Vera Igorevna Zvonareva is a Russian tennis player, winner of many WTA trophies in singles and doubles, a three-time grand slam finalist and a bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Biography
Vera was born in 1984 on September 7 in Moscow. The girl grew up in a sports family, her father played ball hockey, participated in the USSR championship, and her mother played field hockey and was a bronze medalist in the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games in 1980.
Vera started tennis at the age of 6, her mother took her to the section of the Seagull sports club, to the honored trainer of Russia, Kryuchkova Ekaterina Ivanovna. Zvonareva from her early years began to make great strides in her chosen craft, and already at the end of the second millennium, in 1999, she achieved success: she overcame the WTA qualifying round.
The following year, she won her first ITF tournament in Moscow and won the Russian honorary title. The successes of the young talent did not go unnoticed, and the 16-year-old Vera, the leadership of the Kremlin Cup international tournament, provided the opportunity to speak at the tournament without a qualifying stage. In the second round, Zvonareva lost to Anna Kournikova, the finalist of the tournament.
Career
Since 2002, a sharp rise in the talented tennis player began, in the women's ranking she rose from 300 positions to 45th place. At 19, the girl became the sensation of the prestigious Roland Garros tennis tournament, while still young Zvonareva in the fourth round defeated the great Venus Williams. With her resounding victory, she did not allow the “traditional” finale of the Williams sisters to take place. Reaching the 1⁄2 tournament, she lost to another Russian woman, Nadezhda Petrova. In the same year, Zvonareva had a chance to play under the colors of Russia at the Federation Cup, our team made it to the semifinals, but lost there.
At the end of the year, Vera Zvonareva rose to 11th place in the women's ranking, and from the next year until 2011, she steadily stayed in the top 10. 2008 was the brightest and most successful year for the tennis player, the bronze of the Olympic Games, the next Federation Cup and repeated participation in the finals of various BTA draws.
In 2010, Zvonareva twice met with BTA leader Caroline Wozniacki and both times won, coming close to her in the ranking. The injury in 2012 seriously crippled Vera, she could not calmly perform, nevertheless she found a way out of the situation and, playing in tandem with Svetlana Kuznetsova, won the Australian Open. In 2013, she intended to return to the game again, but a shoulder operation forced the athlete to postpone this idea.
Outside the court, Vera is also active, as well as on him. She regularly participates in various events, holds consultations with beginner tennis players, represents UNESCO's interests in the world. Since 2009, the girl has been acting as a promoter of gender equality. In 2011, Vera created her own fund, the Rett Syndrome Association.
