Diana Schneider is having the most successful season of her career so far, and at the end of it she intends to please herself and her fans with another trophy. On the way to the final of the WTA 250 tournament in Hong Kong, our tennis player defeated all her rivals, including last year’s champion.

Schneider is just one step away from victory.

“Positive Attitude”

Vice-champion of the 2024 Olympics in doubles, Diana Schneider, went to Hong Kong for the WTA 250 tournament as the main contender for the title. The Russian woman received the first seeding number and confidently moved through the bracket. The quarterfinal confrontation with the representative of the Netherlands, Susan Lamens, dragged on somewhat, but our athlete beat this tennis player in three sets.

In the semi-finals, Diana had to fight Leila Fernandez from Canada, who played in the US Open singles final in 2021. The 22-year-old Montreal native received the third seed in Hong Kong and had no problems at the tournament before meeting the Russian. In the three previous matches, the girl had not lost a single game, which made her a difficult opponent for Schneider. In addition, in head-to-head meetings, the Canadian had an advantage – two victories in two matches.

“Of course, the thought that I lost to her twice will be in my head. Leila has experience in such matches. It will be very difficult, but she knows that too. It’s a semi-final, we both want to win. “I need to stay positive to show my best tennis,” the WTA press service quoted Schneider as saying.

Diana Schneider / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Confident victory

The start of the match was predictably difficult for Schneider. After Diana took her opponent’s first serve, she immediately gave up the game on her own serve. Later, the girls exchanged breaks again; a tiebreaker seemed a logical continuation in such a situation. But with the score 4:4, the Russian managed to turn the tide of the match in her favor again, after which she suffered a victory in the final, tenth game – 6:4.

The second game was much easier for Schneider: she earned a break point in the third game, and with the score 3:2, her opponent began to have health problems. Fernandez invited a doctor who carefully studied the condition of the Canadian’s foot. Leila did not refuse to continue the match, but after the pause she did not take a single game, allowing our tennis player to win a confident victory with a score of 6:2 in the set and 2-0 in the match.

Diana improved the statistics of personal meetings with Fernandez, and at the same time left last year’s winner of the tournament in Hong Kong without a trophy. She will now face off against Great Britain’s Katie Boultje, who needed three sets to defeat China’s Yu Yuan in the semifinals. Bookmakers give preference to the Russian, who, if successful, will win the fourth WTA final of the season and become the 12th racket in the world.