As a junior, Zvereva won the
Wimbledon girls' singles title in 1986, defeating
Leila Meskhi in the final 2–6, 6–2, 9–7. In 1987, Zvereva won the
Wimbledon girls' singles title again, as well as the
US Open and
French Open girls' singles titles, making her one of only 2 players to win 4 or more junior titles and one of only 2 players to win 3 or more junior singles titles in a calendar year. After turning pro, Zvereva won four
WTA Tour singles titles and 80 WTA Tour doubles titles, 18 of them in
Grand Slam tournaments: five at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, five at the French Open, and four at the Australian Open. She won those Grand Slam doubles titles with four different partners:
Gigi Fernández,
Martina Hingis,
Pam Shriver, and
Larisa Savchenko Neiland. She achieved
non-calendar year Grand Slams twice: in 1992–93 with Fernández and in 1996–97 with Fernández (three tournaments) and Hingis (Australia). In addition to her Grand Slam doubles titles, Zvereva teamed with Meskhi to win a bronze medal at the
1992 Olympics in Barcelona. At the age of 17, she made her sole Grand Slam singles final at the
1988 French Open, beating
Martina Navratilova en route. In a highly publicized final, she lost to
Steffi Graf 6-0, 6-0 in only 34 minutes. The official time of the match given on the scoresheet was 34 minutes, but just 32 minutes of that was spent on the court, as a rain break split the match into two periods of play, of nine and 23 minutes. (Graf went on to win all four Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal that year.) This was the shortest Grand Slam final in the Open Era. It was also the most one-sided until equalled by the
2025 women's final at Wimbledon, which was had the same score but lasted 57 minutes. Zvereva is one of the few players to have beaten both Graf and
Monica Seles, both former world number ones, in the same Grand Slam singles tournament. Ten years later at Wimbledon in 1998, Zvereva defeated the fourth-seeded Graf in the third round 6–4, 7–5 and the sixth-seeded Seles in a quarterfinal 7–6, 6–2. This was also notable because it was Zvereva's sole win over Graf in 21 career singles matches. She lost in the semifinals to
Nathalie Tauziat which was to be her second best career Grand Slam singles result. Starting with the French Open in 1987 and extending through Wimbledon in 2000, Zvereva played in 51 of the 54 Grand Slam singles tournaments held, reaching the quarterfinals or better eight times. In addition to her Grand Slam women's doubles titles, Zvereva twice won the mixed-doubles title at the Australian Open. She partnered with
Jim Pugh to win the title in 1990 and with
Rick Leach in 1995. Zvereva retired from professional tennis in 2003. Her last appearance in a Grand Slam tournament was in Wimbledon 2002, where she lost in the first round to
Marlene Weingärtner 6–4, 3–6, 2–6. ==Playing style==