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/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 Find out which predictions have aged like a fine wine and which are already out-of-date.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 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.