Paola Suárez Information & Paola Suárez Links at HealthHaven.com

	Olympic medal record
Women's tennis
Competitor for Argentina

Paola Suárez
Country	Argentina
Residence	Munro, Argentina
Date of birth	23 June 1976 (age 33)
Place of birth	Pergamino, Argentina
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	64 kg (141 lb)
Turned pro	1 March 1991
Plays	Right
Career prize money	US$4,976,426
Singles
Career record	360–228
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 9 (7 June 2004)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4r (2001)
French Open	SF (2004)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	QF (2003)
Doubles
Career record	466–168 (73.5%)
Career titles	39
Highest ranking	1 (9 September 2002 to September 2005)
Australian Open	W (2004)
French Open	W (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005)
Wimbledon	F (2002, 2003, 2006)
US Open	W (2002, 2003, 2004)
	Last updated on: 1 August 2006.

Paola Suárez (born 23 June 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 9 September 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 1 September 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, 7–5, 6–4.

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

[edit] Grand Slam finals

[edit] Women's doubles (14)

[edit] Wins (8)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2001	French Open	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jelena Dokić Conchita Martínez	6–2, 6–1
2002	French Open (2)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	6–4, 6–2
2002	US Open	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová	6–2, 6–1
2003	US Open (2)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova	6–2, 6–2
2004	Australian Open	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–3
2004	French Open (3)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–0, 6–3
2004	US Open (3)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 7–5
2005	French Open (4)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Liezel Huber	4–6, 6–3, 6–3

[edit] Runner-ups (6)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2000	French Open	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Martina Hingis Mary Pierce	6–2, 6–4
2002	Wimbledon	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–2, 7–5
2003	Australian Open	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
2003	French Open (2)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–7, 6–2, 9–7
2003	Wimbledon (2)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 6–4
2006	Wimbledon (3)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Zi Yan Jie Zheng	6–3, 3–6, 6–2

[edit] Mixed doubles (2)

[edit] Runner-ups (2)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2000	French Open	Jaime Oncins	Tomas Carbonell Virginia Ruano Pascual	7–5, 6–3
2002	Australian Open	Gastón Etlis	Daniela Hantuchová Kevin Ullyett	6–3, 6–2

[edit] WTA tour titles

[edit] Singles (16)

Legend (Singles)

Tier I (0)

Tier II (0)

Tier III (2)

Tier IV and V (2)

Grand Slam Title (0)

WTA Tour Championship (0)

ITF Circuit (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	20 October 1991	Buenos Aires	Clay	Maria Luciana Reynares	2–6, 7–6, 6–1
2.	10 November 1991	Florianopolis, Brazil	Clay	Cintia Tortorella	6–3, 6–4
3.	3 May 1992	Lerida, Spain	Clay	Sarah Pitkowski	4–6, 6–4, 6–1
4.	10 May 1992	Balaguer, Spain	Clay	Svetlana Krivencheva	3–6, 6–3, 6–0
5.	17 May 1992	Barcelona	Clay	Catherine Barclay	6–4, 6–1
6.	24 May 1992	Tortosa, Spain	Clay	Irina Sukhova	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
7.	21 November 1993	La Plata, Argentina	Clay	Vanessa Mathys	7–6, 6–3
8.	19 November 1995	Buenos Aires	Clay	Miriam D’Agostini	6–2, 6–1
9.	22 February 1998	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Sonya Jeyaseelan	6–3, 6–4
10.	11 October 1998	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Conchita Martínez Granados	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
11.	25 October 1998	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Antonella Serra Zanetti	7–5, 6–4
12.	22 November 1998	Buenos Aires	Clay	Andreea Vanc	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
13.	19 September 1999	Buenos Aires	Clay	Florencia Labat	6–0, 7–5
14.	25 February 2001	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Rita Kuti Kis	6–2, 6–4
15.	14 June 2003	Vienna	Clay	Karolina Šprem	7–6, 2–6, 6–4
16.	17 January 2004	Canberra, Australia	Hard	Silvia Farina Elia	3–6, 6–4, 7–6

[edit] Doubles

Legend
Grand Slam (8)
WTA Championships (1)
Tier I (9)
Tier II (5)
Tier III (10)
Tier IV & V (11)
ITF Titles (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	17 May 1992	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Rosa Bielsa Gala Leon Garcia	6–4, 6–2
2.	17 October 1993	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Barbara Castro Maria-Dolores Campana	6–1, 3–6, 6–0
3.	29 October 1995	Buenos Aires	Clay	Cintia Tortorella	Mariana Díaz-Oliva Mariana Lopez Palacios	6–2, 6–2
4.	17 December 1995	Tucuman, Argentina	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Larissa Schaerer Veronica Stele	6–2, 7–6(4)
5.	11 February 1996	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Marion Maruska Noelle Van Lottum	6–3, 6–1
6.	5 May 1996	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Alexia Dechaume-Balleret Alexandra Fusai	6–7(5), 6–3, 6–4
7.	18 January 1998	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Julie Halard-Decugis Janette Husárová	7–6(6), 6–3
8.	22 February 1998	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Janette Husárová	Melissa Mazzotta Ekaterina Sysoeva	3–6 6–2 6–3
9.	26 April 1998	Budapest	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cătălina Cristea Laura Montalvo	4–6, 6–1, 6–1
10.	3 May 1998	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Joannette Kruger Mirjana Lučić	retired
11.	10 May 1998	Rome	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Amanda Coetzer Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	7–6(1), 6–4
12.	12 July 1998	Maria Lankowitz, Austria	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Tina Krizan Katarina Srebotnik	6–1, 6–2
13.	11 October 1998	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Miriam D’Agostini Katalin Marosi	6–1, 6–2
14.	25 October 1998	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Eva Bes Maria Fernanda Landa	6–2, 6–2
15.	23 May 1999	Madrid	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Maria Fernanda Landa Marlene Weingärtner	6–2, 0–6, 6–0
16.	18 July 1999	Sopot, Poland	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Gala Leon Garcia Maria Sánchez Lorenzo	6–4, 6–3
17.	10 October 1999	São Paulo	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Janette Husárová Florencia Labat	6–7(1), 7–5, 7–5
18.	13 February 2000	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Rita Kuti-Kis Petra Mandula	6–4, 6–2
19.	20 February 2000	São Paulo	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Janette Husárová Florencia Labat	5–7, 6–4, 6–3
20.	23 April 2000	Hilton Head, South Carolina, U.S.	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Conchita Martínez Patricia Tarabini	7–5, 6–3
21.	16 July 2000	Klagenfurt, Austria	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Barbara Schett Patty Schnyder	7–6(5), 6–1
22.	23 July 2000	Sopot, Poland	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Åsa Carlsson Rita Grande	7–5, 6–1
23.	26 May 2001	Madrid	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	7–5, 2–6, 7–6(4)
24.	10 June 2001	French Open, Paris	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jelena Dokić Conchita Martínez	6–2, 6–1
25.	15 July 2001	Vienna	Clay	Patricia Tarabini	Vanessa Henke Lenka Nemeckova	6–4, 6–2
26.	24 February 2002	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Tina Krizan Katarina Srebotnik	6–2, 6–1
27.	3 March 2002	Acapulco	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Tina Krizan Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 6–1
28.	19 May 2002	Rome	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Conchita Martínez Patricia Tarabini	6–3, 6–4
29.	9 June 2002	French Open, Paris	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	6–4, 6–2
30.	18 August 2002	Montreal	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Rika Fujiwara Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 7–6(4)
31.	8 September 2002	US Open, New York City	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová	6–2, 6–1
32.	14 September 2002	Bahia, Brazil	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Émilie Loit Rossana de los Ríos	6–4, 6–1
33.	13 April 2003	Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Janette Husárová Conchita Martínez	6–0, 6–3
34.	11 May 2003	Berlin	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
35.	23 August 2003	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Alicia Molik Magüi Serna	7–6(6), 6–3
36.	7 September 2003	US Open, New York City	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova	6–2, 6–3
37.	10 November 2003	Los Angeles	Hard (I)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
38.	1 February 2004	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–3
39.	21 March 2004	Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–1, 6–2
40.	18 April 2004	Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Martina Navratilova Lisa Raymond	6–4, 6–1
41.	3 June 2004	French Open, Paris	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–0 6–3
42.	11 September 2004	US Open, New York City	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4 7–5
43.	31 October 2004	Luxembourg	Hard (I)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jill Craybas Marlene Weingärtner	6–1, 6–7(1), 6–3
44.	5 March 2005	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Alicia Molik	6–7(7), 6–2, 6–1
45.	19 March 2005	Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Nadia Petrova Meghann Shaughnessy	7–6(3,) 6–1
46.	4 June 2005	French Open, Paris	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Liezel Huber	4–6, 6–3, 6–3
47.	13 August 2006	Los Angeles	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Daniela Hantuchová Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–4
48.	24 September 2006	Beijing	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Anna Chakvetadze Elena Vesnina	6–2, 6–4
49.	1 October 2006	Seoul	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Chia-Jung Chuang Mariana Díaz-Oliva	6–2, 6–3
50.	6 January 2007	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Janette Husárová	Su-Wei Hsieh Shikha Uberoi	6–0, 6–2
51.	25 February 2007	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Lourdes Domínguez Lino	Flavia Pennetta Roberta Vinci	1–6, 6–3, 11-9 (tiebreak)

[edit] Grand Slam doubles performance timeline

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

Tournament	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	Career
Australian Open	1R	QF	-	W	F	3R	QF	2R	2R	2R	QF	-	1
French Open	1R³	2R	W	W	F	W	W	F	2R	2R	1R¹	1R¹	4
Wimbledon	1R⁴	F	-	SF	F	F	SF	QF	3R	2R	1R	1R¹	0
US Open	1R⁵	QF	-	W	W	W	3R	1R	2R	SF	2R	1R²	3
WTA Tour Championships	-	-	-	SF	W	QF	SF	QF	-	-	-	-	1

[edit] External links

Paola Suárez profile on the WTA Tour's official website
Ole 2005, on her retirement
Paola and Virginia

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