Natasha Zvereva

Biography

Born on 16 April 1971 in Minsk, then part of the Soviet Union, Natasha Zvereva (Natalia, known as Natasha) is a tennis player who represented the Soviet Union and later Belarus, and one of the greatest doubles specialists in history. With eighteen Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles, she was world No. 1 in the discipline. A French Open singles finalist at 17, she also won four WTA singles titles.

She turned professional in May 1988 and immediately caused a stir: at 17 she reached the French Open final, where she lost 6-0, 6-0 to Steffi Graf in 34 minutes, the shortest Grand Slam final of the Open Era. She then played for the Soviet Union, later for the CIS in 1992 and for Belarus from 1993. As early as 1989 she won the French Open doubles title with Larisa Savchenko and, in 1990, the Australian Open mixed doubles with Jim Pugh. On 22 May 1989 she reached No. 5 in the singles rankings, her career high.

The early 1990s made her a benchmark in doubles. In 1991 she won Wimbledon with Larisa Savchenko and the US Open with Pam Shriver, then became world No. 1 on 7 October. From 1992 she teamed up with the American Gigi Fernández: the pair won 14 Grand Slam titles up to 1997, including six in a row from the 1992 French Open to Wimbledon in 1993. They are often ranked, behind Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver, among the best pairs of the Open Era. In 1992 Natasha Zvereva also won an Olympic bronze medal in doubles at Barcelona, with Leila Meskhi, for the Unified Team.

In singles she produced another memorable run at Wimbledon in 1998: she beat Steffi Graf in the third round and Monica Seles in the quarter-finals, before losing to Nathalie Tauziat in the semi-finals. She played at four Olympic Games, from 1988 to 2000, and ended her career in 2002, after a final Wimbledon. Her record includes 80 WTA doubles titles and three season-ending championships in that discipline.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on 12 July 2010, alongside Gigi Fernández. With six titles at the French Open, five at Wimbledon, four at the US Open and three at the Australian Open, she won all four Grand Slam tournaments in doubles. Her longevity, fourteen years at the highest level, and her consistency make her one of the great champions of the discipline.