Natalja Jurjewna Tschmyrjowa ( Russian Наталья Юрьевна Чмырёва , English Natasha Chmyreva ; born May 28, 1958 in Moscow ; † August 16, 2015 there ) was a Soviet tennis player . She was considered the prodigy of her sport in the 1970s and made her debut in senior women's competition at the 1973 French Open at the age of just 14 . Later she won, among other things, three Grand Slam junior tournaments , a gold medal at the Summer Universiade , a Soviet championship title and played through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open. As a result of headwinds in sports politics and the setbacks caused by it - with her strongly emphasized individuality she faced the ideas of the Soviet federation - she ended her career as a professional early and without any major successes.
Tschmyrjowa was born as the daughter of the athletics coach Yuri Tschmyrjow and his wife Svetlana Sevastianowa, who was the manager and trainer of the tennis division of the Dynamo sports club . 1975 enrolled them in studying journalism at the Lomonosov Moscow State University , which could conclude the 1,985th In 2005 she was still living with her parents in a Moscow apartment .
Sports career
Tschmyrjowa learned to play tennis at the age of seven. Her parents, who are well versed in sports education, recognized her great talent at an early age and encouraged her. Soon the girl was considered a Russian child prodigy and a new hope for the next generation. In fact, it was initially able to meet these expectations. She performed particularly well on hard courts . Tschmyrjowas game was very aggressive and risky and aimed specifically at network attacks. She was able to develop her greatest strength, the serve and volley game , to perfection. In addition, she had an extraordinary feel for the ball and was very athletic. Semjon Beltis-Geiman , the famous theoretician of Soviet tennis and university lecturer, supported them. He saw in her the personification of the ideal tennis player. At the age of 14, Tschmyrjowa made his debut on the Virginia Slims Circuit in 1973 , the forerunner of the WTA Tour as the world's highest women's tennis tournament series. While she was eliminated in the first round in mixed and singles at the French Open , she was not admitted to the first round of the individual competition at the Wimbledon Championships, which took place less than a month later, despite successful qualification, because the organizers considered her too young. After she did not appear in a Grand Slam tournament in 1974 , her star finally began to rise in 1975: In her first and at the same time only participation in singles at the Australian Open , she first had to admit defeat to Martina Navrátilová in the semi-finals . She also won the junior tournaments at Wimbledon and the US Open that year . She was even able to repeat the Wimbledon triumph in 1976, in the senior competition she played her way to the second round and at the US Open to the quarter-finals. She also reached the quarter-finals in doubles at the US Open in 1976. In April of the same year she had already participated in the Virginia Slims Championships (synonymous with today's WTA Tour Championships ) of the 16 top-placed tennis players of the season in Los Angeles . Unlike many other young players, Tschmyrjowa did not adopt the style of the famous Chris Evert . Instead, she beat the baseline specialist twice during the 1977 World TeamTennis season. However, it was to be her last active stay in the United States: In the run-up to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet players were forbidden from participating in tournaments by the national association South African players also took part. Otherwise one feared a boycott of the black African nations due to the apartheid conflict. Tschmyrjowa last tournament in this series was the one in Washington, DC In the first round of doubles, she and her partner Olga Morosowa were drawn against South African opponents. As an excuse for not showing up, they invented stomach pains that allegedly plagued Chmyrjowa. In the individual, she should have played against a South African in the second round. She did not play for this game either and had to explain herself nervously and lie at the subsequent press conference. At that time, the 18-year-old was in 13th place in the world rankings . A year later she won the Soviet individual championship. In recognition of her playful achievements, she was also appointed to the Soviet Federation Cup team . With this she reached the semi-finals of the 1978 and 1979 events .
Chmyrjowa was already known in her youth for her idiosyncratic behavior and nonconformity. Due to her upbringing and the knowledge of her talent, she appeared extremely self-confident and never held back with her own expressions of opinion. This individual freedom was also reflected in her outfits: she often wore strikingly brightly contrasting color combinations, was the first Russian tennis player to play on the professional tour without a bra and, following the example of American players, wore a hairband - based on the headdress of Indian women . With these taboos, some of which were taken into account, she sometimes shocked the conservative Moscow sports society. Her behavior did not fit into the political sports system of the Soviet Union - in contrast, for example, to the adapted Olga Morosowa. In 1979 she still had the opportunity to travel to the Summer Universiade in Mexico City . There she secured the gold medal in the singles against her compatriot Yevgenia Biryukova and won bronze at her side in the women's doubles. Because of alleged violations of team-internal rules there - she had evaded the strict supervision of the Soviet officials and did not want to compromise on where she had been and at what time - she was subsequently suspended from play for a year and also from the Soviet Federation Cup team excluded. From a sporting point of view, this measure was all the more unfortunate for Chmyrjowa, as it was in excellent shape and in 1980 won all domestic winter tournaments. Her suspension ended shortly after the Olympic Games, but at that time Olga Morosova took over as head coach of the Russian women's tennis team and sorted out Natalja as one of her first measures. She should only be the training partner of other young players. Since at that time there was no other option for Soviet players to take part in professional tournaments abroad than to be a member of the national team, Chmyrjowa lost all sporting prospects. She ended her career at the age of 25.
.svg){kind=small}
Soviet Union
Wimbledon Championships
Regina Maršíková
US Open
.svg){kind=small}
Greer Stevens