After Marat Safin's coaching collab with Andrey Rublev, Dinara Safina follows in her brother's footsteps

After her elder brother Marat Safin recently joined hands with Andrey Rublev to form a blockbuster partnership, Dinara Safina has taken a Russian prodigy under her tutelage. The Russian prodigy announced the huge news of Safina following in her brother's footsteps via an Instagram post.

21-year-old Diana Shnaider, who has impressed the tennis fraternity with her precocious talent, announced that she would be bringing the former World No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam finalist on board for the European clay swing via her Insatgram. She captioned the post:

"Hello everyone! I am excited to announce that Dinara Safina is joining my team as my new coach. The past few months, I have been searching for a partnership like this that I am confident will be great for me both on and off the court. Dinara is obviously a legend, and I am thrilled to see what we can do together. Dinara and I will see you all on the red clay!"

Coincidentally, Safina's elder brother, two-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1 Marat Safin, joined World No. 9 Andrey Rublev's team for the upcoming European clay swing. It is also worth noting that Safin is Rublev's idol, and the 27-year-old admitted he always wanted to work with the Russian tennis legend.

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"Deep inside, I always wanted to work together, but I knew that Marat Safin was not interested" - Andrey Rublev

Marat Safin and Andrey Rublev during their practice session - Source: Getty

During a recent interaction with Tennis.com ahead of his 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters campaign, Andrey Rublev opened up about how he always wanted to work with Marat Safin, and once he realized that the 45-year-old was also interested in working in tennis, he took the opportunity to bring him on board.

"Deep inside, I always wanted to work together, but I knew that he was not interested. And I never wanted to put any pressure because I really care about Marat. Later on, I found out that he's kind of ready to work in tennis or something like that, that he don't mind," he said.

"And then I say, ‘OK, even if it's not gonna be me, at least I can ask.’ I have nothing to lose if I ask. Then my agent ask, they talk and little by little we work for a couple of days together," he added.

Rublev and Safin's journey will have a very tough start as the former is set to face Gael Monfils in his opening match at the Monte-Carlo Masters.