Olga Morozova

Olga Vasilyevna Morozova (Russian: Ольга Васильевна Морозова) (born 22 February 1949) is a retired female tennis player who competed for the Soviet Union. She was the runner up in singles at the 1974 French Open and 1974 Wimbledon Championships.

Morozova won the Wimbledon junior's singles title in 1965 at the age of 16. Morozova was the first Soviet tennis player to reach the singles final of a major tournament when she was the runner-up at the 1972 Italian Open. Perhaps the peak of her career occurred in 1974 when she was the women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon and the French Open, losing to Chris Evert in both tournaments.She rose to 3 in the world going into the US Open that year.

Morozova became the first Soviet tennis player to win a Grand Slam title when she teamed with Evert to win the women's doubles championship at the French Open in 1974. Earlier, she and Alex Metreveli were the first players from the Soviet Union to reach a Grand Slam final when they teamed at Wimbledon in 1968, losing to Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher. They also reached the final at Wimbledon in 1970, losing to Rosemary Casals and Ilie Năstase.

Morozova also was the runner-up in three Grand Slam women's doubles tournaments. She teamed with Court at the 1975 Australian Open, losing to Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Peggy Michel. She played with Julie Anthony at the 1975 French Open, losing to Evert and Martina Navratilova, and with Virginia Wade at the 1976 U.S. Open, losing to Ilana Kloss and Delina Boshoff.

Morozova's playing career was cut short in 1977 because of the Soviet Union's policy against competing with South Africans. At this point, she retired from the professional tour. Morozova then began a highly successful coaching career.She became head coach of the Soviet Union ladies squad through the 1980s leading the Soviets to their first appearance in a Federation Cup Final (1988, losing to Czechoslovakia).Morozova as a player had taken her team to the Federation Cup semi-finals (at that point a first) in both 1978 and 1979. Morozova also helped pioneer the creation of the Kremlin Cup.In 1990, the LTA of the UK headhunted Morozova as a national coach based at the national performance centre in Bisham Abbey.Morozova was a fixture in UK tennis for much of the 90s, until in 2003 she began working individually with notable players - including Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Laura Robson.Morozova has been widely credited as one of the few successful female coaches on tour

In 1998 she was awarded the Sarah Palfrey Danzig Trophy for character, sportsmanship, manners, spirit of cooperation and contribution to the growth of the game as well as the help she rendered to professional players and junior players.

In 2000, the Russian Tennis Federation awarded Morozova the honour of "Russian Tennis Player of the Twentieth Century" .Due to her achievements as both player and coach, Morozova is often referred to as the Godmother of Russian tennis.

Singles: 2 (2 runners-up)

Women's doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

Singles (8)

Doubles (16)

Grand slam events in boldface.