Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Natasha Zvereva

Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Natasha Zvereva

U.S. Open Champions Team Tennis; Sept. 8, 2010. Photo by Robbie Mendelson. Wikimedia Commons.

Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava 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 titles 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. Here are the Top 10  Remarquable Facts about Natasha Zvereva.

1. Both her parents were tennis instructors

Ladies Invitation Doubles. Photo by Carine06. Wikimedia Commons.

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.

Her parents, Marat Zverev and Nina Zvereva, were both tennis instructors who coached at the Soviet Army Club. They decided that tennis would be his daughter’s passport to freedom.

2. She changed her name from Natallia to Natasha

While her name is sometimes spelled Zverava, in 1994 she officially changed her name to Natasha Zvereva. Natasha was her own person. Curt answers such as that are representative of Zvereva’s policy of not revealing her true feelings (or much else about her personal life) to anybody, not even friends.

‘I’ve never known anyone like her,’ Davenport says. ‘She’s a neat person, but there are times when I wish I understood her more. She is so independent. She could go anywhere in the world and be totally comfortable being alone.’ ‘I don’t think about the past,’ Zvereva says. ‘I live my life in the present, maybe with just a peek into the future.’

3. She has a unique symbol of success

At 18, answering the question about her personal symbol of success, she famously replied the following: “A red Mercedes-Benz, a big one”. Natasha simply had no pressure in her outlook of life.

In an interview, she paused, then summed up the ‘fun-first, singles-second’ attitude that has characterized her career: ‘You have to want it, and I don’t. I’m not playing for anyone. I’m living my life the way I want.’

4. Natasha had a unique way of playing

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.

5. Natasha’s partner was volleyer Gigi Fernández

Czech Jana Novotna & Belarussian Natasha Zvereva partnering at 2014 French Open Legends event. Photo by Fred Romero. Wikimedia Commons.

Her partner in winning around 14 major titles was the big serve and volleyer Gigi Fernández, and that duo holds the second-longest major doubles title streak in the Open Era, winning six in a row from the French Open in 1992 through Wimbledon in 1993, ranking just below the eight earned by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. In a February 20, 1995 Sports Illustrated profile on the daunting Zvereva- Fernández duo, Navratilova said, “We were power. They are finesse. It would have been close.”

The bubbly-playing tandem that prospered because they were teammates and friends, impressively won a non-calendar year Grand Slam, running from the 1992 French Open to the 1993 Australian Open. Together, they won the Australian (1993, 1994), French (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997), Wimbledon (1992, 1993, 1994, 1997), and US Open (1992, 1995, 1996).

6. She was a terrific counter puncher

Zvereva was a terrific counter puncher with a driving topspin forehand. She rolled over the ball forcefully and was always on the attack whether it was in doubles or singles play. She hit her power backhand with two hands, but also employed a smooth one-handed slice backhand.

Her serve was tailor, made for doubles, it kicked wide and away from her opponent equally well on both the ad and deuce courts. Aided by an oversized racquet and supreme reflexes, Zvereva’s punched volleys for winners. This multi-faceted game made her a difficult doubles player to neutralize. In her 18 major doubles victories, Zvereva lost only six sets playing on the game’s biggest stages.

7. She publicly challenged the Soviet government allow her keep her earnings

U.S. Open Champions Team Tennis Sept. 8, 2010. Photo by Robbie Mendelson. Wikimedia Commons.

Zvereva, who publicly challenged the Soviet government to allow her to keep her tour earnings, and was successful in that campaign, earned a Bronze Medal in doubles at the 1992 Olympic Games played in Barcelona, Spain, as a member of the Unified Team. Zvereva began fighting for her independence from what she terms a ‘repressed’ lifestyle at age 18.

 First, with the encouragement of her father, she took on the Soviet Sports Committee, which kept the bulk of her 1988 prize money ($361,354), reportedly granting her a mere $1,000 weekly allowance.

In April 1989, following her loss in the final of the Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C., Zvereva told a national television audience that she’d like to keep every nickel of her prize money. With the Cold War thawing, Soviet authorities could ill afford the public relations debacle of a star athlete like Zvereva defecting. In the end, she was allowed to keep both her winnings and her nationality.

8. She’s on the international tennis Hall of Fame

The numbers are accurate, not a massive typo or misprint. In her 14-year career, Natasha Zvereva won 20 major doubles titles, appeared in 35 major finals and won a staggering 86 championships playing on the Women’s Tennis Association tour.

9. Natasha is one of the few players who defeated both Graf and Monica Seles

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.

10. She retired in 2003

Photo by Carine06. Wikimedia Commons.

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.