Paola Suárez (; born 23 June 1976) is a retired
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player from
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
. She was one of the most prominent women's doubles players throughout the early and mid-2000s, winning eight Grand Slam titles, all of them with
Virginia Ruano Pascual, and holding the No. 1 doubles ranking for 87 non-consecutive weeks. She was also a singles top ten player and semifinalist at the
2004 French Open.
Career
Suárez began playing professional tennis at the age of 15. In 1994, she joined the professional tour as a singles player.
Suárez won four WTA titles (2004 Canberra, 2003 Vienna, 1998 & 2001 Bogotá) and 12 other minor tournaments. In 2004, she reached her only
Grand Slam singles semi-final by defeating the 18th seed and
future Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
, but lost to
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...
. That year, she reached her highest WTA ranking of No. 9, to become the highest-ranked Argentine women's player since
Gabriela Sabatini achieved the No. 3 ranking in 1989. Also in 2004, she won the bronze medal at the
Olympic Games in Athens for the women's doubles with
Patricia Tarabini.
She had success in singles but her best results came in doubles, winning more than half a dozen titles partnering fellow Argentine
Laura Montalvo. However Suárez's more long-standing doubles partnership was with the Spaniard
Virginia Ruano Pascual, with whom she won 32 of her 39 titles. Besides numerous WTA Tour titles, they won the
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
on four occasions, the
US Open three times, and the Australian Open in 2004. Suárez and Ruano Pascual were the No. 1 female pair for three consecutive years after 9 September 2002 and were the
WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year in 2002, 2003 and 2004. They also reached nine straight Grand Slam finals, two short of
Navratilova and
Shriver's record of eleven.
In 2005, Suárez announced her forthcoming retirement for personal reasons. In June of that year, she underwent a
labrum hip clinical intervention, with a recovery time of three to four months. She restarted playing in Sydney in January 2006 with Ruano Pascual, reaching the final, but suffered a
calf injury short after. Later that year, she also reached the final of
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
with Ruano Pascual, marking her third appearance in a final there.
Suárez returned to the circuit with a victory over
Dinara Safina, ranked No. 15, in the
San Diego Open singles tournament.
On 1 September 2007, Suárez retired after losing in the mixed doubles second round at the
US Open. She partnered
Kevin Ullyett and lost to
Jamie Murray
Jamie Robert Murray (born 13 February 1986) is a British professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is a seven-time Grand Slam (tennis), major doubles champion (five in mixed doubles and two in men's doubles), a Davis Cup winne ...
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 B ...
, 5–7, 4–6. She briefly returned to the WTA doubles tour in
2012
2012 was designated as:
*International Year of Cooperatives
*International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Events January
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* January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
, partnering her fellow Argentinian
Gisela Dulko. The pair played at the
London Summer Olympics but lost in the first round.
In her career, Suárez earned more than $5.2 million, with four singles titles on the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...
, and eight doubles Grand Slam titles.
Significant finals
Grand Slam tournaments
Doubles: 14 (8 titles, 6 runner-ups)
Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
Olympic Games
Doubles: 1 (bronze medal)
WTA Tour finals
Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)
Doubles: 69 (44 titles, 25 runner-ups)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles (12–4)
Doubles (7–6)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Record against top-10 players
Suárez's match record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been ranked No. 1 in boldface
*
Patty Schnyder
Patty Schnyder (born 14 December 1978)
Weltwoche, 14. September 2011 is a Swiss reti ...
5–4
*
Mary Pierce 4–2
*
Barbara Schett 3–2
*
Jelena Dokic 2–0
*
Anna Kournikova 2–0
*
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Kuznetsova won 18 singl ...
2–0
*
Alicia Molik 2–0
*
Dinara Safina 2–0
*
Daniela Hantuchová
Daniela Hantuchová (; born 23 April 1983) is a Slovak tennis commentator and retired player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first WTA Tour title at the Indian Wells Open, defeating Martin ...
2–1
*
Francesca Schiavone 2–1
*
Nadia Petrova
Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova ( ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing s ...
2–2
*
Sandrine Testud 2–2
*
Magdalena Maleeva 2–3
*
Amélie Mauresmo 2–3
*
Ai Sugiyama 2–3
*
Vera Zvonareva
Vera Igorevna Zvonareva ( rus, Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, p=ˈvʲerə ˈiɡərʲɪvnə zvənɐˈrʲɵvə, a=Vera zvonareva.ogg; born 7 September 1984) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ran ...
2–3
*
Anke Huber
Anke Huber (born 4 December 1974) is a German retired professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1996 Australian Open and the 1995 WTA Finals. Huber won 12 singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour. She fi ...
1–0
*
Maria Kirilenko
Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko ( rus, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Кириле́нко, p=mɐˈrʲijə kʲɪrʲɪˈlʲenkə, a=Ru-Maria_Kirilenko.ogg; born 25 January 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A junior Grand Slam champio ...
1–0
*
Barbara Paulus 1–0
*
Lucie Šafářová 1–0
*
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...
1–0
*
Nathalie Tauziat 1–0
*
Andrea Temesvári 1–0
*
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...
1–0
*
Jelena Janković
Jelena Janković ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Јанковић, ; born 28 February 1985) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the W ...
1–1
*
Iva Majoli 1–1
*
Anastasia Myskina 1–1
*
Mary Joe Fernández 1–2
*
Chanda Rubin 1–2
*
Elena Dementieva
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...
1–3
*
Amanda Coetzer
Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971, in Hoopstad) is a South African former professional tennis player. Coetzer finished in the WTA rankings top 20 for ten consecutive seasons (1992–2001), peaking at world No. 3. She reached three Grand Sla ...
1–5
*
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Fiodaraŭna Azarenka (born 31 July 1989) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), having held the position for a total of 51 weeks ...
0–1
*
Anna Chakvetadze 0–1
*
Zina Garrison 0–1
*
Julie Halard-Decugis
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 profe ...
0–1
*
Justine Henin
Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...
0–1
*
Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 0–1
*
Irina Spîrlea 0–1
*
Helena Suková 0–1
*
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles, 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007 Wimbledo ...
0–2
*
Conchita Martínez 0–2
*
Monica Seles
Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...
0–2
*
Venus Williams 0–2
*
Natasha Zvereva 0–2
*
Jennifer Capriati 0–3
*
Kim Clijsters 0–3
*
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...
0–3
*
Dominique Monami 0–4
*
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as ...
0–4
*
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...
0–7
References
External links
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*
*
Ole 2005, on her retirementPaola and VirginiaPaola Suarezat th
TheTennisTimes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suarez, Paola
1976 births
Living people
Argentine female tennis players
Australian Open (tennis) champions
French Open champions
Olympic bronze medalists for Argentina
Olympic medalists for Argentina in tennis
Olympic tennis players for Argentina
Sportspeople from Pergamino
Tennis players from Buenos Aires Province
Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
US Open (tennis) champions
Hopman Cup competitors
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players
ITF World Champions