In her professional career she won four singles and 80 doubles titles, including 18 in Grand Slam tournaments . This makes her one of the most successful doubles players ever. There are also two mixed titles that she both won at the Australian Open.
In singles, she reached the final of the French Open in 1988 at the age of 17 , which she lost to Steffi Graf with 0: 6 and 0: 6. It was the fastest defeat of all time in a Grand Slam tournament final (see tennis records ).
Swerawa took part in the Olympic Games several times. In 1988 she competed in Seoul for the Soviet Union and reached the quarter-finals in singles, and in doubles she did this together with Larisa Savchenko (later Neiland). In 1992 she reached the second round in singles for the CIS , and in doubles she won the bronze medal with Leila Mes'chi . In 1996 she played for Belarus and was eliminated in the round of 16. She played her last professional match in singles in 2002 at Wimbledon, where she was eliminated in round two. She played the last official game in women's doubles in October of the same year.
On March 1, 2010 Swerawa was nominated for induction into the Tennis Hall of Fame .