World No. 12 Diana Shnaider has announced the appointment of former World No. 1 Dinara Safina, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, as her new coach.
Shnaider, a left-handed player who recently turned 21, previously collaborated with former ATP World No. 18 Igor Andreev during a successful 2024 season. In 2024, she secured four Hologic WTA Tour singles titles, won an Olympic silver medal in doubles with Mirra Andreeva, and received a nomination for the WTA`s Most Improved Player of the Year award. However, their partnership concluded at the end of the year. At the start of 2025, Shnaider was temporarily coached by her father, Maxim, while searching for a permanent coach.
“For the past few months, I have been looking for a partnership like this, confident that it will greatly benefit me both on and off the court,” Shnaider stated, expressing gratitude to her father and family for their support while she took the time to find this new collaboration.
Safina, who last competed in 2011 and officially retired in 2014, joins a growing list of prominent former champions on the Hologic WTA Tour who are now coaching or advising current players. This list includes other former World No. 1 Conchita Martinez (coach of M. Andreeva), International Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver (coach of Donna Vekic), and former World No. 2 and Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska (coach of Magda Linette).
This announcement follows the news that Safina`s brother, Marat Safin, a two-time Grand Slam champion and International Tennis Hall of Famer, has joined ATP World No. 9 Andrey Rublev`s team for the clay-court season. Dinara and Marat Safin are the only sibling pair in tennis history to both reach the World No. 1 ranking in singles.
Dinara Safina, 41, reached the finals of the French Open in 2008 and 2009, as well as the Australian Open final in 2009. She held the World No. 1 ranking for 26 weeks in 2009, won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, and accumulated 12 WTA singles titles throughout her career. Similar to Shnaider, Safina also excelled in doubles, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 8 and winning the 2007 US Open with Nathalie Dechy, before her career was unfortunately cut short due to a persistent back injury.
“Dinara is undoubtedly a legend, and I am excited to see what we can achieve together,” Shnaider commented.
Shnaider is set to commence her clay-court season at the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, starting on April 12. So far this year, she has a singles record of 8-9 but a strong doubles record of 18-4, having won titles in Brisbane and Miami with Andreeva.
Rupert Caldwell