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.