Larisa Savčenko-Neilande

Latvian professional tennis player Larisa Savčenko-Neilande was primarily a doubles player during her career that spanned from 1983 to 2000. During that time Savčenko-Neilande won six Grand Slam titles, two in doubles and four in mixed doubles, reached the rank of world number one, and earned more than $4 million in prize money.

From 1985 to 1999 Savčenko-Neilande won 65 WTA doubles titles with her first one coming in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, with her partner Svetlana Parkhomenko. Savčenko-Neilande also had success pairing with Natasha Zverava, Jana Novotná, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, and Meredith McGrath. Savčenko-Neilande also won two WTA singles titles during her career in the early 1990s.

Savčenko-Neilande reached the doubles final at 12 Grand Slams between 1988 and 1996, winning two titles. Her first victory came at the 1989 French Open when she and Natasha Zverava beat the duo of Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini in straight sets. Savčenko-Neilande’s second doubles title also came with Zverava as her partner when they beat Gigi Fernández and Jana Novotná at Wimbledon in 1991. In the mixed doubles Savčenko-Neilande got to the final on nine occasions, winning four of them. Her four victories came at Wimbledon in 1992 with Cyril Suk, the 1994 Australian Open with Andrey Olkhovsky, and at the 1995 French Open and the 1996 Australian Open, partnered each time with Mark Woodforde.

Savčenko-Neilande competed in the singles and doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. At the Seoul Games she represented the Soviet Union, reaching the quarter-finals in both events. Four years later she represented Latvia at the Barcelona Olympics but did not advance past the first round in either the singles or doubles.