Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava ( be, Наталля Маратаўна Зверава; russian: Наталья Маратовна Зверева, Natalia Maratovna Zvereva; born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. Zvereva and her main doubles partner

Gigi Fernández Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in do ...

are the most successful women's doubles team (measured by

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

and

major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

titles) since

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

and

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...

. On 12 July 2010, Zvereva was inducted into the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...

alongside Fernández.

Personal life

Zvereva was born as Natalya Marataŭna Zvereva in Minsk, Belarus to parents Marat Nikolayevich Zverev and Nina Grigoryevna Zvereva. She started tennis at the age of seven at the encouragement of her parents, who were both tennis instructors in the Soviet Union. While her name is sometimes spelled Zverava, in 1994 she officially changed her name to Natasha Zvereva. At 18, answering the question about her personal symbol of success, she famously replied the following: "A red Mercedes-Benz, a big one".

Career

As a junior, Zvereva won the Wimbledon girls' singles title in 1986, defeating

Leila Meskhi Leila Meskhi ( ka, ლეილა მესხი, tr, ; born 5 January 1968) is a retired Georgian professional tennis player. Meskhi has won five singles and doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She has also won one singles and two doubles titles ...

in the final 2–6, 6–2, 9–7. Zvereva also won the US Open girls singles championship in 1987, beating Sandra Birch in the final 6–0, 6–3. After turning pro, Zvereva won four

singles titles and 80 WTA Tour doubles titles, 18 of them in Grand Slam tournaments: five at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, five at the French Open, and four at the Australian Open. She won those Grand Slam doubles titles with four different partners:

, Martina Hingis,

, and

Larisa Savchenko Neiland Larisa Savchenko-Neiland ( uk, Лариса Савченко-Нейланд, lv, Larisa Savčenko-Neilande; née Savchenko; also Larisa Neiland; born 21 July 1966) is a retired tennis player who represented the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Lat ...

. She achieved non-calendar year Grand Slams twice: in 1992–93 with Fernández and in 1996–97 with Fernández (three tournaments) and Hingis (Australia). In addition to her Grand Slam doubles titles, Zvereva teamed with Meskhi to win a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Although Zvereva was a highly accomplished doubles player, and considered by some to be one of the best doubles players of all time, she had limited success in singles. Nevertheless, in 1988, at the age of 17, she made her sole Grand Slam singles final at the French Open beating

en route. In a highly publicized final, she lost to

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...

0–6, 0–6 in only 34 minutes. The official time of the match given on the scoresheet was 34 minutes, however just 32 minutes of that was spent on the court, as a rain break split the match into two periods of play, of nine and 23 minutes. This was the shortest and most one-sided Grand Slam final ever. (Graf went on to win all four Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal that year.) Zvereva is one of the few players to have beaten both Graf and

Monica Seles Monica Seles (; hu, Széles Mónika, ; sr, Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; born December 2, 1973) is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Sla ...

, both former world number ones, in the same Grand Slam singles tournament. Ten years later at Wimbledon in 1998, Zvereva defeated the fourth-seeded Graf in the third round 6–4, 7–5 and the sixth-seeded Seles in a quarterfinal 7–6, 6–2. This was also notable because it was Zvereva's sole win over Graf in 21 career singles matches. She lost in the semifinals to

Nathalie Tauziat Nathalie Tauziat (born 17 October 1967) is a French former professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships and runner-up in the women's doubles at the 2001 US Open partnering Kimberly ...

which was to be her second best career Grand Slam singles result. Starting with the French Open in 1987 and extending through Wimbledon in 2000, Zvereva played in 51 of the 54 Grand Slam singles tournaments held, reaching the quarterfinals or better eight times. In addition to her Grand Slam women's doubles titles, Zvereva twice won the mixed-doubles title at the Australian Open. She partnered with

Jim Pugh Jim Pugh (born February 5, 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He grew up in Palos Verdes, California and at age 10 began taking tennis lessons from John Hillebrand. He played tennis at UCLA. He became a doubl ...

to win the title in 1990 and with Rick Leach in 1995. Zvereva retired from professional tennis in 2003. Her last appearance in a Grand Slam tournament was in Wimbledon 2002, where she lost in the first round to Marlene Weingärtner 6–4, 3–6, 2–6.

Playing style

Zvereva used a baseline, counter-punching style centered around topspin and her double-handed backhand. She had great hands, used a variety of spins, and was willing to rush the net and volley. Though Zvereva's talent was never in doubt, she often suffered from lapses in concentration during matches and in her confidence as a singles player.

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

Doubles: 31 (18 titles, 13 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Olympic Games

Doubles: 1 bronze medal

Meskhi and Zvereva lost in the semifinals to

and

Mary Joe Fernández Mary Joe Fernández Godsick (born María José Fernández; August 19, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in both singles and doubles. In singles, Fernández was the runner-up ...

4–6, 5–7. In 1992, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semifinal pairs received bronze medals.

Year-end championships finals

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner-ups)

WTA career finals

Singles: 19 (4–15)

Doubles: 129 (80–49)

ITF finals

Singles: 4 (3–1)

Doubles: 4 (3–1)

Other finals

Singles (3–0)

Doubles (2–1)

Mixed (1–0)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zvereva, Natasha 1971 births Living people Australian Open (tennis) champions Belarusian female tennis players French Open champions Hopman Cup competitors Olympic medalists in tennis Olympic tennis players of the Soviet Union Olympic tennis players of the Unified Team Olympic tennis players of Belarus Olympic bronze medalists for the Unified Team Tennis players from Minsk Soviet female tennis players Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions Wimbledon junior champions US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions