The duet of Russian tennis players Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider has become mega-popular throughout the tennis world over the past year and a half. During this time, the girls won prestigious titles and the love of fans, but in the new season the country will lose this powerful couple.

A successful year with a blurry ending

Mirra and Diana played together for the first time at the Olympic tournament in Paris in 2024. The girls immediately achieved significant success and brought the only medal to our country. The Russians were just a little short of winning gold. In the final they lost to Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini.

After the Olympics, the girls continued to compete together in doubles. In 2025, they reached the semi-finals of Grand Slam tournaments twice. They also won WTA tournaments. Successful performances helped Schneider and Andreeva qualify for the final tournament in pairs. True, the performance in Riyadh ended in a fiasco for the girls – three defeats and elimination after the group stage.

It was obvious to the naked eye that both girls were very exhausted at the end of the year, both physically and emotionally. Because of this, Mirra even fell out of the top 8 in the world rankings at the last moment, losing the opportunity to play in the final singles tournament for the first time in her career.

Mirra Andreeva / Photo: © VCG / Contributor / Visual China Group / Gettyimages.ru

New year – new partner

If we take the latest problems out of the equation, the Russians have had a successful season. All the more shocking was the news that at the Australian Open, which starts on January 18, Mirra will not play together with Schneider. This became known from a post by Australian tennis player Ellen Perez, who published applications for the Australian Open doubles tournament on her social networks.

In the new season, Andreeva continues to set ambitious goals for herself to win the title at the Grand Slam singles tournament. The tennis player admits that she wants to repeat the career successes of Rafael Nadal. Perhaps the athlete decided to focus on solo performances, which her coach Conchita Martinez has long called for.

Diana adheres to the old strategy: she will continue to perform both singles and pairs. Schneider found herself a new partner, and of a very high level. At the Australian Open, she will fight for the title along with Lyudmila Samsonova, who has repeatedly won WTA tournaments in duets. The 27-year-old Russian woman is now in 42nd place in the doubles ranking.

So far the athletes have not commented on this decision. Now it is difficult to even imagine whether one of the most successful Russian duets of recent times will ever again please with joint performances.

Tennis player Daniil Sarksyan has changed his sports citizenship and will play for Armenia.

The 19-year-old player’s profile on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) website states that he now represents Armenia.

Sarksyan is a native of Perm. At the age of 16, he moved to Rafael Nadal’s academy in Spain to train. At the end of 2025, the athlete ranks 1094th in the ATP rankings in singles.

In December, several Russian tennis players changed their sports citizenship, including Polina Kudermetova, Kamilla Rakhimova and Anastasia Potapova.