Natasha Zvereva

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.

Career

As a junior, Zvereva won the Wimbledon girls singles title in 1986, defeating Leila Meskhi 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 WTA Tour singles titles and 80 WTA Tour doubles titles. Eighteen of them were 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: Gigi Fernández, Martina Hingis, Pam Shriver, and Larisa Savchenko Neiland. 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 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

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 only the age of 17, she made her sole grand slam singles final at the French Open beating Martina Navratilova en route. In a highly publicized final, she lost to Steffi Graf 6–0, 6–0 in only 34 minutes (the shortest and most one-side 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, both former world number 1's, in the same Grand Slam singles tournament. Ten years later at Wimbledon in 1998, Zvereva finally defeated the fourth seeded Graf in the third round 6–4, 7–5 and also the sixth seeded Seles in a quarterfinal 7–6(4), 6–2. This was also notable because it was Zvereva's sole win over Graf in 21 career singles matches. She lost in the semi-finals to Nathalie Tauziat 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 8 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 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 on the first round to Marlene Weingärtner 4–6, 6–3, 6–2. She played in the invitational doubles event in 2007.

Doubles: 1 medal (1 bronze medal)

Meskhi and Zvereva lost in the semi-finals to Gigi Fernández and Mary Joe Fernández 6–4, 7–5. In 1992, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semi-final pairs received bronze medals.

Doubles

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.