Having come on strong in this year’s French Open, Diana Shnaider’s explosive left-handed forehand and double-handed backhand aren’t her only signatures.
The Russian-born player, who is recognizable for her colorful headscarves, is squaring off against Maja Chwalińska of Poland Thursday. Shnaider opted for a repeat look, wearing the same orange headscarf and black Yonex tennis dress that she wore Wednesday to defeat the WTA’s top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka. As for her French Open strategy, Shnaider told reporters earlier this week that she was “trying to go match by match.”
The Yonex-sponsored athlete was unmissable in an orange ribbed headscarf that accented the orange and turquoise trim on her black tennis dress with a leathery-looking pleated skirt. It also coordinates with the red clay courts at Roland-Garros.
Born in Zhigulevsk, Russia, Shnaider started playing tennis at the age of 4 and was training under coach Samvel Minasyan in Moscow by the age of 8. After a stint at North Carolina State University in 2022, she competed in her first Grand Slam tournament the following year at the Australian Open. Repped by Topnotch Management, the former Adidas-sponsored athlete has an endorsement deal with the sports media content company First & Red. Her career earnings to date are $5.17 million including $952,112 in prize earnings. This year women’s single winner at the French Open will take home 2,800,000 euros, or $3.25 million.
Her signature headscarf was something that she started wearing years ago to shield the sun. Shnaider’s parents were concerned that the fair-haired daughter would get sunburned on the courts, but caps and visors reportedly obstructed her view. So Shnaider opted for a headscarf that they bought in a supermarket. By 2023, Shnaider was outsourcing the design of her favorite accessory, by buying the material for a seamstress to design. However, for Wednesday’s upset victory, she appeared to wear a ribbed one with the Yonex logo on it. A Yonex representative deferred an interview request to Topnotch Management, which did not respond to requests for comment.
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The American men’s singles player Frances Tiafoe copied the look last year by sporting a blue headscarf with white polka dots at last year’s Cincinnati Open. He gave her credit for the choice via Instagram inspiration on Instagram with “New look?? Appreciate u @_di_shnaider_ .”
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In addition to headscarves, pistachio is another personal favorite of Shnaider’s. That is the flavor, more so than the pale green color. Hoping to reward herself after an early round win with pistachio mochi ice cream, Shnaider told reporters that she had to settle on vanilla and chocolate macaroons, because the mochi had been wiped out, as well as the pistachio macaroons.
Shnaider, whose favorite movie is “Don’t Back Down,” faced controversy earlier in the tournament, when the Ukrainian player Oleksandra Oliynykova criticized the Russian players. In response, Shnaider told reporters, “I’m here just to play tennis, not talking about Instagram or video likes or anything else.”
Shnaider’s take on a headscarf is more like a bandana than the traditional headscarves that first became popular with Russian women who had previously worn embroidered linen scarves over a small hat. Aside from being practical to shield the elements, they were a requirement for women to enter a church.
During Soviet times, the standard uniform for women working in factories and on collective farms included a headscarf to adhere to health and safety requirements. Through the years, a headscarf was also a signal of a marital status and specific occasions such as a celebration versus a church service. The look remains popular including with fashionable Russian women, with the Moscow region producing traditional styles and the Orenburg area creating knitted ones for winter.
Some associate the headscarf with the image of a girl wearing one on the wrapper of the Alenka milk chocolate bar. Introduced in the 1960s and known as the national chocolate of the day, Alenka was named for the daughter of the first female in space Valentina Tereshkova. But the model for the wrapper’s illustration, Elena Gernias, later sued the chocolate company unsuccessfully seeking financial compensation for the use of her image.