Larisa Savchenko-Neiland ( uk, Лариса Савченко-Нейланд, lv, Larisa Savčenko-Neilande; née Savchenko; also Larisa Neiland; born 21 July 1966) is a retired
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player who represented the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. A former world number-one-ranked doubles player, Neiland won two Grand Slam
women's doubles and four
mixed doubles
Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...
titles. She also won two singles titles and 63 doubles titles on the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tourna ...
. She is listed in fourth place for the most doubles match wins (766) in WTA history, after
Lisa Raymond
Lisa Raymond (born August 10, 1973) is an American retired professional tennis player who has achieved notable success in Doubles (tennis), doubles tennis. Raymond has eleven Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles to her name: six in women's do ...
,
Rennae Stubbs
Rennae Stubbs (born 26 March 1971) is an Australian tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional player. She is the host of The Power Hour on Amazon Prime Video Sports Talk. She worked at the Seven Network between 2011 and 201 ...
and
Liezel Huber
Liezel Huber (née Horn; born 21 August 1976) is a South African-American retired tennis player who represented the United States internationally since August 2007. Huber has won four Grand Slam titles in women's doubles with partner Cara Blac ...
.
Career
Savchenko turned professional in 1983 as No. 10 on the
ITF Junior
The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...
rankings in that year. Doubles team of Savchenko and
Svetlana Parkhomenko reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 1983 and 1984, both times as an unseeded pair; beat No. 2 seeds Fairbank/Reynolds in 1983 and No. 3 seeds Horvath/Ruzici in 1984. In 1984, Savchenko reached the third round of the French Open as a qualifier, which was her best singles result at the French Open. She won her first singles title in Chicago in January 1984, where she only lost one set.
Having 1986 wins over
Wendy Turnbull
Wendy Turnbull, , (born 26 November 1952) is a retired tennis player from Australia. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runn ...
(twice),
Ann Henricksson
Ann Henricksson (born October 31, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player whose career spanned from 1981 to 1994.
She played two fourth-round Grand Slam matches: the Australian Open (defeated by Zina Garrison), and at Wimbledon ...
, and
Annabel Croft
Annabel Nicola Croft (born 12 July 1966) is a former professional British female tennis player and current radio and television presenter. As a tennis player she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain i ...
, Savchenko was ranked No. 1 in USSR for 1986. She qualified for the Virginia Slims Championships in March and November 1986 with partner Svetlana Parkhomenko. She defeated
Kathy Rinaldi
Kathy Rinaldi-Stunkel (born March 24, 1967) is a former professional American tennis player, who retired in September 1997. In her career, she won three singles and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour, and reached the semifinals of the 1985 Wimble ...
,
Peanut Louie Harper
Mareen "Peanut" Louie-Harper (born August 15, 1960) is a retired American tennis player, born in San Francisco, California to Ron and Alice Louie. She was a top-ranked junior tennis player and professional tennis player on the WTA tour. She reache ...
, and
Nathalie Tauziat
Nathalie Tauziat (born 17 October 1967) is a French former professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships and runner-up in the women's doubles at the 2001 US Open partnering Kimberl ...
to reach the quarterfinals of Eastbourne in 1986.
Savchenko jumped from No. 53 to No. 28 (June 1983) on the Hewlett-Packard/WITA Computer rankings after performances at Birmingham and Eastbourne. She also had wins over
Robin White, Ann Henricksson,
Candy Reynolds
Candy Reynolds (born March 24, 1955) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Career
During her career, Reynolds won the women's doubles title at the French Open in 1983 (partnering Rosalyn Fairbank). She was also a runne ...
, and
Melissa Gurney.
In 1988, Savchenko reached her first Grand Slam doubles final with
Natasha Zvereva
Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava ( be, Наталля Маратаўна Зверава; russian: Наталья Маратовна Зверева, Natalia Maratovna Zvereva; born 16 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. ...
. They lost 10–12 in the final set to
Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini (; born 16 May 1970) is an Argentine-Italian former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 ...
and
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
, who in that same year won all four Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal. In 1989, again with Zvereva, Savchenko won her first doubles Grand Slam final, over Graf and Sabatini in straight sets.
In December 1989, Larisa married Aleksandr Neiland and took his last name, she continued to compete as Larisa Savchenko-Neiland.
In 1991, she captured the Wimbledon title with Zvereva. In 1992, she lost in the
US Open final to
Jana Novotná
Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbled ...
and
Helena Suková
Helena Suková () (born 23 February 1965) is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doub ...
. She won her first mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, as well, when she and
Cyril Suk
Cyril Suk III (born 29 January 1967) is a former professional tennis player. A doubles specialist, Suk won five Grand Slam titles, one men's doubles and four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles and 32 ATP Tour doubles titles during his career.
Ear ...
teamed and won over Dutch duo
Jacco Eltingh and
Miriam Oremans
Miriam Oremans (born 9 September 1972) is a former professional female tennis player from the Netherlands. On 26 July 1993 she reached her career-high singles ranking of number 25.
She did not win any singles titles (Oremans did have two Satel ...
. That year, she reached the No. 1 doubles ranking. Neiland then reached her next five doubles runners-up with Novotná. Each and every final played with Novotná was lost, the first being the US Open in 1991 and losing to
Pam Shriver
Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...
and Zvereva.
Her final Grand Slam doubles final appearance came in 1996 at Wimbledon. Neiland played in 2000 but retired after losing at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round, when she and her partner
Lina Krasnoroutskaya
Lina Vladimirovna Krasnoroutskaya (russian: Лина Владимировна Красноруцкая ; born 29 April 1984) is a retired tennis player. She is a former junior world No. 1 (1999), and in addition, she won the US Open junior titl ...
lost to
Ai Sugiyama
is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles t ...
and
Julie Halard
Julie Halard-Decugis (born 10 September 1970) is a French former professional tennis player.
Tennis career
Halard-Decugis lived in La Baule, France, during the initial stages of her career and later moved to Pully, Switzerland. She turned profes ...
, the eventual runners-up, in straight sets.
Neiland tested positive for prohibited levels of the stimulant caffeine at the 1999 Australian Open. She was subsequently stripped of the $15k she had earned for reaching the women's doubles quarterfinals with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and issued a warning by the
International Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there a ...
.
As a coach, she is best known for guiding
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian inactive professional tennis player. She is a two-time major singles champion, winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, and finishing runner-up at two other majors. I ...
to the
2009 French Open
The 2009 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 113th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from May 24 through ...
singles title and has been a part of the Russian
Fed Cup
The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...
coaching team.
Major finals
Grand Slam tournaments
Women's doubles: 12 (2 titles, 10 runner-ups)
Mixed doubles: 9 (4 titles, 5 runner-ups)
Year-end championships
Doubles: 5 (5 runner-ups)
WTA career finals
Singles: 9 (2 titles, 7 runner-ups)
Doubles: 65 titles
*1990: Nashville (with
Kathy Jordan
Kathryn "Kathy" Jordan (born December 3, 1959) is a former American tennis player. During her career, she won seven Grand Slam titles, five of them in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. She also was the 1983 Australian Open women's single ...
)
*1991: Aukland (with
Patty Fendick
Patty Fendick (born March 31, 1965) is a former professional tennis player and the former women's tennis program head coach at University of Texas.
Born in Sacramento, California, she played at the collegiate level at Stanford University, where t ...
)
*1991: Boca Raton (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Hamburg (with
Jana Novotná
Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbled ...
)
*1991: Berlin (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Eastbourne (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Wimbledon (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Toronto (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Manhattan Beach (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1991: Washington, D.C. (with Jana Novotná)
*1991: Philadelphia (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Brisbane (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Boca Raton (with Natasha Zvereva)
*1992: Key Biscayne (with
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: four in singles, ...
)
*1992: Wesley Chapel (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Berlin (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Eastbourne (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: San Diego (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Leipzig (with Jana Novotná)
*1992: Brighton (with Jana Novotná)
*1993: Brisbane (with
Conchita Martínez
"Conchita" Martínez Bernat (born 16 April 1972) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was the first Spaniard to win the women's singles title at The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon, doing so in 1994 Wimbledon Championships ...
)
*1993: Osaka (with Jana Novotná)
*1993: Key Biscayne (with Jana Novotná)
*1993: Toronto (with Jana Novotná)
*1994: Osaka (with
Rennae Stubbs
Rennae Stubbs (born 26 March 1971) is an Australian tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional player. She is the host of The Power Hour on Amazon Prime Video Sports Talk. She worked at the Seven Network between 2011 and 201 ...
)
*1994: Amelia Island (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*1994: Barcelona (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*1994: Birmingham (with
Zina Garrison
Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963) is an American former professional tennis player. Garrison was the runner-up in singles at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, a three-time major mixed doubles champion, and an Olympic gold and bronze m ...
)
*1994: Schenectady (with
Meredith McGrath
Meredith McGrath (born April 28, 1971) is a former professional tennis player.
She was born in Midland, Michigan, and made her debut on the WTA Tour in 1988. In her eight-year professional career, Meredith achieved career-high world rankings of ...
)
*1994: Brighton (with
Manon Bollegraf
Manon Maria Bollegraf (born 10 April 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands, who was a quarterfinalist at the singles event of the 1992 French Open, a finalist in doubles at the 1997 Wimbledon Championships, and a four ...
)
*1995: Paris Open Gaz de France (with Meredith McGrath)
*1995: Barcelona (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*1995: Edinburgh (with Meredith McGrath)
*
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
: Moscow (with Meredith McGrath)
*1995: Leipzig (with Meredith McGrath)
*1995: Brighton (with Meredith McGrath)
*1996: Essen (with Meredith McGrath)
*1996: Berlin (with Meredith McGrath)
*1996: Rosmalen (with
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy
Brenda Anne Marie Schultz-McCarthy (born 28 December 1970) is a former Dutch tennis player. Primarily known by her maiden name Brenda Schultz, she married Sean McCarthy, a former American football
American football (referred to simply a ...
)
*1996: Montreal (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
: Moscow (with
Natalia Medvedeva)
*1997: Birmingham (with
Katrina Adams
Katrina M. Adams (born August 5, 1968) is an American tennis executive and former professional tennis player from Chicago. She was president and CEO of the United States Tennis Association and chair of the US Open (tennis), US Open, as well as t ...
)
*1997: Luxembourg (with
Helena Suková
Helena Suková () (born 23 February 1965) is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doub ...
)
*1999: Gold Coast (with
Corina Morariu
Corina Maria Morariu (born January 26, 1978) is an American former professional tennis player.
Morariu (pronounced: mo-RA-R'ju) was born in Detroit, Michigan and is of Romanian descent. She turned professional in 1994. Mainly known as a doubles ...
)
*1999: Hamburg (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*1999: Birmingham (with Corina Morariu)
*1999: Los Angeles (with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario)
*1999: Leipzig (with
Mary Pierce
Mary Caroline Pierce (born 15 January 1975) is a retired tennis professional who represented France internationally in team competitions and the Olympics. She was born in Canada to an American father and a French mother, and holds citizenship of ...
)
ITF finals
Singles (2–0)
Doubles (3–1)
Women's doubles performance timeline
Head-to-head records
*
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: four in singles, ...
0–4
*
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
0–1
*
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...
0–3
*
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...
1–1
*
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
0–6
*
Monica Seles
Monica Seles (; hu, Széles Mónika, ; sr, Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; born December 2, 1973) is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Slam ...
0–2
*
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
1–9
Personal life
She married Latvian tennis coach Aleksandr Neiland on 21 December 1989, after which her surname was changed from Savchenko to Neiland (Savčenko-Neiland). The marriage later ended in divorce.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neiland, Larisa
1966 births
Living people
Soviet emigrants to Latvia
Sportspeople from Lviv
Wimbledon champions
Latvian female tennis players
Soviet female tennis players
Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Australian Open (tennis) champions
French Open champions
Latvian tennis coaches
Latvian people of Ukrainian descent
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles
Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR
Universiade medalists in tennis
Universiade gold medalists for the Soviet Union
Universiade silver medalists for the Soviet Union
Australian Open (tennis) junior champions
Olympic tennis players of the Soviet Union
Olympic tennis players of Latvia
Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games medalists in tennis
Friendship Games medalists in tennis
WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players