Russian Diana Schneider became the winner of the Thailand Open tennis tournament

The winner of the Thailand Open, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 250 category tournament with a prize fund of $267 thousand, was Russian Diana Schneider. During this competition, the 19-year-old tennis player, who was ranked only 108th in the world classification, beat rivals who were seeded first, second and third, including last year’s champion, Chinese Zhu Lin. This is Russia’s first success at WTA tournaments this season.

Tournaments on the calendar immediately after the Grand Slam championships rarely attract top stars. That’s Thailand Open – a WTA competition of a relatively low category of 250. The tournament was held for the fourth time in the resort city of Hua Hin, and the “seeding” here was headed by the semi-finalist of last year’s Australian Open, Poland’s Magda Linett, who was only 37th in the world classification last Monday. In such cases, tennis players who seem to be in the shadows, but in fact are already ready for high results, often come to the fore. And in Hua Hin, such a tennis player turned out to be Diana Schneider, who achieved noticeable progress last season.

19-year-old Diana Schneider, born in the Samara region, is a notable representative of her generation.

She has three titles won in doubles at junior Grand Slam tournaments and is third in the world junior rankings.

In mid-2022, Schneider entered the University of North Carolina, having the opportunity to efficiently organize her training process in the USA, and last season in Hamburg she reached the semi-finals of the WTA tournament for the first time, after which she played her debut final in Ningbo, China, where she beat the two-time Wimbledon champion Czech Petr Kvitov and lost only to the seventh racket of the world, Tunisian Uns Jabir.

These successes allowed Schneider not only to break into the top hundred of the WTA classification, but even rise to 60th place there. Then, however, the Russian lost a large number of rating points, and she again found herself outside the top 100, but this was a temporary setback. Following the results of the Thailand Open, Schneider, the Russian woman will return to her eighties, although judging by the quality of tennis demonstrated in Hua Hin, she can rise much higher.

The Russian not only won the title, but did it in brilliant style, having received an extremely difficult draw.

First she went to Linette, who needed three games to defeat, and then to the even more famous Spaniard Paula Badosa, who was ranked second about two years ago, but now was unable to complete the match due to injury.

In the quarterfinals, Schneider very confidently dealt with the Hungarian Dalma Galfi, and then broke the resistance of Wang Xinyu, seeded number 40 in the world and one of three Chinese women who made it to the semifinals.

But on the path to the title there remained the last and most difficult step. In the decisive match, Schneider’s opponent was Zhu Lin, another tennis player among the favorites, 2nd on the seeded list, 45th in the world and last year’s winner of the Thailand Open.

The game was held with varying degrees of success. In the second half of the second game, there came a period when it seemed that a turning point had occurred; the Chinese player, who had lost the first set, took four games in a row and leveled the situation. However, Schneider first left the court for a few minutes, taking advantage of the right to a break, and then again took the initiative.

The excellent tennis all over the court, which the Russian demonstrated, made the brightest impression, and in some rallies she achieved real masterpieces. As a result, 6:3, 2:6, 6:1, and, having earned 250 points and more than $36 thousand, Schneider became the first Russian woman to take the title at WTA tournaments this season.

Another final took place this Sunday with the participation of a Russian tennis player. In Linz, at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz tournament, which has a 500 category, Ekaterina Alexandrova met with the representative of Latvia, Elena Ostapenko. There, the advantage of one of the rivals was more obvious. The in-form Ostapenko, who initially did not plan to play in Austria but then asked for a wild card there, never lost her serve and won 6:2, 6:3. The 2017 Roland Garros champion started this year very confidently. In singles, she won her second title (the first was won in the final against Russian Daria Kasatkina in January in Adelaide), and in pairs, together with Ukrainian Lyudmila Kichenok, she won in Brisbane and reached the final of the Australian Open.

Evgeniy Fedyakov