NC State now has its first medal in the Olympics in tennis after Diana Shnaider clinched a silver in the women’s doubles on Sunday night in Paris. Shnaider and her teammate, Mirra Andreeva, fell in the gold medal match to Italy’s Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, 6-2, 1-6 (7-10), to take home second place in the event.

Shnaider and Andreeva were competing as neutral athletes because of the war on Ukraine, but became the first Russians to earn a medal during the Summer Games. Individual athletes from Russia or Belarus with passports from their native country were permitted to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes if they qualified and were approved for entry by the Olympics committee.

Earlier in the Olympics, Shnaider fell to another Italian in Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the Round of 32 in the singles competition. However, she’s been a force recently in singles and should bounce back in the WTA in the near future once she returns to competition following the Olympics.

Shnaider already earned the distinction of the first Wolfpack women’s tennis Olympian by making it to Paris. She continued to make the most of that opportunity by clinching a spot on the podium in women’s doubles, advancing to the gold medal match in Paris Friday.

On their way to silver, Shnaider and Andreeva eliminated the second-seeded pairing of Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic — the Tokyo Olympics champions — in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, they beat the eighth-seeded team of Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-1, 6-2.

The Russian phenom continues to make waves in her young career. Shnaider entered these Olympics less than a month removed from advancing to the round of 32 in both singles and doubles at Wimbledon, her best Grand Slam finish to date. She ranks No. 65 in the WTA’s doubles rankings, highest placement of her career so far.

While she was unable to finish off the Olympics with a gold medal in doubles, she still likely has several shots at making the cut in 2028 and beyond. 

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