Paola Suárez (; 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. Suárez and Ruano Pascual would end their grand slam season by winning their 3rd consecutive 2004 US Open women's doubles title, becoming the only team in the Open Era (since 1968) to do so. If fact, individually, they are the only two women in the Open Era who have won 3 consecutive women's doubles titles at the US Open.
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.Suárez Back On Court, Plays First Match Back
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) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2000 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Martina Hingis Mary Pierce 2–6, 4–6Win 2001 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Jelena Dokić Conchita Martínez 6–2, 6–1Win 2002 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs 6–4, 6–2Loss 2002 Wimbledon Grass Virginia Ruano Pascual Serena Williams Venus Williams 2–6, 5–7Win 2002 US Open Hard Virginia Ruano Pascual Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová 6–2, 6–1Loss 2003 Australian Open Hard Virginia Ruano Pascual Serena Williams Venus Williams 6–4, 4–6, 3–6Loss 2003 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama 7–6(7–5), 2–6, 7–9Loss 2003 Wimbledon Grass Virginia Ruano Pascual Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama 4–6, 4–6Win 2003 US Open Hard Virginia Ruano Pascual Svetlana Kuznetsova Martina Navratilova 6–2, 6–3Win 2004 Australian Open Hard Virginia Ruano Pascual Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva 6–4, 6–3Win 2004 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva 6–0, 6–3Win 2004 US Open Hard Virginia Ruano Pascual Svetlana Kuznetsova Elena Likhovtseva 6–4, 7–5Win 2005 French Open Clay Virginia Ruano Pascual Cara Black Liezel Huber 4–6, 6–3, 6–3Loss 2006 Wimbledon Grass Virginia Ruano Pascual Yan Zi Zheng Jie 3–6, 6–3, 2–6
Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2001 French Open Clay Jaime Oncins Tomás Carbonell Virginia Ruano Pascual 5–7, 3–6Loss 2002 Australian Open Hard Gastón Etlis Daniela Hantuchová Kevin Ullyett 3–6, 2–6
Olympic Games Doubles: 1 (bronze medal) ResultYearLocationSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreBronze 2004Athens Hard Patricia Tarabini Shinobu Asagoe Ai Sugiyama 6–3, 6–3
WTA Tour finals Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups) Legend Tier I Tier II Tier III (2/2) Tier IV & V (2/2) ResultW–LDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Feb 1998 Bogotá, Colombia Clay Sonya Jeyaseelan 6–3, 6–4Loss 1–1 May 1999 Madrid, Spain Clay Lindsay Davenport 6–1, 6–3Loss 1–2 Feb 2000 São Paulo, Brazil Clay Rita Kuti-Kis 4–6, 6–4, 7–5Loss 1–3 Jan 2001 Auckland, New Zealand Hard Meilen Tu 7–6(12–10), 6–2Win 2–3 Feb 2001 Bogotá, Colombia Clay Rita Kuti-Kis 6–2, 6–4Loss 2–4 Mar 2002 Acapulco, Mexico Clay Katarina Srebotnik 6–7(1–7), 6–4, 6–2Win 3–4 Jun 2003 Vienna, Austria Clay Karolina Šprem 7–6(7–0), 2–6, 6–4Win 4–4 Jan 2004 Canberra, Australia 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)