–
It’s not hard for a former top player to completely go off the radar, especially if they don’t have a brand to promote.
And so Vera Zvonareva, who never chased the spotlight especially much anyway, has been missing in action since she went underground after reaching the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, with Mirra Andreeva.
The pair had to forfeit that match. And Zvonareva had arthroscopic surgery shortly afterwards.
Here they were in her penultimate match, in the second round.
As much experience as Zvonereva has in coming back from surgeries (and childbirth – did you know SHE’S A MOM????), you wouldn’t have expected it as she turned 41.
But the Russian, who had been based in Sunny Isle, Fla. (north of Miami Beach) for much of her career but relocated to Dubai several years ago, and was working as a coach between her various comebacks to the Tour, decided to challenge herself his week.
She received a wild card into the Habtoor Challenge, a $100,000 ITF tournament where she won the doubles in 2023 just a few weeks after teaming up with Laura Siegemund in a shock title at the WTA Finals in Cancun.
And wouldn’t you know it, she’s bossing it.
On Saturday, Zvonareva defeated 16-year-old Brit Mika Stojsavljevic 6-3,6-7 (4), 6-4 to advance to the final, where she’ll play 20-year-old Petra Marcinko of Croatia.
It was a three-hour, 10-minute grind against an opponent she was giving away a full quarter-century to. I mean, the mind boggles.
Click on the screenshot below if you want to watch part or all of it.
Zvonareva also got into the doubles draw as an alternate with 17-year-old Rada Zolotareva. And they’re into the final against Gao XInyu and Manancaya Sawangkaew.
She played her one-hour, 38-minute doubles semifinal AFTER that marathon singles win.
Zolotareva is ranked No. 498 in singles and No. 586 in doubles. She’s at No. 62 in the junior rankings, after a career high of No. 23 last August, For the better parts of the last three years, since she was 14, she’s been grinding it out at the ITF level
A former No. 3 junior who won the Orange Bowl exactly 24 and 25 years ago this week (over Edina Gallovits in the 2000 final and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2001 final), Zvonareva played her first pro event in late Sept. 1999.
She had just turned 15; it was at a $25,000 ITF in Tbilisi, Georgia. She won three rounds of qualifying easily, but fell to the highly-ranked Tatiana Poutchek in the first round.
She reached her career singles high of No. 2 in Oct. 2010, behind just Caroline Wozniacki (Because the WTA website kind of disappears people if they’ve retired or have been out a year, there are no results to be found there or even rankings lists prior to 2016).
It was just before the Tour Finals that year, where she went undefeated in the round-robin (beating Clijsters, Jankovic and Azarenka in straight sets) before falling to Wozniacki in the semifinals.
A few weeks before that, she had gone through a loaded draw to make the Beijing final.
If you want a whiff of quality nostalgia, LOOK at this draw.
In doubles, Zvonareva reached her career best No. 7 in April, 2024, in the aftermath of her surprise title with Siegemund in Cancun the previous November.
But in between the fantastic moments, there were an inordinate amount of injuries and breaks in her career.
2005: left ankle
2007: left wrist
2008: ankle injury at the start of the season
2009: two torn ligaments in her ankle, surgery
2012: left hip injury, right shoulder
2013: shoulder injury, surgery (season a wash).
2014: injuries too numerous to mention
2015-2017: Out with injuries and on maternity break
2019: left hip, second half of the season because of a left wrist injury, which spilled over to the start of 2020
Sept. 2021: right ankle and surgery
2022: left Achilles surgery
2024: shoulder surgery after Roland Garros.
It’s not necessarily that the world is waiting for another Vera Zvonareva comeback. But the lady is clearly obsessed – in a GOOD way – with tennis and loves to compete. And play. And coach. No matter how angst-ridden she has seemed on the court for most of her career.
And who knows, she might still be running on the fuel of unfinished business, even as her daughter Evelina turns 10.
But for the moment, it was obviously a tournament in her back yard and a good motivator to get herself back into fighting shape.
She could easily, with a protected ranking in the top 10, come back and play doubles. Probably with anyone she wants to.
There has been almost no coverage of her comeback in Dubai, which might change if she can win the title on Sunday. So no way to know about her future plans.
Will we see her in Australia?
Stay tuned.
About Post Author
