Paola Suárez

Country (sports)	Argentina
Residence	Oviedo, Spain
Born	(1976-06-23) 23 June 1976 Pergamino, Argentina
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Turned pro	1 March 1991
Retired	2007, 2014
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$5,217,775
Singles
Career record	371–239 (60.8%)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 9 (7 June 2004)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (2001)
French Open	SF (2004)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	QF (2003)
Doubles
Career record	513–192 (72.8%)
Career titles	44
Highest ranking	No. 1 (9 September 2002)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (2004)
French Open	W (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005)
Wimbledon	F (2002, 2003, 2006)
US Open	W (2002, 2003, 2004)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	W (2003)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	F (2002)
French Open	F (2001)
Wimbledon	3R (2000, 2003)
US Open	2R (2000, 2003, 2007)
Medal record Olympic Games 2004 Athens Women's doubles

Paola Suárez (Latin American Spanish: [paˈola ˈswaɾes]; born 23 June 1976) is a retired tennis player from Argentina. She was one of the most prominent women's doubles players throughout the early and mid-2000s, winning eight Grand Slam titles, all of them with Virginia Ruano Pascual, and holding the No. 1 doubles ranking for 87 non-consecutive weeks. She was also a singles top ten player and semifinalist at the 2004 French Open.

Career

Suárez began playing professional tennis at the age of 15. In 1994, she joined the professional tour as a singles player.

Suárez won four WTA titles (2004 Canberra, 2003 Vienna, 1998 & 2001 Bogotá) and 12 other minor tournaments. In 2004, she reached her only Grand Slam singles semi-final by defeating the 18th seed and future Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, but lost to Elena Dementieva. That year, she reached her highest WTA ranking of No. 9, to become the highest-ranked Argentine women's player since Gabriela Sabatini achieved the No. 3 ranking in 1989. Also in 2004, she won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Athens for the women's doubles with Patricia Tarabini.

She had success in singles but her best results came in doubles, winning more than half a dozen titles partnering fellow Argentine Laura Montalvo. However Suárez's more long-standing doubles partnership was with the Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual, with whom she won 32 of her 39 titles. Besides numerous WTA Tour titles, they won the French Open on four occasions, the US Open three times, and the Australian Open in 2004. Suárez and Ruano Pascual were the No. 1 female pair for three consecutive years after 9 September 2002 and were the WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year in 2002, 2003 and 2004. They also reached nine straight Grand Slam finals, two short of Navratilova and Shriver's record of eleven.

In 2005, Suárez announced her forthcoming retirement for personal reasons. In June of that year, she underwent a labrum hip clinical intervention, with a recovery time of three to four months. She restarted playing in Sydney in January 2006 with Ruano Pascual, reaching the final, but suffered a calf injury short after. Later that year, she also reached the final of Wimbledon with Ruano Pascual, marking her third appearance in a final there.

Suárez returned to the circuit with a victory over Dinara Safina, ranked No. 15, in the San Diego Open singles tournament.

On 1 September 2007, Suárez retired after losing in the mixed doubles second round at the US Open. She partnered Kevin Ullyett and lost to Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber, 5–7, 4–6. She briefly returned to the WTA doubles tour in 2012, partnering her fellow Argentinian Gisela Dulko. The pair played at the London Summer Olympics but lost in the first round.^[1][2][3]

In her career, Suárez earned more than $5.2 million, with four singles titles on the WTA Tour, and eight doubles Grand Slam titles.

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournaments

Doubles: 14 (8 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2000	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Martina Hingis Mary Pierce	2–6, 4–6
Win	2001	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jelena Dokić Conchita Martínez	6–2, 6–1
Win	2002	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	6–4, 6–2
Loss	2002	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	2–6, 5–7
Win	2002	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová	6–2, 6–1
Loss	2003	Australian Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Loss	2003	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	7–6(7–5), 2–6, 7–9
Loss	2003	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	4–6, 4–6
Win	2003	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova	6–2, 6–3
Win	2004	Australian Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–3
Win	2004	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–0, 6–3
Win	2004	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 7–5
Win	2005	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Liezel Huber	4–6, 6–3, 6–3
Loss	2006	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	3–6, 6–3, 2–6

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2001	French Open	Clay	Jaime Oncins	Tomás Carbonell Virginia Ruano Pascual	5–7, 3–6
Loss	2002	Australian Open	Hard	Gastón Etlis	Daniela Hantuchová Kevin Ullyett	3–6, 2–6

Olympic Games

Doubles: 1 (bronze medal)

Result	Year	Location	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Bronze	2004	Athens	Hard	Patricia Tarabini	Shinobu Asagoe Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–3

WTA career finals

Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Legend
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III (2/2)
Tier IV & V (2/2)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1.	Feb 1998	Bogotá	Clay	Sonya Jeyaseelan	6–3, 6–4
Loss	1.	May 1999	Madrid	Clay	Lindsay Davenport	6–1, 6–3
Loss	2.	Feb 2000	São Paulo	Clay	Rita Kuti-Kis	4–6, 6–4, 7–5
Loss	3.	Jan 2001	Auckland	Hard	Meilen Tu	7–6(12–10), 6–2
Win	2.	Feb 2001	Bogotá	Clay	Rita Kuti-Kis	6–2, 6–4
Loss	4.	Mar 2002	Acapulco	Clay	Katarina Srebotnik	6–7(1–7), 6–4, 6–2
Win	3.	Jun 2003	Vienna	Clay	Karolina Šprem	7–6(7–0), 2–6, 6–4
Win	4.	Jan 2004	Canberra	Hard	Silvia Farina Elia	3–6, 6–4, 7–6(7–5)

Doubles: 69 (44 titles, 25 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (8–6)
WTA Championships (1–0)
Tier I (9–9)
Tier II (5–6)
Tier III (10–2)
Tier IV & V (11–2)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	5 May 1996	Bol	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Alexia Dechaume-Balleret Alexandra Fusai	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–4
Win	2.	18 January 1998	Hobart	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Julie Halard-Decugis Janette Husárová	7–6(8–6), 6–3
Win	3.	22 February 1998	Bogotá	Clay	Janette Husárová	Melissa Mazzotta Ekaterina Sysoeva	3–6, 6–2, 6–3
Win	4.	26 April 1998	Budapest	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cătălina Cristea Laura Montalvo	4–6, 6–1, 6–1
Win	5.	3 May 1998	Bol	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Joannette Kruger Mirjana Lučić	w/o
Win	6.	10 May 1998	Rome	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Amanda Coetzer Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	7–6(7–1), 6–4
Win	7.	12 July 1998	Maria Lankowitz	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–1, 6–2
Loss	1.	21 February 1999	Bogotá	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Christína Papadáki Seda Noorlander	6–4, 7–6(7–5)
Win	8.	23 May 1999	Madrid	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	María Fernanda Landa Marlene Weingärtner	6–2, 0–6, 6–0
Win	9.	18 July 1999	Sopot	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Gala León García María Sánchez Lorenzo	6–4, 6–3
Win	10.	10 October 1999	São Paulo	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Janette Husárová Florencia Labat	6–7(1–7), 7–5, 7–5
Win	11.	20 February 2000	Bogotá	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Rita Kuti-Kis Petra Mandula	6–4, 6–2
Win	12.	27 February 2000	São Paulo	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Janette Husárová Florencia Labat	5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Win	13.	23 April 2000	Hilton Head	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Conchita Martínez Patricia Tarabini	7–5, 6–3
Loss	2.	11 June 2000	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Martina Hingis Mary Pierce	6–2, 6–4
Win	14.	16 July 2000	Klagenfurt	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Barbara Schett Patty Schnyder	7–6(7–5), 6–1
Win	15.	23 July 2000	Sopot	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Åsa Carlsson Rita Grande	7–5, 6–1
Loss	3.	21 August 2000	New Haven	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Julie Halard-Decugis Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 5–7, 6–2
Loss	4.	8 October 2000	Tokyo	Hard	Nana Miyagi	Julie Halard-Decugis Ai Sugiyama	6–0, 6–2
Loss	5.	19 February 2001	Bogotá	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Tathiana Garbin Janette Husárová	6–4, 2–6, 6–4
Loss	6.	4 March 2001	Acapulco	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Anabel Medina Garrigues María José Martínez Sánchez	6–4, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
Loss	7.	11 March 2001	Indian Wells	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Nicole Arendt Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 6–4
Loss	8.	22 April 2001	Charleston	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	5–7, 7–6(7–5), 6–3
Loss	9.	20 May 2001	Rome	Clay	Patricia Tarabini	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	6–1, 6–1
Win	16.	26 May 2001	Madrid	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	7–5, 2–6, 7–6(7–4)
Win	17.	10 June 2001	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jelena Dokić Conchita Martínez	6–2, 6–1
Win	18.	15 July 2001	Vienna	Clay	Patricia Tarabini	Vanessa Henke Lenka Němečková	6–4, 6–2
Win	19.	24 February 2002	Bogotá	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–2, 6–1
Win	20.	3 March 2002	Acapulco	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 6–1
Loss	10.	1 April 2002	Miami	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	7–6(7–4), 6–7(4–7), 6–3
Win	21.	19 May 2002	Rome	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Conchita Martínez Patricia Tarabini	6–3, 6–4
Win	22.	9 June 2002	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	6–4, 6–2
Loss	11.	24 June 2002	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–2, 7–5
Win	23.	18 August 2002	Montreal	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Rika Fujiwara Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
Win	24.	8 September 2002	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová	6–2, 6–1
Win	25.	14 September 2002	Bahia	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Émilie Loit Rossana de los Ríos	6–4, 6–1
Loss	12.	24 September 2002	Leipzig	Carpet	Janette Husárová	Alexandra Stevenson Serena Williams	6–3, 7–5
Loss	13.	13 October 2002	Filderstadt	Hard (i)	Meghann Shaughnessy	Lindsay Davenport Lisa Raymond	6–2, 6–4
Loss	14.	13 January 2003	Australian Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Serena Williams Venus Williams	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Win	26.	13 April 2003	Charleston	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Janette Husárová Conchita Martínez	6–0, 6–3
Loss	15.	20 April 2003	Amelia Island	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Lindsay Davenport Lisa Raymond	7–5, 6–2
Win	27.	11 May 2003	Berlin	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
Loss	16.	8 June 2003	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–7(5–7), 6–2, 9–7
Loss	17.	6 July 2003	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 6–4
Win	28.	23 August 2003	New Haven	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Alicia Molik Magüi Serna	7–6(8–6), 6–3
Win	29.	7 September 2003	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova	6–2, 6–3
Loss	18.	19 October 2003	Zürich	Hard (i)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	7–6(7–3), 6–2
Win	30.	10 November 2003	Los Angeles	Hard (i)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Loss	19.	5 January 2004	Auckland	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Mervana Jugić-Salkić Jelena Kostanić Tošić	7–6(8–6), 3–6, 6–1
Win	31.	1 February 2004	Australian Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–4, 6–3
Win	32.	21 March 2004	Indian Wells	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–1, 6–2
Win	33.	18 April 2004	Charleston	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Martina Navratilova Lisa Raymond	6–4, 6–1
Loss	20.	10 May 2004	Rome	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Nadia Petrova Meghann Shaughnessy	2–6, 6–3, 6–3
Win	34.	3 June 2004	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva	6–0, 6–3
Loss	21.	26 July 2004	San Diego	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
Win	35.	11 September 2004	US Open	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova	6–4, 7–5
Loss	22.	17 October 2004	Moscow	Carpet	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Anastasia Myskina Vera Zvonareva	6–3, 4–6, 6–2
Loss	23.	24 October 2004	Zürich	Hard (i)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	6–4, 6–4
Win	36.	31 October 2004	Luxembourg City	Hard (i)	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Jill Craybas Marlene Weingärtner	6–1, 6–7(1–7), 6–3
Win	37.	5 March 2005	Dubai	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Svetlana Kuznetsova Alicia Molik	6–7(7–9), 6–2, 6–1
Win	38.	19 March 2005	Indian Wells	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Nadia Petrova Meghann Shaughnessy	7–6(7–3), 6–1
Win	39.	4 June 2005	French Open	Clay	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Cara Black Liezel Huber	4–6, 6–3, 6–3
Loss	24.	17 January 2006	Sydney	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Corina Morariu Rennae Stubbs	6–3, 5–7, 6–2
Loss	25.	8 July 2006	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Zheng Jie Yan Zi	6–3, 3–6, 6–2
Win	40.	13 August 2006	Los Angeles	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Daniela Hantuchová Ai Sugiyama	6–3, 6–4
Win	41.	24 September 2006	Beijing	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Anna Chakvetadze Elena Vesnina	6–2, 6–4
Win	42.	1 October 2006	Seoul	Hard	Virginia Ruano Pascual	Chuang Chia-jung Mariana Díaz Oliva	6–2, 6–3
Win	43.	6 January 2007	Auckland	Hard	Janette Husárová	Hsieh Su-wei Shikha Uberoi	6–0, 6–2
Win	44.	25 February 2007	Bogotá	Clay	Lourdes Domínguez Lino	Flavia Pennetta Roberta Vinci	1–6, 6–3, [11–9]

ITF Circuit finals

Singles (12–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	14 October 1991	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	María Luciana Reynares	2–6, 7–6, 6–1
Winner	2.	4 November 1991	Florianópolis, Brazil	Clay	Cintia Tortorella	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	24 November 1991	Novo Hamburgo, Brazil	Clay	Svetlana Komleva	2–6, 5–7
Winner	3.	27 April 1992	Lerida, Spain	Clay	Sarah Pitkowski-Malcor	4–6, 6–4, 6–1
Winner	4.	4 May 1992	Balaguer, Spain	Clay	Svetlana Krivencheva	3–6, 6–3, 6–0
Winner	5.	17 May 1992	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Catherine Barclay	6–4, 6–1
Winner	6.	18 May 1992	Tortosa, Spain	Clay	Irina Sukhova	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
Winner	7.	21 November 1992	La Plata, Argentina	Clay	Vanessa Matthys	7–6, 6–3
Runner-up	2.	23 October 1995	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Mariana Díaz Oliva	6–2, 4–6, 3–6
Winner	8.	19 November 1995	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Miriam D'Agostini	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	3.	17 December 1995	Tacuman, Argentina	Clay	Florencia Labat	2–6, 1–6
Winner	9.	11 October 1998	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Conchita Martínez Granados	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
Winner	10.	25 October 1998	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Antonella Serra Zanetti	7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	8 November 1998	Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil	Clay	Janette Husárová	2–6, 6–2, 1–6
Winner	11.	22 November 1998	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Andreea Ehritt-Vanc	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
Winner	12.	19 September 1999	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Florencia Labat	6–0, 7–5

Doubles (7–6)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	27 October 1991	Asunción, Paraguay	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Karolina Bulat Katarzyna Malec	5–7, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	24 November 1991	Novo Hamburgo, Brazil	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Maria Marfina Svetlana Komleva	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	4 May 1992	Balaguer, Spain	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Svetlana Krivencheva Irina Sukhova	6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	11 May 1992	Barcelona, Spain	Hard	Pamela Zingman	Rosa Bielsa Gala León García	6–4, 6–2
Winner	2.	11 October 1993	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Pamela Zingman	Bárbara Castro María Dolores Campana	6–1, 3–6, 6–0
Winner	3.	23 October 1995	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Cintia Tortorella	Mariana Lopez Palacios Mariana Díaz Oliva	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	4.	13 November 1995	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Florencia Cianfagna	Katalin Marosi Miriam D'Agostini	7–6(4), 0–6, 3–6
Winner	4.	17 December 1995	Tucumán, Argentina	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Larissa Schaerer Veronica Stele	6–2, 7–6(4)
Winner	5.	11 February 1996	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Hard	Laura Montalvo	Marion Maruska Noëlle van Lottum	6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	5.	12 October 1997	Sedona, United States	Hard	Liezel Huber	Cătălina Cristea Corina Morariu	5–7, 2–6
Winner	6.	5 October 1998	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Miriam D'Agostini Katalin Marosi	6–1, 6–2
Winner	7.	19 October 1998	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Eva Bes María Fernanda Landa	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	6.	13 September 1999	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Laura Montalvo	Paula Racedo Aliénor Tricerri	w/o

Performance timelines

Record against top-10 players

Suárez's match record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been ranked No. 1 in boldface

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paola Suárez.

• Paola Suárez at the Women's Tennis Association
• Paola Suárez at the International Tennis Federation
• Paola Suárez at the Billie Jean King Cup
• Ole 2005, on her retirement
• Paola and Virginia
• Paola Suarez at the TheTennisTimes