New duo? Ekaterina Alexandrova and Igor Andreev

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BRISBANE, Australia – It’s not as though former top-20 player turned coach Igor Andreev will ever run out of Russian players to coach.

There are so many good ones, and more coming.

But in the last couple of years, Andreev has done the tour.

First there was Anastasia Potapova, who reached her career high of No. 21 under his guidance.

Then, just before the start of last summer’s grass-court season, Andreev began working with rising star Diana Shnaider.

The grass neophyte won the WTA 500 tournament in Bad Homburg, in just their third tournament together. Then she won another WTA 250 in Budaprest, on clay, right after Wimbledon. She also made the semifinals at the National Bank Open in Canada, and the round of 16 at the US Open, where she lost to eventual finalist Jessica Pegula.

Shnaider finished her season by winning the Hong Kong Open in early November.

But on Friday in Brisbane, Andreev was on court with yet another Russian – Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Here’s what it looked like, as Alexandrova practiced with (another!) Russian, Anna Kalinskaya.

We don’t know the details on this – and haven’t yet seen Shnaider on site to see if she’s working with someone new.

At this point, while Andreev was on court, she had her longtime coach (her father) and another man there with her on the changeovers as Andreev sort of ambled about.