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BRISBANE, Australia – Diana Shnaider was ranked No. 97 when she arrived in Brisbane exactly a year ago.
As she returns this year, she’s at No. 13, having ended the 2024 season at a career high No. 12.
She won her first WTA Tour title right after the Australian Open in Thailand. And after hooking up with fellow Russian Igor Andreev, an experienced tour coach, before the grass-court season, she really began to rise.
Shnaider won the WTA 500 on grass in Bad Homburg, Germany right before Wimbledon (which lofted her into the top 30). She won Budapest right after Wimbledon, which got her to No. 23. And after her semifinal effort in Toronto in August, which included a win over Coco Gauff, she made the top 20 for the first time.
She wrapped up the season with a title in Hong Kong.
But just before that, she parted ways with the coach who had been there helping to make that rise happen.
Andreev was gone, and the Shnaider family is back in.
Fathers will be fathers
It’s a true thing in tennis – especially, but not exclusively, in women’s tennis – that the fathers never really are out of the picture.
Players will try other coaches – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Sofia Kenin are just a few notable ones. But somehow, Dad is never too far away. And he always ends up coming back.
Shnaider’s father, Maxim, isn’t a former tennis player or coach. He is a lawyer and a former boxer. Her mother Yulia is an English teacher. Younger brother Lev is 13 (or close to it) and is also a lefty.
But the family has always been involved in her tennis.
And there they all were on the practice court Sunday in Brisbane, as Shnaider practiced hitting sky-high backhand lobs, and then had her little brother return her serves as Mom went to pick up balls.
Backing it up harder than doing it
For Shnaider, it certainly seemed like a positive atmosphere. Lots of smiles, clearly a comfort zone. You forget how young some of the women are – then again, you look at how young their moms and siblings are, and then you’re reminded.
It’s not easy to be far from those who love you so much of the time. And Shnaider spent much of her adolescence doing just that – including a couple of years playing college tennis at North Carolina State.
But it’s a situation that bears watching. Because the year after a player makes that breakthrough into the top echelon of the game can be even tougher than it was to rise in the first place.
Shnaider has four titles to defend, a lot of points. And she has to do ALL that just to stay where she is. Never mind even thinking about maybe breaking the top 10 this season.
And once you’ve done what she’s done, you morph from the hunter to the hunted. That’s a huge adjustment.
Shnaider did well in 2024, earning over $1.5 million on court. So if she’s planning to bring the family on Tour more, even with all the extra expenses that involves, she can probably afford it.
What remains to be seen is whether her tennis is going to get better. Because all of her rivals are also going to be working to that end.
What can’t be quantified is how lonely it is for the young women on the road, and how assuaging that with family around might be a positive thing.
Only time will tell.
No hard feelings from Andreev
We ran into Andreev Sunday, after having seen him on the practice court with another Russian, Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Which was the tipoff that there was a change on Team Shnaider.
He told Open Court that their final tournament was Tokyo. And that after that they talked and Shnaider said she wanted to have her dad back in the saddle. No hard feelings.
Andreev said that Alexandrova and her father then asked him to come on board to try things out. If things go well in Australia, they likely will continue.
(And yes, that’s another father in the picture; Alexandrova is older, and she’s had Dad to glare at in the coach’s box for longer).
We joked with him that there were so many talented Russian players on Tour that he could coach a new one every single year and never run out.
But of course, a coach would prefer a little more stability. Hopefully that happens for him.
His track record with both Potapova and Shnaider is pretty impeccable.
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