Nadia Natacha Podoroska (; born 10 February 1997) is an Argentine professional

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. She competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Podoroska has won one doubles title 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 ...

, along with 14 singles titles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 12 July 2021, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 36, and on 18 October 2021, she peaked at No. 62 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Early life

Podoroska was born on February 10, 1997 in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

, Santa Fe Province, and grew up in a middle-class family in Fisherton, a neighborhood founded in the late 1880s by railroad workers. She is one of three children born to father Marcelo and mother Irene; she is of Ukrainian descent as her grandparents were Ukrainian but she does not speak

the language "The Language" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake from his third studio album ''Nothing Was the Same'' (2013). "The Language" was produced by frequent collaborator Boi-1da, along with additional production by Allen Ritter and Vinylz. It also fea ...

at all. Her father was a

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

by profession who over the years became a

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

, and her mother is also a pharmacist. Nadia was the first in her family to play tennis, a sport that she began to practice at the Fisherton Athletic Club at the age of five. As a child, she followed the performances of the Argentine male tennis players, especially

Guillermo Cañas Guillermo Ignacio Cañas (; born November 25, 1977), often referred to as Willy Cañas, is a retired tennis player from Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and named after Argentine tennis star Guillermo Vilas. Cañas won the 2002 Canada Maste ...

, although not so much of the national female representatives because they were broadcast infrequently on television. Among the female tennis players, she admired the

Williams sisters The Williams sisters are two professional American tennis players: Venus Williams (b. 1980), a seven-time Grand Slam title winner (singles), and Serena Williams (b. 1981), twenty-three-time Grand Slam title winner (singles), both of whom were co ...

. Her first years on the circuit were complicated, due to financial difficulties to compete internationally. In late 2017, she suffered several injuries that put her career in jeopardy. Upon her return, she took the decision of going to live in

Alicante, Spain Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in the ...

, to settle in Europe and have greater chances of competing weekly. In addition, she began to be trained by Juan Pablo Guzmán and Emiliano Redondi. She added Pedro Merani to her team, with whom she performs a mental training based on bompu zen and neuroscience, an aspect that she considered important to change her attitude towards tennis and its matches.

Professional career

2020: French Open singles semifinal, top 50 & Newcomer of the Year

In October, Podoroska became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

when she beat third seed

Elina Svitolina Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina ( uk, Еліна Михайлівна Світоліна, ; born 12 September 1994) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and 108 in doubles. Svitolina ...

in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. Podoroska was named the

WTA Newcomer of the Year This article lists the WTA Awards given by the Women's Tennis Association to players and coaches for achievements during a season or their careers. Player of the Year Doubles Team of the Year Most Improved Player Newcomer of the Yea ...

for her rankings achievement and her solid performance throughout the season.

2021–22: French Open SF in doubles, top 40 in singles & Olympics debut

She continued her good form when she reached the quarterfinals of the Yarra Valley Classic by defeating fourth-seeded

Petra Kvitová Petra Kvitová, OLY ( , ; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová has won 29 career singles titles, including two major titles at Wimbledon in 2011 and i ...

. In May, at the Italian Open, she defeated 23 times Grand Slam champion and eighth seeded

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 ...

, in the second round. This was her third top-ten win in the last eight months. Williams was playing her 1000th match of her career. At the

, Podoroska lost in the first round to tenth seed

Belinda Bencic Belinda Bencic ( sk, Belinda Benčičová, ; born 10 March 1997) is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 4 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won six singl ...

but reached semifinals in doubles, partnering with

Irina-Camelia Begu Irina-Camelia Begu (born 26 August 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 22 in the world, in August 2016. Two years later, she reached her highest WTA doubles ranking, also No. 22. Begu ...

for the first time. As a result, she reached the top 40 in singles and No. 69 in doubles for the first time in her career on 14 June 2021. At the end of the year, following the 2021 US Open, Podoroska announced she was withdrawing from the

2022 Australian Open The 2022 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, Australia from 17 to 30 January 2022. It was the 110th edition of the Australian Open, the 54th in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam of the ye ...

due to struggles with pain that hit her through the whole season, opting to rest and recover until March 2022. She returned to competition in June 2022 after ten months of inactivity to participate in the Wimbledon qualifying where she reached the second round.

National representation

Playing for the

Argentina Fed Cup team The Argentina women's national tennis team represents Argentina in Billie Jean King Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Asociación Argentina de Tenis. The team's historical best results came in 1986 and 1993, when they reached the s ...

, Podoroska has a win–loss record of 12–8. She qualified to represent Argentina at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and won against

Yulia Putintseva Yulia Antonovna Putintseva ( rus, Ю́лия Анто́новна Пути́нцева; , ''puh-TEEN-tseh-vah''; born 7 January 1995) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player. She is a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist (twic ...

, who played for Kazakhstan, by retirement to reach the second round, and Russian

Ekaterina Alexandrova Ekaterina Evgenyevna Alexandrova ( rus, Екатери́на Евге́ньевна Александро́ва, links=no; ; born 15 November 1994) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has won three WTA singles titles, three WTA 125 titl ...

to reach the third round. Podoroska became the first Argentine woman to reach the round of 16 in Olympic tennis in the 21st century in singles. Only two Argentine female players have reached it 25 years ago,

Gabriella 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

Inés Gorrochategui Inés Gorrochategui (born 13 June 1973) is a former professional female tennis player from Argentina. She reached her career-high singles ranking world No. 19 on October 17, 1994. Her best performance at a Grand Slam championship came when she got ...

in 1996 at

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Personal life

Podoroska lives and trains in

. In 2022, Podoroska came out as a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

, posting her pictures on Instagram with her girlfriend, fellow Argentinian tennis player,

Guillermina Naya Guillermina Naya (born 27 September 1996) is an inactive Argentine tennis player. Naya has a career-high WTA singles ranking of 533, achieved on 10 August 2020. She also has a career-high doubles ranking of 646, achieved on 21 May 2018. She has ...

. She confirmed their relationship in an interview with ClayTenis.com.

Performance timelines

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

''Current after the 2023 Australian Open.''

Doubles

''Current after the 2023 Australian Open.''

WTA career finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 17 (14 titles, 3 runner–ups)

Doubles: 11 (7 titles, 4 runner–ups)

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Podoroska, Nadia 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Rosario, Santa Fe Argentine female tennis players Argentine people of Ukrainian descent Pan American Games medalists in tennis Pan American Games gold medalists for Argentina Tennis players at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Olympic tennis players of Argentina Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Argentine LGBT sportspeople LGBT tennis players 21st-century LGBT people Lesbian sportswomen