Belarusian tennis player

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Marataŭna or Maratovna and the family name is Zvereva.

Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava (Belarusian: Наталля Маратаўна Зверава; Russian: Наталья Маратовна Зверева, romanized::Natalia Maratovna Zvereva; born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. The team of Zvereva and Gigi Fernández won more women's doubles *les and Grand Slam women's doubles championships than any other team since Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.

On 12 July 2010, Zvereva was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame alongside Fernández.

Contents

• 1 Personal life
• 2 Career
• 3 Playing style
• 4 Significant finals
  • 4.1 Grand Slam finals
    • 4.1.1 Singles: 1 (runner-up)
    • 4.1.2 Doubles: 31 (18 *les, 13 runner-ups)
    • 4.1.3 Mixed doubles: 4 (2 *les, 2 runner-ups)
  • 4.2 Olympic Games
    • 4.2.1 Doubles: 1 bronze medal
  • 4.3 Year-end championships finals
    • 4.3.1 Doubles: 6 (3 *les, 3 runner-ups)
• 5 WTA career finals
  • 5.1 Singles: 19 (4–15)
  • 5.2 Doubles: 129 (80–49)
• 6 ITF finals
  • 6.1 Singles: 4 (3–1)
  • 6.2 Doubles: 4 (3–1)
• 7 Other finals
  • 7.1 Singles (3–0)
  • 7.2 Doubles (2–1)
  • 7.3 Mixed (1–0)
• 8 Grand Slam performance timelines
  • 8.1 Singles
  • 8.2 Doubles
• 9 References
• 10 External links

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 *le 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 *les and 80 WTA Tour doubles *les, 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 *les 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 *les, 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 Martina Navratilova en route. In a highly publicized final, she lost to Steffi Graf 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 *les 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 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 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 *les, Zvereva twice won the mixed-doubles *le at the Australian Open. She partnered with Jim Pugh to win the *le 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 *les, 13 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 4 (2 *les, 2 runner-ups)

Olympic Games

Doubles: 1 bronze medal

Meskhi and Zvereva lost in the semifinals to Gigi Fernández and Mary Joe Fernández 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 *les, 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

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

• Natasha Zvereva at the Women's Tennis *ociation
• Natasha Zvereva at the International Tennis Federation
• Natasha Zvereva at the Billie Jean King Cup

WomenContributors

• Russ Adams
• George Adee
• Lawrence Baker
• John Barrett
• Nick Bollettieri
• Vic Braden
• Jane Brown Grimes
• Butch Buchholz
• Philippe Chatrier
• Gianni Clerici
• Bud Collins
• Joseph Cullman
• Allison Danzig
• Mike Davies
• Herman David
• Donald Dell
• Cliff Drysdale
• Steve Flink
• David Gray
• Clarence Griffin
• Gustaf V
• Derek Hardwick
• Gladys Heldman
• William Hester
• Lamar Hunt
• Nancy Jeffett
• Robert Walter Johnson
• Perry T. Jones
• Robert J. Kelleher
• Peachy Kellmeyer
• Al Laney
• Alastair Martin
• Dan Maskell
• William McChesney Martin
• Mark McCormack
• Julian Myrick
• Arthur Nielsen
• Mary Ewing Outerbridge
• Brad Parks
• Charlie Pasarell
• Gene Scott
• Lance Tingay
• Ted Tinling
• Ion Țiriac
• Brian Tobin
• Jimmy Van Alen
• Walter Clopton Wingfield

Global amb*adors

• Martina Hingis
• Gustavo Kuerten

WTA Finals *les
& *ogues

• Singles
• 1998 New York
• 2000 New York

• Doubles
• 1999 New York (with Anna Kournikova)
• 2000 New York (with Anna Kournikova)
• 2015 Singapore (with Sania Mirza)

WTA-1000 *les
& *oguesPremier
Mandatory
(2009—2020)

• Singles
• Nil

• Doubles
• 2014 Miami (with Sabine Lisicki)
• 2015 Indian Wells (with Sania Mirza)
• 2015 Miami (with Sania Mirza)
• 2015 Beijing (with Sania Mirza)
• 2017 Indian Wells (with Latisha Chan)
• 2017 Madrid (with Latisha Chan)
• 2017 Beijing (with Latisha Chan)

Premier 5
(2009—2020)

• Singles
• Nil

• Doubles
• 2014 Wuhan (with Flavia Pennetta)
• 2015 Wuhan (with Sania Mirza)
• 2016 Rome (with Sania Mirza)
• 2017 Rome (with Latisha Chan)
• 2017 Cincinnati (with Latisha Chan)
• 2017 Wuhan (with Latisha Chan)

WTA-500 *les
& *ogues

• Singles
• 1996 Stuttgart
• 1996 Oakland
• 1996 Sydney
• 1997 Paris
• 1997 Stanford
• 1997 San Diego
• 1997 Stuttgart
• 1997 Philadelphia
• 1998 Hamburg
• 1999 San Diego
• 1999 Stuttgart
• 2000 Hamburg
• 2000 Stuttgart
• 2001 Sydney
• 2001 Dubai
• 2002 Sydney

• Doubles
• 1995 Hamburg (with Gigi Fernández)
• 1997 Paris (with Helena Suková)
• 1997 Stanford (with Lindsay Davenport)
• 1997 San Diego (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
• 1997 Leipzig (with Jana Novotná)
• 1997 Stuttgart (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
• 1998 Sydney (with Helena Suková)
• 1998 Los Angeles (with Natasha Zvereva)
• 1999 Eastbourne (with Anna Kournikova)
• 2000 Stuttgart (with Anna Kournikova)
• 2000 Philadelphia (with Anna Kournikova)
• 2002 Hamburg (with Barbara Schett)
• 2007 Doha (with Maria Kirilenko)
• 2014 Moscow (with Flavia Penetta)
• 2015 Brisbane (with Sabine Lisicki)
• 2015 Charleston (with Sania Mirza)
• 2016 Brisbane (with Sania Mirza)
• 2016 Sydney (with Sania Mirza)
• 2016 St. Petersburg (with Sania Mirza)
• 2017 Eastbourne (with Latisha Chan)

WTA-250 *les
& *ogues

• Singles
• 2000 's-Hertogenbosch
• 2001 Doha
• 2006 Kolkata

• Doubles
• 2015 Guangzhou (with Sania Mirza)
• 2017 Mallorca (with Latisha Chan)

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