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SportEpisode 47·Long-form interview

Maryna Zanevska - What Being a Pro Tennis Player Really Costs

Maryna Zanevska is a former WTA professional tennis player who reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 62 and competed at the highest level of the sport, including the US Open.

1:46:47
December 22, 2025
Maryna Zanevska

Guest

Maryna Zanevska

Former WTA Professional

Maryna Zanevska is a Ukrainian-born Belgian former professional tennis player who reached a career-high world No. 62, won the 2021 BNP Paribas Poland Open, and spent 14 years on tour before retiring in 2023 after years of chronic back pain finally caught up with her. She chose the US Open as her final tournament - the same Grand Slam where her childhood dream first took shape - closing the book on a career that took her from Odesa, Ukraine, to Justine Henin's academy in Belgium as a teenager, all the way to the top 70 in the world. Alongside tennis, she built Savage Love Candles, a business she started during lockdown that's since become her next chapter. On Decoding Wisdom, Maryna goes past the highlight reel entirely - the unseen toll of chasing a ranking, rebuilding an identity once the game is gone, the darker realities behind sponsorship pressures, and the hard-won self-belief it took to walk away from something that had defined her since childhood, and what pain ultimately taught her about what actually matters.

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In this episode

Maryna Zanevska is a former WTA professional tennis player who reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 62 and competed at the highest level of the sport, including the US Open.

Sachin and Maryna go deep on the moments that shaped the work - the visible wins, the invisible costs, and the frameworks that survived the experience.

Key topics

TennisIdentitySacrifice

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