Diana Shnaider Joins! Reaching a Slam Semi, The Hottie Coach Bracket & Being an F1 Fan | EP 186

**Sam** (0:00)
All right, everyone, on today's episode of Nothing Major, we've had an awesome interview with Diana Shnaider, and we also have life advice and fan questions. Let's get going.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:08)
Jack, John, Stevie and Sam got close a few times, never won a slam, nothing major.

**Sam** (0:14)
All right, everyone, welcome back. I got Stevie and myself. John left us go golfing, of all things, today. He had a very, very important tee time that he could not miss. So he's not committed. Also got Charlie Fox and the team at SIFT here. And it's a Thursday. This, what's going on this week? Queen's, Halle, Berlin. But most importantly, we have a Diana, Deanna, we'll get into that in the interview, Shneider interview.
So let's get into that.

**Stevie** (0:46)
We are pleased to be welcomed by Deanna Shneider. First of all, I think we got your name right.

**Diana Shnaider** (0:53)
That was right.

**Stevie** (0:54)
All right. Yes. See, current world number 16, career high number 11, an absolute standout at the one and only North Carolina Wolf Pack. We're going to get into that. Not sure how you ended up there. But welcome Deanna and thank you for joining us.

**Diana Shnaider** (1:07)
Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. I'm very excited.

**Stevie** (1:10)
Let's not forget the 2026 French Open semifinalists. That was probably a big one I missed in the notes.

**Sam** (1:17)
Your name, Deanna, a lot of people call you Diana because it's D-I-A-N-A. Does that get annoying when you hear Diana Shnaider? Do you just say yes or do you correct them?

**Diana Shnaider** (1:28)
Honestly, when I was 12 and I was just starting learning English, I was so annoyed. It was incredible. I remember I was reading a story in school about actually the Princess Diana.
And I was like, Princess Diana and like, da-da-da, keep going with the story. And then the teacher was like, no, it's Princess Diana. And I'm like, what do you mean? It's my name. I know like how I need to pronounce my name. So after that, when I was starting traveling, everyone's like, yeah, Diana, Diana, Diana. I was very, very upset with them that people can't pronounce my name correctly. But now I honestly already got used to that so much that even myself and I go to, yeah, so outside of like traveling, I just like, ah, hey, yeah, I'm Diana. Like I'm so used that I honestly already don't care. I'm Diana, Diana, everyone in the team called me Dee. So yeah.
Lovely.

**Stevie** (2:33)
Yeah.
So where is home for you, Diana? I mean, you know, where is home for you? Where are you now? What's life been like for you the last few days since an incredible French open run?

**Diana Shnaider** (2:43)
So the next day after semifinals, I flew home to Moscow. My family lives in Moscow. So if I have an opportunity, I try to go there. Unfortunately, now it's super hard. It's expensive. And also it takes a while to go there.
So it takes me like more than eight hours, just flying time to go from Europe, basically.
Spend there like four days just with family. Obviously was doing fitness, but no tennis. Just doing some activities with family, obviously other stuff. But yeah, was quick and short. And now I'm in Berlin, ready for the grass.

**Stevie** (3:29)
Yeah, that's tennis in a nutshell. You have an unbelievable week. I think the semis of Islam and right back to work.
The circus continues. It's another new week. But for you, like growing up, was tennis always your biggest passion or was there other sports, you know, that kind of caught your eye, but you've gravitated towards tennis more?

**Diana Shnaider** (3:48)
Well, my parents wanted me to do like some activities when I was like young.
I started tennis when I was like four. So super young, I don't remember anything. But I was doing, other than tennis, I was doing like dancing. I was also playing piano and playing chess. So I was doing a lot of stuff.

**Sam** (4:09)
Can you still play piano like really well?

**Diana Shnaider** (4:12)
Yeah. My mom can play, so that's why I would, like she wanted me to play. But then I dropped dances first because I wanted to stay more on tennis courts without the kids to play. I was like, I don't want to go to dance classes. Like I want to stay on court.
So I dropped dances and then I started playing tournaments and then I dropped piano. I was, I still can play chess, not as good as I could because I was taking classes. Now I don't. I just, I remember just some basic. Yeah.