode without something a little bonkers, we talk about Miranda's conspiracy theory involving Formula One driver Lance Stroll's billionaire father and the potential expansion of the ATP Tour into Saudi Arabia. Savor this episode because you never know when we'll be back
It's delusion hours, everyone! So, it's like every other episode? Maybe. We talk about each quarter and who is left in the Wimbledon draw. Miranda and Katie go all in with Matteo and call for an upset. We might also be the only podcast saying Chris Eubanks will win Wimbledon. We also ask the very important question, is Novak Djokovic a vegan or does he just do yoga? Either way, he's probably eating Hubi Hurkacz. We manifest another quarterfinal for Andrey Rublev and Stefaniil. Then, we move on to the most important part of the episode, a game! We bring in a special guest (and resident Emil Ruusuvuori fangirl) to judge said game. We're taking romance tropes and casting tennis players as the leads. Who is so desperate for a rival they'd have beef with a Ziploc bag? Who has a face that has never seen iPhone? Who has a forbidden, sultry vibe? Who would you want to be the last man on earth with you? We'd love to see who you would cast in these roles and which rom-com you'd want to read! (Or which one you'd like to write
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