Diana Shnaider is mixing College Tennis with the Pro Tour for now

Last August, Russian teenage tennis player Diana Shnaider traveled alone in Europe with a world-class palm but without a working debit card due to her country’s financial sanctions. He had to pay for hotels, flights and food in cash.

Last week, she led the North Carolina State women’s tennis team, ranked ninth in Division I, to a victory over second-ranked Ohio State.

Things were bad, but they are better now, Shnaider said Wednesday in a video call from Columbus, Ohio.

Shnaider, a left-hander with a flashy and powerful style of play, has found stability in the game even though many observers never thought she would choose college tennis over the full-time professional tour. Among the skeptics was his trainer Simon Earnshaw.

I didn’t think he would come, Earnshaw said in a phone interview. But he is somehow unique. At 18, he’s still a kid, but he’s very clear about how he sees the game and what’s important to him and what’s not. And really, the only thing that matters to him is how can I get better?

When she arrived in Raleigh, NC, last summer, she was ranked 249th on the WTA Tour in singles. She is ranked 90th after a rise in Australia, where she qualified for her first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, losing in the second round to sixth seed Maria Sakkar of Greece 3-6, 7-5, 6. -3.

Shnaider has big guns in the forehand and serve. He has quick feet and an attacking mentality that has been there since he learned the game in Togliatti, across the Volga River from his hometown of Zhigulevski. He moved to Moscow at the age of 9 with his family to find better training opportunities.

I never wanted to be a pushover, she said. I was always like, OK, here’s the shot. i kill it

At the Australian Open, his fist-pumping and celebratory shouts rattled Sakkar, who thought they were aimed at him. Shnaider said it was a misunderstanding and that he yelled at his team in the box on the Sakkaris side of the field.

Shnaider said his run in Australia and the more than $140,000 in prize money that came with it didn’t make him reconsider his decision to play in college, even though he’s had a hard time reading the harsh criticism of it on social media.

“I understand in my mind that I’m doing everything right, but of course when people say mean things, it goes to my heart and soul,” she said. But I’m just trying to go my own way.

Shnaider is the first female college tennis player to be ranked in the top 100 in singles since 1993 when American Lisa Raymond played in Florida. Shnaider has lost in singles this season to NC State, which is not a traditional college tennis power. But the Wolfpack is 7-1 and undefeated with Shnaider in the lineup.

“She’s certainly the best player to play college tennis in a while,” said Geoff Macdonald, the former Vanderbilt women’s coach.

The American college game has once again been a path to professional success in recent years, with college dropouts Cameron Norrie, Jennifer Brady and Danielle Collins making successful transitions. But what sets Shnaider apart from them is that he broke into the professional game before college. (NCAA rules allow players to use prize money to cover their documented tennis expenses at any time during the same calendar year, but must donate the excess to remain eligible.)

Shnaider’s decision was partly geopolitical: it allowed him to establish a base in the United States, when his country is viewed as a pariah by much of the West.

I think 100 percent his Russianness made the difference, NC State assistant coach David Secker said.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022 brought sanctions to the Russians. For tennis players, the sanctions made travel and training more difficult and raised the possibility of Russian players being banned from tournaments (so far, Wimbledon has been the only major individual event to do so).

Shnaider, who parted ways with his coach in June, wanted to make sure he could continue to play competitively and improve on hard courts. His best results were on clay.

I was really scared and thought, what will I do in Russia without a coach and without matches? he said.

Before committing to NC State, he had to overcome his doubts. I thought that would mean I was going to quit tennis, a professional career, he said.

His father Maksim, who helped shape his game, was against it. But his mother, Julia, a trained pianist who focused more on education, insisted on it and helped make the first contact with Secker last April through a Russian family in the United States.

Secker, like Earnshaw, doubted Shnaider was serious about studying, but he set up a video call and then met Shnaider and his mother at the French Open in June. However, the family remained divided over the issue, and Shnaider, once back on the road, had emotional phone calls with his parents.

I was in the middle of nowhere and I thought this is not going to help me,” Shnaider said. And my dad said this is your decision so make your first whole decision yourself.

That would be NC State. Bureaucratic problems kept him waiting five days in Warsaw for his student visa, and he rushed down the corridor of the US Embassy to get it before closing time on Friday. But she made it to the United States a few days before the US Open junior tournament and reached the semifinals of the girls’ singles and won the doubles with Lucie Havlickova.

But Shnaider remained athletically ineligible. He had signed a contract with Wesport, a Swedish management agency, and Earnshaw said the NCAA had to investigate the contract to make sure any payments he received were in exchange for the use of his name, image and likeness. now sanctioned by the NCAA

It took almost five months to resolve the process. It was a very prolonged frustration, Earnshaw said.

Shnaider was cleared on Feb. 3, the day before the home opener against Oklahoma. Although he has gone undefeated in singles with the team, he has been pleasantly surprised by the level of play. For example, she had to save a match point before defeating Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State.

I was worried about losing time and losing motivation, Shnaider said of college tennis. But he pointed out that has not happened. I leave my apartment at 8 am, come back at 8 pm and passed out.

She is starting to juggle college tennis and tour tennis, competing at a WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico, where the main draw begins on Monday. Then comes the qualifying event at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Going deep in either tournament means he’ll likely miss some varsity games.

I would say logistics is Diana’s biggest challenge, Secker said. And I also think that doubt is a huge part because I think there’s always that doubt that if I play in a college game, am I going to lose an opportunity in the pro game? If I play pro, am I letting my team down in any way?

For at least a few more months, Shnaider will try to do justice to both worlds, but the challenge pales in comparison to last year’s satellite circuit without an escort or modern means of payment. When he won the championship in Istanbul, the organizers had to give him nearly $9,000 in prize money in cash.

I was wondering what should I do with it? he said, holding his right thumb and forefinger far apart to show the size of the stack of bills. I was so careful.

Other times, he said, he barely had enough cash to pay for a night’s hotel.

My parents felt really insecure about me, she said. My mother said don’t carry your passport, don’t go out, don’t speak Russian, just stay in the hotel. Because he just didn’t know what people could do.