Coach Kristijan Schneider facing a second cancer battle

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Scary news from the WTA/ATP Tour coaching ranks as Kristijan Schneider, currently the coach of Serbia’s Olga Danilovic, has been struck with cancer – for the second time.

The 40-year-old father of four was in Melbourne working with Danilovic when he felt severe pain in his abdomen and was hospitalized in Melbourne.

Upon returning to his native Croatia he had two surgeries, and cancer was discovered in his stomach. Apparently it’s not possible to get it all surgically, so Schneider now faces six months of chemotherapy.

Already, he has lost more than 30 pounds.

Second brush with cancer for Schneider

Just two years ago, when Schneider was working with Borna Coric, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery to remove it. (And, as anyone who knows anyone who has had it knows, that surgery is brutal).

But six months later, he was back on the court.

This time, it looks like an even tougher battle.

All the information above is from a Go Fund Me set up for him (please donate if you can).

Schneider has health insurance. But it won’t cover everything, and that’s a big family to support.

He has worked with Ana Konjuh, Coric, Bernarda Pera and now Danilovic, among others.

The crazy thing is that the feature pic above was taken when he was on court practicing with Danilovic on Feb. 7.

Novak Djokovic was watching on (that’s who Danilovic is waving to).

That was almost exactly six weeks ago. It literally could have been hours before his whole world fell into chaos.

You just never know. Life comes at you quick. And hopefully the tennis community will step up.

(H/T to Twitter – @DavorBura)

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Stephanie Myles

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