Paola Suárez

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Paola Suárez


country = ARG
residence = Munro, Argentina
datebirth = birth date and age|1976|06|23
placebirth = Pergamino, Argentina
height = 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
weight = 64 kg (141 lb)
turnedpro = March 1, 1991
plays = Right
careerprizemoney = $4,976,426
singlesrecord = 360–228
singlestitles = 4
highestsinglesranking = No. 9 (June 7, 2004)
AustralianOpenresult = 4r (2001)
FrenchOpenresult = SF (2004)
Wimbledonresult = QF (2004)
USOpenresult = QF (2003)
doublesrecord = 466–168
doublestitles = 39
highestdoublesranking = 1 (September 9, 2002 to September 2005)
updated = 1 August 2006

Paola Suárez (born June 23, 1976 in Pergamino, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a top 10 tennis player in the early 2000s. She gained prominence in 2004 by reaching the finals of nine straight WTA doubles tournaments, and by reaching the singles semifinals of the French Open tournament, held in Paris.

"La Negra" Suárez began playing professional tennis at the age of fifteen, in 1991. In 1994, she joined the professional tour as a singles player. It wasn't until the 2000s, however, that she became an international figure in her sport, by reaching the semis of the aforementioned French Open, a prestigious grand slam tournament.

Suárez won four WTA titles (2004 Canberra, 2003 Vienna, 1998 & 2001 Bogotá) and 12 other minor tournaments. In 2004, Paola hoped to obtain the French Open title that would become her first grand slam championship, but lost in the semi-finals against Elena Dementieva. That year, she was ranked number nine in the world among women tennis players by the WTA, which has been her highest ranking as a singles player thus far. That same year, she won the bronze medal in women's doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics with Patricia Tarabini.

But it was in doubles where she had the best results, playing with Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in 32 of her 39 titles. They won several tournaments, including the French Open on four occasions, the US Open three times, the Australian Open in 2004, and many others. With Virginia, they were the No. 1 female couple for 3 consecutive years since September 9, 2002 (WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year 2002, 2003 and 2004). They also reached nine straight Grand Slam finals, two short of Navratilova-Shriver's 11 straight Slam finals.

In 2005 she announced her retirement for 2006 for personal reasons, and that until then she will only play a few tournaments. On this she commented: " [...] if you want to be a tennis player you have to do it full time. I did it for 11 years, I lived only for tennis and I don't regret it. But that's it. Play to suffer is not worthy". In June 2005 she went on labrum hip clinical intervention, with a recovering time of 3 to 4 months. She restarted playing in Sydney in January 2006 with Ruano Pascual, reaching the final, but suffered calf muscle injury short after. Later that same year, she also reached the final of Wimbledon with Ruano Pascual, marking her third appearance in a Wimbledon final.

Paola returned to the circuit with a victory over Dinara Safina, ranked 15, in the San Diego's singles tournament.

On September 1st 2007, Paola played her last professional tennis match. At the US Open, she retired from tennis after losing a mixed doubles second round match. She partnered Kevin Ullyett and lost to Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber, 5–7 4–6.

In her career, Suárez has earned $4,837,968 dollars, with four single WTA titles, and 8 doubles grand slams.

Grand Slam finals

Women's doubles (14)

Wins (8)

WTA tour titles

ingles (16)

Grand Slam doubles performance timeline

"Note: if not otherwise noted, tournament played with Ruano Pascual"

#"with Laura Montalvo"
#"with Maja Muric"
#"with Anna-Lena Groenefeld"
#"with Tathiana Garbin"
#"with Roberta Vinci"

External links

*wta|id=190360|name=Paola Suárez
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060511173831/http://www.ole.clarin.com/jsp/v3/pagina.jsp?pagId=982933 Ole 2005, on her retirement]
* [http://www.geocities.com/viviruano/ Paola and Virginia]