Larisa Neiland

Savchenko turned professional in 1983 as No. 10 on the ITF Junior rankings in that year. Doubles team of Savchenko and Svetlana Parkhomenko reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 1983 and 1984, both times as an unseeded pair; beat No. 2 seeds Fairbank/Reynolds in 1983 and No. 3 seeds Horvath/Ruzici in 1984. In 1984, Savchenko reached the third round of the French Open as a qualifier, which was her best singles result at the French Open. She won her first singles title in Chicago in January 1984, where she only lost one set.

Having 1986 wins over Wendy Turnbull (twice), Ann Henricksson, and Annabel Croft, Savchenko was ranked No. 1 in USSR for 1986. She qualified for the Virginia Slims Championships in March and November 1986 with partner Svetlana Parkhomenko. She defeated Kathy Rinaldi, Peanut Louie Harper, and Nathalie Tauziat to reach the quarterfinals of Eastbourne in 1986.

Savchenko jumped from No. 53 to No. 28 (June 1983) on the Hewlett-Packard/WITA Computer rankings after performances at Birmingham and Eastbourne. She also had wins over Robin White, Ann Henricksson, Candy Reynolds, and Melissa Gurney.^[1]

In 1988, Savchenko reached her first Grand Slam doubles final with Natasha Zvereva. They lost 10–12 in the final set to Gabriela Sabatini and Steffi Graf, who in that same year won all four Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal. In 1989, again with Zvereva, Savchenko won her first doubles major final, over Graf and Sabatini in straight sets.

In December 1989, Larisa married Aleksandr Neiland and took his last name, she continued to compete as Larisa Savchenko-Neiland.^[2]

In 1991, she captured the Wimbledon title with Zvereva. She won her first mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, as well, when she and Cyril Suk teamed and won over Dutch duo Jacco Eltingh and Miriam Oremans. That year, she reached the No. 1 doubles ranking. Neiland then reached her next five doubles runners-up with Novotná. Each and every final played with Novotná was lost, the first being the US Open in 1991 and losing to Pam Shriver and Zvereva.

She also represented Latvia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in both singles and doubles, but lost in the first round in both events.

Her final Grand Slam doubles final appearance came in 1996 at Wimbledon. Neiland played in 2000 but retired after losing at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round, when she and her partner Lina Krasnoroutskaya lost to Ai Sugiyama and Julie Halard, the eventual runners-up, in straight sets.

Neiland tested positive for prohibited levels of the stimulant caffeine at the 1999 Australian Open. She was subsequently stripped of the $15k she had earned for reaching the women's doubles quarterfinals with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and issued a warning by the International Tennis Federation.^[3]

As a coach, she is best known for guiding Svetlana Kuznetsova to the 2009 French Open singles title, and has been a part of the Russian Fed Cup coaching team.

^{[citation needed]}

• Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 0–4
• Serena Williams 0–1
• Venus Williams 0–3
• Lindsay Davenport 1–1
• Steffi Graf 0–6
• Monica Seles 0–2
• Martina Navratilova 1–9

She married Latvian tennis coach Aleksandr Neiland on 21 December 1989, after which her surname was changed from Savchenko to Neiland (Savčenko-Neiland). The marriage later ended in divorce.

• Larisa Neiland at the Women's Tennis Association
• Larisa Savchenko at the International Tennis Federation
• Larisa Savchenko at the Billie Jean King Cup
• Larisa Savchenko-Neiland at Olympics.com
• Larisa Savčenko-Neilande at Olympedia
• Larisa Neilande (Savčenko) at the Latvijas Olimpiskā komiteja (in Latvian) (English translation, archive)