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 also 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 married name Parkhomenko) won the senior Soviet 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, 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 in San Antonio and Delray Beach, and at the
Wimbledon Championships advanced with Savchenko to the quarterfinals, after defeating third 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 semifinals at Wimbledon, after defeating the world's best pair, recent Grand Slam winners
Martina Navratilova and
Pam Shriver, breaking their 53-match winning streak. After completely missing the 1989 season, Parkhomenko returned to play at the end 1990. In 1991, she was awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sports. In 1992, she returned to the top 10 of the Russian tennis and remained there for two more years. In 1993, she played 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 career finals==