Vera Zvonareva is a Russian professional tennis player who was born on September 7, 1984, in Moscow, Russia. Mother Natalia introduced Vera to tennis at the age of six, and she was seemingly destined for a career in sports. Her mother's talents went beyond teaching the tennis court, with her winning a bronze medal for field hockey at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
By 2000, Zvonareva was officially professional, with her WTA Tour-level debut coming just five weeks later at a tournament in Moscow. Just a year later, she reached her first WTA final at the Palermo Open, all before achieving her first taste of a Grand Slam main draw first-round, which came at that season’s French Open after coming through three grueling qualifying rounds.
The progress continued, with her winning a Tier 3 event in Bol before going on to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros in 2003. 2004 came with yet more success for the Russian, with her claiming her first Grand Slam title in the mixed doubles event at the US Open.
It was, in fact, the doubles side of her game that saw her bring in the trophies early on, with her winning the US Open women’s and the Wimbledon mixed doubles titles in 2006. Just two years and an injury down the line, 2008 proved memorable, with her claiming the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games in singles.
Despite all her success up until that point, it was 2010 that would certainly have proved the most outstanding for Zvonareva. First up was a Wimbledon final in singles and doubles before another Grand Slam singles final in New York.
All this hard work paid off, with her achieving her career-high ranking of world number 2 in October of that year. Following yet more titles mixed in with a few injuries, Zvonareva currently finds herself on a total of 12 career singles titles, 16 women’s doubles, and 2 mixed, including 5 Grand Slams.
Stats like these certainly class her as a legend of the game. Despite her recent drop-off she will forever be remembered as one of the game’s best, for her versatility on both the singles and doubles courts.
