“We won 14 Grand Slams in 5 years.
“That’s how many Grand Slams Venus and Serena (Williams) have won in their career. In a twenty-year career. It was rather fast. Rather intense.”
Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez dominated doubles tennis in the 1980 and ‘90s. She won 17 Grand Slam titles. The first three came with three different players Robin White, the legendary Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna. Then she created an unstoppable partnership with Natasha Zvereva.
“We were on such a roll,” Fernandez said on the Best in the World with Richard Parr podcast. “If we were not winning 2-3 Grand Slams a year then that was a bad year. We were so dominating. We would win 10 tournaments a year and we would win these matches which we probably should have lost, coming back from match points.”
Fernandez was raised in Puerto Rico and won two Olympic gold medals at the 1992 and 1996 Games alongside Mary Joe Fernandez (no relation). Natasha Zvereva was born in Belarus and up until 1991 represented the Soviet Union. So what made the Fernandez-Zvereva partnership so successful?
“I think Natasha and I had something really special,” says Fernandez. “I didn’t feel that with any of the other girls. Just felt so comfortable on the court with her, so supported. It didn’t matter if we were having a good day or a bad day. We were really well jelled. No one ever blamed the other for a win or a loss, or took credit for the win and the blame for the loss.”
It was a team formed of two players with contrasting styles.
“From the pure game perspective, we had strengths and weaknesses that complemented each other. I’m a firm believer that in doubles opposites attract. I was the emotional, sort of extrovert. She was the introvert, sort of ice maiden if you will. She had better returns; I had better volleys. I had a better serve; she had better groundstrokes. My strengths were her weaknesses and my weaknesses were her strengths.”
The longer the pair played together the more their confidence grew.
“We had this mental edge over everybody that people would think that we would come back before we even started to come back.
“I remember playing the championships at Madison Square Garden, just a year-end tournament, being down 6-2, 5-1 to Meredith McGrath and Patty Fendick. I think it was 11.50pm and we still thought we had a chance to win and we did. We saved like 8 or 9 match points, I don’t remember how many. They served for the match 3 times. They were up 6-1 in the tiebreaker but we always thought we would find a way. And the majority of the time we did.”
It was not only on the court that the Puerto Rican-Belarusian partnership meshed but off it as well.
“We had fun. We would somehow find a way to smile and laugh through the most intense pressure. We just always found that when we were relaxed we would play our best. We even had a joke book in our racquet bags. If things were ever really bad or really intense or we were just having a really bad day, we would just pull out the joke book and tell each other jokes.”
You can listen to Gigi’s full interview on the Best in the World with Richard Parr podcast on Apple and Spotify.
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On the ‘Best In the World’ Podcast, Richard Parr talks to sports stars who have reached the pinnacle.
World Champions, Olympic Champions, World Record Holders & World Number Ones.
The show reveals what these athletes do differently from the rest of us to be the best. This includes training techniques, nutrition, relationships, sacrifices, mental health, time management, home environment and much more.
Richard wants to know what they do so we can improve our own lives.
Connect with Richard on social media @richard_parr.