The Consistent One: How Sandra Zaniewska emerged as one of the world’s top coaches

Sometimes you need to think outside the box to accomplish your goals.

Marta Kostyuk has all the tools to be a bonafide superstar. She can hit every shot, move as well as anyone on the WTA, and has an unrelenting drive to be the very best in the world. But as a self-admitted emotional player, she needed a different way to get to the top. Quite simply, she needed a woman’s voice in her corner.

Enter Sandra Zaniewska, a former player from Poland who found herself in the coaching world by chance and never looked back. Zaniewska is a creative mind with a calming presence, so in Kostyuk’s case she is the best of both worlds. The partnership began in the summer of 2023 and the results have been impressive ever since.

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The coach joined the Inside-In Podcast to discuss her trek to the highest level of the sport, how she works with Kostyuk to channel those emotions, and why the future of the tennis coaching world will be very female.

Zaniewska was not planning on becoming a coach when she entered the fray in 2017, she just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Her friend Petra Martic was returning from an injury and playing lower-level events against unfamiliar opponents. When she needed some help scouting these players, she knew just who to ask.

“She really said, ‘Hey I like the way you see tennis; do you want to come with me here and there?’” Zaniewska recalled. She felt misunderstood by coaches when she played and made it her coaching mission not to let that happen to her players.

“I really try to understand how the player sees themselves, and what they think their best game is like. And then take their vision, together with what I see from outside, and try to kind of find a middle ground a create a vision together for their game."

After several seasons working with Martic, Zaniewska briefly coached another top player in Alize Cornet. From there she worked at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy as a high-level director, which she credits immensely for her growth in the profession.

All roads led to a meeting with Kostyuk at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, where the Ukrainian was looking for a spark after a third-round loss. She needed a new outlook on her game, and a new approach on the path to greatness.

“It was clear that she had potential. And the potential for me is everywhere. She’s a great mover, she has great intuition on court, she can play almost any shot,” Zaniewska glowingly said.

And in getting to know her, the coach realized just how similar they are as well. “Sometimes when I look at her, really I have to laugh. When I speak to my mom and sometimes I tell her about Marta, she always says like, ‘oh now you get the taste of your own medicine!’”

Read More: Sandra Zaniewska on working with Marta Kostyuk: 'She reminds me a lot of myself' | Exclusive

This year was a breakthrough year in many ways for Kostyuk, who made her first grand slam quarterfinal in Australian and reached a career-high ranking of No. 16.

Playing with passion is part of Kostyuk's DNA, and Zaniewska understands that there is no changing that. The key is using the emotions for good and turning the page on the negative thoughts before they metastasize.

“She’s an emotional player, she’s an emotional person. As a coach you can either try and change it and be like, OK listen, we’re going to stop it all together. Or you can go along with it and try to show the player where those emotions are helpful and where they aren’t,” Zaniewska explained.

“She’s learned how to manage herself better on the court, which results in those emotions kicking in later. But obviously it’s a process of discovery as well.”

Zaniewska has only been a coach for seven years, yet she’s already established herself as one of the very brightest in her field. On this week’s episode of Tennis Channel Inside-In, she discusses her core principles, and why she firmly believes that developing the best human beings will produce the best players on the court.

And as one of the rare female coaches of a top WTA player, Zaniewska is hopeful that more women can follow in her footsteps.

“A player needs to click with a coach and vice-versa, and sometimes for some players, female coaches might work better than males,” she stated. “If we could bring in more of them eventually into the field, and if I could be a part of that, that would be amazing.”