Paola Suárez

Paola Suárez (; born 23 June 1976) is a retired tennis player from Argentina. 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, but lost to Elena Dementieva. 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. Suárez and Ruano Pascual would end their grand slam season by winning their 3rd consecutive 2004 US Open women's doubles title, becoming the only team in the Open Era (since 1968) to do so. If fact, individually, they are the only two women in the Open Era who have won 3 consecutive women's doubles titles at the US Open.

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 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 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 and Liezel Huber, 5–7, 4–6. She briefly returned to the WTA doubles tour in 2012, 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, and eight doubles Grand Slam titles.

Significant finals Grand Slam tournaments Doubles: 14 (8 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2001 French Open Clay Jaime Oncins Tomás Carbonell Virginia Ruano Pascual 5–7, 3–6Loss 2002 Australian Open Hard Gastón Etlis Daniela Hantuchová Kevin Ullyett 3–6, 2–6

Olympic Games Doubles: 1 (bronze medal) ResultYearLocationSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreBronze 2004Athens Hard Patricia Tarabini Shinobu Asagoe Ai Sugiyama 6–3, 6–3

WTA Tour finals Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups) Legend Tier I Tier II Tier III (2/2) Tier IV & V (2/2)

Doubles: 69 (44 titles, 25 runner-ups) Legend Grand Slam tournaments (8–6)WTA Championships (1–0)Tier I (9–9)Tier II (5–6)Tier III (10–2)Tier IV & V (11–2)

ITF Circuit finals Legend$50,000 tournaments$25,000 tournaments$10,000 tournaments

Singles (12–4) Result No. Date Location Surface OpponentScoreWin 1. 14 October 1991 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay María Luciana Reynares 2–6, 7–6, 6–1Win 2. 4 November 1991 Florianópolis, Brazil Clay Cintia Tortorella 6–3, 6–3Loss 1. 24 November 1991 Novo Hamburgo, Brazil Clay Svetlana Komleva 2–6, 5–7Win 3. 27 April 1992 Lerida, Spain Clay Sarah Pitkowski-Malcor 4–6, 6–4, 6–1Win 4. 4 May 1992 Balaguer, Spain Clay Svetlana Krivencheva 3–6, 6–3, 6–0Win 5. 17 May 1992 Barcelona, Spain Clay Catherine Barclay 6–4, 6–1Win 6. 18 May 1992 Tortosa, Spain Clay Irina Sukhova 3–6, 6–4, 6–1Win 7. 21 November 1992 La Plata, Argentina Clay Vanessa Matthys 7–6, 6–3Loss 2. 23 October 1995 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Mariana Díaz Oliva 6–2, 4–6, 3–6Win 8. 19 November 1995 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Miriam D'Agostini 6–2, 6–1Loss 3. 17 December 1995 Tacuman, Argentina Clay Florencia Labat 2–6, 1–6Win 9. 11 October 1998 Santiago, Chile Clay Conchita Martínez Granados 3–6, 6–4, 6–1Win 10. 25 October 1998 Montevideo, Uruguay Clay Antonella Serra Zanetti 7–5, 6–4Loss 4. 8 November 1998 Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil Clay Janette Husárová 2–6, 6–2, 1–6Win 11. 22 November 1998 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Andreea Ehritt-Vanc 4–6, 6–1, 6–4Win 12. 19 September 1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Florencia Labat 6–0, 7–5

Doubles (7–6) Result No. Date Location Surface Partner OpponentsScoreLoss 1. 27 October 1991 Asunción, Paraguay Clay Pamela Zingman Karolina Bulat Katarzyna Malec 5–7, 4–6Loss 2. 24 November 1991 Novo Hamburgo, Brazil Clay Pamela Zingman Maria Marfina Svetlana Komleva 4–6, 3–6Loss 3. 4 May 1992 Balaguer, Spain Clay Pamela Zingman Svetlana Krivencheva Irina Sukhova 6–4, 4–6, 4–6Win 1. 11 May 1992 Barcelona, Spain Hard Pamela Zingman Rosa Bielsa Gala León García 6–4, 6–2Win 2. 11 October 1993 Santiago, Chile Clay Pamela Zingman Bárbara Castro María Dolores Campana 6–1, 3–6, 6–0Win 3. 23 October 1995 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Cintia Tortorella Mariana Lopez Palacios Mariana Díaz Oliva 6–2, 6–2Loss 4. 13 November 1995 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Florencia Cianfagna Katalin Marosi Miriam D'Agostini 7–6(4), 0–6, 3–6Win 4. 17 December 1995 Tucumán, Argentina Clay Laura Montalvo Larissa Schaerer Veronica Stele 6–2, 7–6(4)Win 5. 11 February 1996 Mar del Plata, Argentina Hard Laura Montalvo Marion Maruska Noëlle van Lottum 6–3, 6–1Loss 5. 12 October 1997 Sedona, United States Hard Liezel Huber Cătălina Cristea Corina Morariu 5–7, 2–6Win 6. 5 October 1998 Santiago, Chile Clay Laura Montalvo Miriam D'Agostini Katalin Marosi 6–1, 6–2Win 7. 19 October 1998 Montevideo, Uruguay Clay Laura Montalvo Eva Bes María Fernanda Landa 6–2, 6–2Loss 6. 13 September 1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Laura Montalvo Paula Racedo Aliénor Tricerri w/o

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 5–4 Mary Pierce 4–2 Barbara Schett 3–2 Jelena Dokic 2–0 Anna Kournikova 2–0 Svetlana Kuznetsova 2–0 Alicia Molik 2–0 Dinara Safina 2–0 Daniela Hantuchová 2–1 Francesca Schiavone 2–1 Nadia Petrova 2–2 Sandrine Testud 2–2 Magdalena Maleeva 2–3 Amélie Mauresmo 2–3 Ai Sugiyama 2–3 Vera Zvonareva 2–3 Anke Huber 1–0 Maria Kirilenko 1–0 Barbara Paulus 1–0 Lucie Šafářová 1–0 Maria Sharapova 1–0 Nathalie Tauziat 1–0 Andrea Temesvári 1–0 Serena Williams 1–0 Jelena Janković 1–1 Iva Majoli 1–1 Anastasia Myskina 1–1 Mary Joe Fernández 1–2 Chanda Rubin 1–2 Elena Dementieva 1–3 Amanda Coetzer 1–5 Victoria Azarenka 0–1 Anna Chakvetadze 0–1 Zina Garrison 0–1 Julie Halard-Decugis 0–1 Justine Henin 0–1 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy 0–1 Irina Spîrlea 0–1 Helena Suková 0–1 Marion Bartoli 0–2 Conchita Martínez 0–2 Monica Seles 0–2 Venus Williams 0–2 Natasha Zvereva 0–2 Jennifer Capriati 0–3 Kim Clijsters 0–3 Steffi Graf 0–3 Dominique Monami 0–4 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 0–4 Lindsay Davenport 0–7