Vera Zvonareva

Vera Zvonareva
September 7, 1984 (Russia)
Tennis player

Plays: right-handed
Backhand: two-handed backhand

Vera Zvonareva is a Russian tennis player. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career-high ranking is world No. 2 by the WTA.

Zvonareva has won 12 WTA Tour singles titles including 2009 Indian Wells Masters and reached the finals of the 2008 WTA Tour Championships, 2010 Wimbledon Championships, and 2010 US Open. She also was a bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In doubles, she has won five Grand Slam titles. Three of the titles came in women’s doubles, the first two at the 2006 US Open, partnering Nathalie Dechy, and the 2012 Australian Open, with Svetlana Kuznetsova. Following her return to tennis, Zvonareva won her third women’s doubles Grand Slam title at the 2020 US Open, partnering Laura Siegemund. Her other two titles came in mixed doubles, the first at the 2004 US Open with Bob Bryan, and her second at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships with Andy Ram.

CAREER

Grand Slam Highlights:

Singles results
Australian Open SF (2009, 2011)
Roland Garros QF (2003)
Wimbledon F (2010)
US Open F (2010), QF (2011)
Doubles results
Australian Open Winner (2012), QF (2006), SF (2005)
Roland Garros QF (2006)
Wimbledon F (2010), QF (2005)
US Open Winner (2006, 2020), QF (2010), F (2023)
Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon Winner (2006)
US Open Winner (2004).

1999

Played first event of career on ITF Circuit – ITF tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia.

2000

Played first WTA main draw at Moscow, reaching 2r (as WC, l. to world No. 11 Kournikova); won one singles title on ITF Circuit.

2001

Won the Orange Bowl Under-18s event. Fell in WTA qualifying twice.

2002
First Top 100 season – made debut on June 10 (after Roland Garros; rose from No.142 to No.90) and Top 50 debut on September 9 (after US Open; rose from No.57 to No.49).

WTA Tour: runner-up once at Palermo; SF twice at Warsaw and Sopot; QF at Bol.
Reached 4r once (Roland Garros), 3r once (US Open) and 2r twice (incl. Wimbledon).
Won one singles title on ITF Circuit.

2003
First Top 20 season (finishing No.13) – made debut on June 9 (after Roland Garros; rose from No.21 to No.20).

Won one WTA title at Bol; SF three times at Strasbourg, Vienna and Linz; QF nine times at Auckland, Hobart, Indian Wells, Charleston, Berlin, Roland Garros, Toronto, Moscow and Zürich; reached 4r once (Wimbledon), 3r once (US Open) and 2r three times.

2004
Another Top 20 season (finishing No.11).

Won one WTA title at Memphis; runner-up twice at Cincinnati and Philadelphia; SF six times at Warsaw, Rome, Eastbourne, San Diego, Montréal and Beijing; QF five times at Amelia Island, Charleston, Los Angeles, Moscow and Linz; reached 4r four times (incl. Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open), 3r twice (incl. Roland Garros) and 2r four times.
Made Top 10 debut on August 9 (after Montréal; rose from No.14 to No.9).
Won one WTA doubles title.
Won first Grand Slam mixed doubles title at US Open (w/B.Bryan).

2005
Injury-marred season.

Won one WTA title at Memphis; SF at Rome; QF three times at Pattaya City, Amelia Island and Tokyo [Japan Open]; reached 3r once (Roland Garros) and 2r 11 times (incl. Australian Open and Wimbledon).
Won one WTA doubles title.

2006
Near-Top 20 season (finishing No.24).

Won two WTA titles at Birmingham and Cincinnati; runner-up at Auckland; SF at Hasselt; QF four times at Stanford, Seoul, Moscow and Linz; reached 3r three times (incl. US Open) and 2r six times.
Won two Grand Slam titles: women’s doubles US Open (w/Dechy) and mixed doubles title at Wimbledon (w/Ram).

2007
Near-Top 20 season (finishing No.23) and second injury.

Runner-up finish at Auckland (l. to Jankovic), SF at Charleston (ret. vs. Safina w/left wrist injury), QF at Indian Wells and 4r twice (incl. Australian Open); reached 2r once.
Returned for five events at end of season, reaching 3r at US Open, QF at Portoroz, SF at Luxembourg (l. to Ivanovic), QF at Moscow, 2r at Zürich and SF at Québec City (l. to Davenport).

2008
First Top 10 season (finishing No.7)

Won two WTA titles at Prague and Guangzhou. Runner-up six times at Hobart, Doha, Charleston, Moscow, Linz and WTA Finals.
Won Olympic bronze.
Had equal-most match wins on season (65 – tied with Jankovic).

2009
Another Top 10 season (finishing No.9)

Won two WTA titles at Pattaya City and Indian Wells.
Reaching first Grand Slam SF at Australian Open, QF at Dubai and 3r runs at Miami and Charleston.
Made Top 5 debut on February 2 (after Australian Open; rose from No.7 to No.5).
Won one WTA doubles title.
After right ankle injury returned in June and best results rest of season were two QFs at Los Angeles and Beijing.

2010
Best season to date (finishing No.2 behind Wozniacki).

Strong 19-6 start, highlighted by one WTA title at Pattaya City, runner-up at Charleston, QF at Dubai and three 4r finishes (incl. Australian Open).
Phenomenal 28-8 second half of season pushed her to No.2 on November 8 year-end rankings: two Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and US Open, another two finals at Montréal and Beijing, SF at WTA Finals and QF at Tokyo.

2011
Fourth Top 10 season (finishing No.7).

Won two WTA titles at Doha and Baku; runner-up twice at Carlsbad and Tokyo; SF six times at Australian Open, Pattaya City, Miami, Brussels, Cincinnati and WTA Finals; QF four times at Stuttgart, Eastbourne, US Open and Moscow; reached 4r once (Roland Garros), 3r six times (incl. Wimbledon) and 2r once.

2012
Lowest finish in 11 years after injury and illness-marred season (finishing No.98).

Played 10 events from January to July, reaching QF twice at Pattaya City and Charleston, 3r four times (incl. Australian Open, Wimbledon and Olympics) and 2r twice.
Won second Grand Slam doubles title at Australian Open (w/Kuznetsova).

2013
Did not play (withdrew from all events w/right shoulder injury – underwent surgery in February).

2014

Played five events during first half of season (finishing No.251).
Best results: 3r at Wimbledon and 2r at Pattaya City.

2015

Played eight events during first three and a half months of season – best results being two QFs at Shenzhen and Pattaya City; reached 2r three times (incl. Australian Open).
Did not play any events after Katowice in mid-April.

2016
Did not play. On 23 August announced her marriage. Her daughter Evelina was born in 2016.

2017

SF at Tashkent; won one singles ITF title in Sharm El Sheikh.

2018

QF at Moscow [Kremlin Cup]; reached 2r four times (incl. US Open).
Won two WTA doubles titles.

2019
Started off her season at the Shenzhen Open, where she reached the semifinals. In February, Zvonareva was given a wildcard for the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy for the second year in a row. She beat Ekaterina Makarova, Julia Görges and Daria Kasatkina to reach the semifinals.

2020

First Grand Slam doubles title in eight years – US Open (w/Laura Siegemund).

2021
Back to top 100 in singles and top 40 in doubles. Best results: QF at Concord and St. Petersburg; Grand Slam doubles 2r at Australian Open.

2022
Won the doubles title at the Lyon Open with former partner Laura Siegemund.
Won WTA 1000 Miami Open doubles title partnering Laura Siegemund.
She finished the year ranked No. 273 in singles and No. 31 in doubles.

2023
In May, won the WTA 125 tournament in Paris (w/ Anna Danilina).
At Wimbledon 2023, she reached the 1/4 finals (for the first time since 2010) together with Siegemund.
Won WTA 500 Washington DC and WTA 250 Ningbo Open doubles title partnering Laura Siegemund.
Finalist in doubles at the USA Open. Vera reached the final of a Grand Slam women’s doubles tournament for the fifth time in her career and the third time in the United States after 2006 and 2020. In total, this is the 9th Grand Slam final for Zvonareva (the fifth in the USA).