The last Russian woman in Ningbo: how Diana Schneider broke into an American and goes to Rybakina
The tournament in the Chinese Ningbo gave us a great story about how the guard changes in sport. At first it seemed that the main violin in the Chinese grid will play experienced names, but in the end the banner of Russian tennis picked up Diana Schneider. Ekaterina Alexandrova, unfortunately, did not overcome her quarter-final barrier, leaving Diana in the status of our only hope for the title. But let's be clear, because Schneider's path to the semi-finals is worth a separate analysis.
In the quarterfinals, Diana was opposed by US representative Iva Jovic. The girls are ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) nostril-to-nostril: Schneider 13th, Jovice 12th. The match turned out to be a real thriller, which lasted for two hours and 13 minutes. If you look at the statistics, Diana’s mental superiority in key moments is immediately striking. Schneider has completed five break points out of seven. This is an indicator of who actually dictated the terms in the crucial seconds of the games. Jovic, of course, tried, served right through and fought, but in the moments when it was necessary to break the opponent’s serve, the American stalled, making four double mistakes. The meeting ended with the score 6:3, 4:6, 6:1 in favor of the Russian woman.
Diana herself after the match very accurately described what happened on the court. She took the flight honestly
“Yes, I feel very good. No, I mean, it was a very high quality match on both sides. Iva is a great tennis player, so I knew it was going to be a very tough fight.
Yes, the second set was very close, she improved, she played better, she was a bit more aggressive, so she won. But I tried to get together after the second set and fight. I knew Iva would fight to the end, that I had to do the same thing – you know, just be more aggressive, but at the same time reduce my own mistakes a little bit.
But yes, I'm very proud of my performance, the way I held my emotions. It was a very tough match, I definitely liked it.
In these words lies the solution to the third set, in which Diana simply defeated the opponent with a score of 6: 1. Schneider realized that Jovic would take the initiative if given freedom, and she deliberately took risks by reducing the number of unforced errors. It was this tactical click on the opponent's nose that broke the course of the meeting and allowed Diana to bring the matter to a confident final chord.
Against the background of this triumph, the departure of Ekaterina Alexandrova looks especially offensive. The 33rd racket of the world lost to Leila Fernandez of Canada. The score of 4:6, 6:2, 6:1 in two hours and seven minutes of the game suggests that Catherine took the first set, but then completely lost the thread of the match. Fernandez, 30th in the world ranking, just waited out the Russian and punished for the downturns. As a result, Alexandrova left Ningbo, and the whole weight of the struggle for the Russian flag fell on the shoulders of Schneider.
And now we are waiting for a real gift for tennis fans. In the semifinals, Diana Schneider will fight the first racket of the world Elena Rybakina. It will be a clash of completely different styles and characters. Rybakina takes the power and experience of great victories, and Schneider has now caught the courage, she is mobile, cunning and, most importantly, absolutely not afraid of names. Can Diana take her chance and send the tournament's top favourite home? We will know the answer very soon, but one thing is for sure: it will not be boring.
