Gigi Fernández

Infobox Tennis biography
playername = Gigi Fernández


nickname =
country = PUR
residence = Lake Mary, Florida, USA
datebirth = Birth date and age|1964|2|22
placebirth = San Juan, Puerto Rico
height = height|m=1.70
weight = convert|65.7|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro = November 1983
retired = November 1997
plays = Right-handed
careerprizemoney = $4,681,906
singlesrecord = 270–232
singlestitles = 2
highestsinglesranking = 17 (October 6th, 1991)
AustralianOpenresult = 4r (1990, 1993)
FrenchOpenresult = 2r (1986–87, 1991)
Wimbledonresult = SF (1994)
USOpenresult = QF (1991, 1994)
doublesrecord = 664–184
doublestitles = 69
highestdoublesranking = 1 (March 4, 1991)
updated =

Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22 1964, in San Juan) is a former professional Puerto Rican/American tennis player. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest doubles players of all time. During her career, she won 17 Grand Slam doubles titles and two Olympic Gold Medals, and was ranked the World No. 1 woman doubles player. She was also ranked among the world's top 30 singles players for most of her career. Since retiring from the professional tour, Fernández has been a successful tennis coach and entrepreneur.

Gigi Fernández was born in San Juan. Her father Tuto was a well-known doctor in Puerto Rico. Her cousin José Ferrer was a famous Puerto Rican actor and director. Fernández started playing tennis when she was eight. When she turned professional in 1983, she become Puerto Rico's first-ever female professional athlete. Prior to turning professional, she played tennis for one season at Clemson University, in 1982–83, where she was a singles and doubles All-American and reached the NCAA singles final.

Recognized primarily as a doubles specialist during her professional career, Fernández won 17 Grand Slam women's doubles titles – six French Open, five US Open, four Wimbledon and two Australian Open. She won 14 of her 17 Grand Slam titles partnering Natasha Zvereva. This makes them the second-most successful women's doubles pair in Grand Slam history after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. Though she never won a Grand Slam mixed doubles title, Fernández did finish runner-up in three of the four Grand Slam mixed doubles events in 1995 (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open) partnering Cyril Suk. Fernández reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 1991, and held the No. 1 spot on and off through to 1995. She won a total of 69 doubles titles during her career.

Fernández represented the United States at the Olympic Games in both 1992 (Barcelona) and 1996 (Atlanta). She teamed-up with Mary Joe Fernandez (no relation) to win the women's doubles Gold Medal on both occasions. The first gold medal was won against the home team of Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario with the King and Queen of Spain in the audience. The two medals are front and center on Gigi's desk, along with a car license plate that reads "DBL GLD." [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3616855]

Fernández was also on the United States team which won the Fed Cup in 1990.

In singles, Fernandez reached as high as 17th in the world rankings. She also won won two top-level titles and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1994, and the quarter-finals at the US Open in 1991 and 1994.

Fernández retired from the professional tour in 1997. By far the most successful tennis player in the history of Puerto Rico, Fernandez was named Puerto Rico's "Female Athlete of the Century" in 1999.

Since retiring from the tour, Fernández has worked as a tennis coach. She has coached players including the former World No. 1 doubles player Rennae Stubbs, Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur. She has also coached for the Puerto Rican national team and the University of South Florida. Fernandez also occasionally joins forces with ex-pro Kathy Rinaldi to conduct clinics and special events for recreational players. She also manages the Gigi Fernández Charitable Foundation, which has contributes to various Hispanic and Puerto Rican organizations.

Fernandez earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of South Florida in 2003 and is currently halfway toward an MBA degree from Rollins College. In addition to her studies, she plans to open a medically supervised weight-loss center in San Juan Puerto Rico in the Summer of 2008. She presently resides in Lake Mary, Florida.

Personal life

Gigi is involved in various charitable organizations in Central Florida. She sits on the board of Kids House of Seminole County, a house for sexually and physically abused children. She also sits on the board of Paths to Parenthood, an organization whose mission is to bring down barriers to adoption, support birth mothers, lobby Florida state authority to improve the Foster Care system by allowing children to be placed with adoptive families before they enter the system and opening adoption to ALL loving prospective parents regardless or race, gender or sexual orientation.

Grand Slam finals (26)

Women's doubles wins (17)

WTA Tour titles (71)

ingles (2)

Doubles (69)

*1985: Washington (w/Navratilova), Miami (w/Navratilova), Toronto (w/Navratilova), Fort Lauderdale (w/R. White)
*1987: U.S. Indoors (w/McNeil), Newport (w/McNeil), Mahwah (w/McNeil)
*1988: Tokyo Outdoor (w/R. White), US Open (w/R. White)
*1989: Newport (w/McNeil), Toronto (w/R. White), Tokyo Doubles Championships (w/R. White), Filderstadt (w/R. White)
*1990: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (w/Smylie), Hamburg (w/Navratilova), Los Angeles (w/Novotná), US Open (w/Navratilova), New England (w/Suková)
*1991: Brisbane (w/Novotná), Chicago (w/Novotna), Light n' Lively Doubles (w/Sukova), French Open (w/Novotna), Oakland (w/Fendick), Indianapolis (w/Fendick)
*1992: Houston (w/Fendick), French Open (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), Barcelona Olympics (w/M.J. Fernandez), US Open (w/Zvereva), Oakland (w/Zvereva), Philadelphia (w/Zvereva)
*1993: Australian Open (w/Zvereva), Delray Beach (w/Zvereva), Light n' Lively Doubles (w/Zvereva), Hilton Head (w/Zvereva), Berlin (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), Eastbourne (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), San Diego (w/Sukova), Leipzig (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Zvereva)
*1994: Australian Open (w/Zvereva), Chicago (w/Zvereva), Miami (w/Zvereva), Italian Open (w/Zvereva), Berlin (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), Eastbourne (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva), Philadelphia (w/Zvereva), Virginia Slims Championships (w/Zvereva)
*1995: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (w/Zvereva), Hamburg (w/Hingis), Rome (w/Zvereva), French Open (w/Zvereva), San Diego (w/Zvereva), Los Angeles (w/Zvereva), US Open (w/Zvereva), Filderstadt (w/Zvereva)
*1996: Tokyo/Pan Pacific (w/Zvereva), Atlanta Olympics (w/MJ Fernandez), San Diego (w/Martínez), US Open (w/Zvereva)"'
*1997: Sydney (w/Sánchez Vicario), French Open (w/Zvereva), Wimbledon (w/Zvereva)

References

External links

*wta|id=60014
*FedCupplayerlink|id=20003075
*http://www.league-ncr.com/library/history/heritage11.html

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans