Lori McNeil was an elegant serve-and-volley player with a great feel for the ball. In her 19-year career she achieved her best world rankings in 1988 with 9th place in singles and 1987 with 4th place in doubles. She won a Grand Slam mixed title at the French Open in 1988 (with Jorge Lozano ). She won a total of ten singles and 32 doubles titles (with Martina Navratilova , Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario , Helena Sukova , Gigi Fernandez, among others ).
Lori McNeil celebrated her greatest success in 1994 at Wimbledon, when she defeated world number one Steffi Graf with 7: 5, 7: 6 in the first round and only in the semifinals with 6: 3, 2: 6, 8:10 just about the later one Tournament winner Conchita Martínez failed. She lost her first Grand Slam semi-final in 1987 at the US Open against Graf 6: 4, 2: 6, 4: 6. Against Graf, she also won the 1992 Tennis Masters . She retaliated with Conchita Martínez, second in the world, in 1995 in Philadelphia, before losing to Steffi Graf in three sets in the final.
McNeil played in doubles on the tour until 2002. At the side of Amanda Coetzer , she won her last title in 2001 at the age of 37 in Oklahoma .