Ukrainian tennis player Daria Snihur ended her run at the 2026 US Open in the first round of the main draw. In her opening match, she lost to 15th seed Diana Schneider, competing under a neutral status, with a score of 0:6, 4:6. The match lasted 1 hour and 8 minutes and marked an early farewell for the Ukrainian on the New York clay.
Match progression: a crushing first set and a medical timeout
The first head-to-head meeting with Schneider turned out extremely poorly for Snihur. In the first set, the "neutral" player left her opponent with no real chances, sealing a 6:0 rout. Before the start of the second set, Daria called a medical timeout due to feeling unwell, which was clearly reflected in the subsequent course of events.
In the second set, the Ukrainian did manage to fight back: after losing the start of the set, she recovered and took a 4:3 lead. However, Schneider regained the initiative, winning three games in a row and thereby closing out the match in her favor.
Statistics and context: the unreachable 2022 record
The match figures underscore the scale of the gap. During the match, Snihur did not record a single ace, committed one double fault, and converted two break points. Her opponent, by contrast, served three aces, made three service errors, and won six break points. Daria failed to repeat her best result at the US Open, achieved in 2022, when she reached the second round by defeating Simona Halep.
Ukrainians at US Open 2026: who is out and who is still in the fight
Snihur became the third Ukrainian representative to end her New York campaign at the start of the tournament, joining Angelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska. Earlier, Kalinina lost in a stunning upset at the start, falling to a qualifier. Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk have already advanced to the second round, while Oleksandra Oliinykova and Yulia Starodubtseva will play their opening matches in the coming days.
Contradictory data
The available sources contain discrepancies in how the facts are presented. First, in the headline of the Sport RBC.UA article, Diana Schneider is referred to as a "Russian," whereas in the body of the same article and in standard WTA terminology she is described as a "neutral athlete" — these formulations are not semantically identical, although they may describe the same player when accounting for national origin and tournament status. Second, in the ua-football.com publication, the match is described as the "second round of qualifying," which contradicts the detailed description in the main text, which refers to a first-round match of the US Open main draw. The XAB.info editorial team relies on the detailed account of the match progression and the final score of 0:6, 4:6, confirmed by multiple sources.
