Svetlana Parkhomenko Biography

Svetlana Germanovna Parkhomenko (, ne Cherneva, ; born October 8, 1962) is a retired Soviet and Russian tennis player and tennis coach. She was a winner of the Soviet singles tennis championships in 1985 and 9 times Soviet champion in women's doubles and mixed doubles. On the international level, she was the winner of the 1983 European amateur championships in women's and mixed doubles, bronze medalist of the 1983 Universiade in women's and mixed doubles, and winner of 8 WTA doubles tournaments. Parkhomenko is the recipient of 1988 WTA Sportsmanship Award.

Biography

Svetlana Cherneva started playing tennis when she was 8 years old. Her first coach was the famous pre-war Soviet champion and coach Nina Teplyakova. In 1978 Svetlana won the singles and doubles title at European Junior Championships (she also won doubles titles in the next two years). In 1978 she won the Soviet youth championships in singles, girls' and mixed doubles, and in 1980 in singles and girls' doubles. In 1980 she advanced with the Soviet girls team to the finals of Princess Sofia Cup.

Starting in 1981 Svetlana (from 1984 playing under her marriage name Parkhomenko) won the senior Sovier doubles championships eight times (twice in 1987). In addition, she became the singles champion in 1985 and mixed doubles champion in 1983. From 1981 she also played for the Soviet Union Federation Cup team. In total between 1981 and 1988 she played 28 rubbers for the Soviet team, mostly in doubles with Larisa Savchenko.

In 1983 Svetlana Cherneva won the European amateur championships in women's and mixed doubles and took bronze in the same disciplines at the 1983 Summer Universiade. From the same year she started playing in international professional tennis tournaments. In 1984 she won her first ITF titles is San Antonio and Delray Beach, and at the Wimbledon Championships advanced with Savchenko to quarterfinals after defeating 3rd seed Kathy Horvath and Virginia Ruzici, as well as Chris Evert and Catherine Tanvier. In the next three years Parkhomenko and Savchenko won seven Virginia Slims tournaments including four in 1987. They played three times in a row at the Virginia Slims Championships and in March 1986 advanced there to semifinals. In 1987 they reached Wimbledon semifinals after defeating world's best pair, recent Grand Slam winners Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.

At the start of 1988 season Svetlana Parkhomenko was ranked as high as 8th in the WTA doubles rankings. But in 1988 Larisa Savchenko broke with her to play doubles with young Natasha Zvereva. Without Savchenko, Parhomenko struggled to retain her best shape playing with other partners. She won one WTA tournament with Natalia Bykova and twice reached finals with Leila Meskhi, and at the end of the season she received WTA Sportsmanship Award.

After having completely missed 1989 season, Parkhomenko returned to play at the end 1990. In 1991 she was awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sports, becoming one of the last Soviet tennis players who received this title. In 1992 she returned to the Top 10 of the Russian tennis and remained there for two more years. In 1993 sheplayed three ties for the Russia Fed Cup team, winning her doubles games against Ukrainians and Lithuanians. After finishing her playing career in 1995 she coaches at the Moscow CSKA tennis club.

Virginia Slims and WTA Finals

Doubles (14)

Winner (8)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Tour Championship (0)
Tier IV-V (1)
VS circuit (7)

No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in final	Score
1.	1 April 1985	Seabrook Island, South Carolina, USA	Clay	Larisa Savchenko	Elise Burgin Lori McNeil	6-1, 6-3
2.	9 September 1985	Salt Lake City, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Beverly Mould Rosalyn Fairbank	7-5, 6-2
3.	3 November 1986	Little Rock, Arkansas, USA	Carpet (i)	Larisa Savchenko	Iva Buda?ov Beth Herr	6-2, 1-6, 6-1
4.	21 January 1987	Wichita, Kansas, USA	Carpet (i)	Larisa Savchenko	Barbara Potter Wendy White	6-2, 6-4
5.	9 February 1987	Oklahoma City, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Lori McNeil Kim Sands	6-4, 6-4
6.	16 February 1987	Boca Raton, Florida, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Chris Evert Pam Shriver	6-0, 3-6, 6-2
7.	15 June 1987	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Larisa Savchenko	Rosalyn Fairbank Elizabeth Smylie	7-6(7-5), 4-6, 7-5
8.	29 February 1988	Wichita, USA (2)	Hard (i)	Natalia Bykova	Jana Novotn Catherine Suire	6-3, 6-4

Runner-up (6)

No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in final	Score
1.	21 January 1985	Key Biscayne, Florida, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Kathy Jordan Elizabeth Smylie	4-6, 6-7
2.	8 April 1985	Hilton Head Island, USA	Clay	Larisa Savchenko	Rosalyn Fairbank Pam Shriver	4-6, 1-6
3.	22 September 1986	Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Camille Benjamin Dinky Van Rensburg	6-7, 5-7
4.	29 September 1986	New Orleans, USA	Hard	Larisa Savchenko	Candy Reynolds Anne Smith	3-6, 6-3, 3-6
5.	18 April 1988	Singapore	Hard	Leila Meskhi	Natalia Bykova Natalia Medvedeva	6-7, 3-6
6.	6 June 1988	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Leila Meskhi	Larisa Savchenko Natasha Zvereva	4-6, 1-6