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. Zvereva is one of the few players to have beaten both Graf and Monica Seles, both former world number ones, in the same Grand Slam singles tournament. (Graf went on to win all four Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal that year.) ![]() This was the shortest and most one-sided Grand Slam final ever. 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. In a highly publicized final, she lost to Steffi Graf 0–6, 0–6 in only 34 minutes. Nevertheless, in 1988, at the age of 17, she made her sole Grand Slam singles final at the French Open beating Martina Navratilova en route. In addition to her Grand Slam doubles titles, Zvereva teamed with Meskhi to win a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.Īlthough 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. She achieved non-calendar year Grand Slams twice: in 1992–93 with Fernández and in 1996–97 with Fernández (three tournaments) and Hingis (Australia). She won those Grand Slam doubles titles with four different partners: Gigi Fernández, Martina Hingis, Pam Shriver, and Larisa Savchenko Neiland. Zvereva also won the US Open girls singles championship in 1987, beating Sandra Birch in the final 6–0, 6–3.Īfter turning pro, Zvereva won four WTA Tour 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. Career Īs a junior, Zvereva won the Wimbledon girls' singles title in 1986, defeating Leila Meskhi in the final 2–6, 6–2, 9–7. At 18, answering the question about her personal symbol of success, she famously replied the following: "A red Mercedes-Benz, a big one". While her name is sometimes spelled Zverava, in 1994 she officially changed her name to Natasha Zvereva. ![]() ![]() She started tennis at the age of seven at the encouragement of her parents, who were both tennis instructors in the Soviet Union. Zvereva was born as Natalya Maratovna Zvereva in Minsk, Belarus to parents Marat Nikolayevich Zverev and Nina Grigoryevna Zvereva. ![]() On 12 July 2010, Zvereva was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame alongside Fernández. Zvereva and her main doubles partner Gigi Fernández are the most successful women's doubles team (measured by WTA Tour and major titles) since Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Maratovna and the family name is Zvereva.
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