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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 😜. Katie might not be as unhinged this year, but she is definitely clowning with several of her picks. Let’s hope Miranda’s manifesting power comes in strong when it comes to how many losses Novak Djokovic will have. From rivalries to comeback years to the 2024 Paris Olympics, we talk about it all.  New to tennis or trying to get a friend into the sport? Check out our ATP 101 and 102...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...