Paola Suárez (born 23 June 1976) is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina. She was one of the most prominent women's doubles players throughout the early and mid-2000s, winning eight Grand Slam titles, all of them with Virginia Ruano Pascual, and holding the No. 1 doubles ranking for 87 non-consecutive weeks. She was also a singles semifinalist at the 2004 French Open. Suárez began playing professional tennis at the age of fifteen, in 1991. In 1994, she joined the professional tour as a singles player. It was not until the 2000s, however, that she became an international figure in her sport, by reaching the semi-finals of the French Open.Suárez won four WTA titles (2004 Canberra, 2003 Vienna, 1998 & 2001 Bogotá) and 12 other minor tournaments. In 2004, Suárez hoped to obtain the French Open title that would become her first grand slam championship, but lost in the semi-finals against Elena Dementieva after defeating 18th seed and future Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals. That year, she was ranked number nine in the world among women tennis players by the WTA, which has been her highest ranking as a singles player thus far. By accomplishing that feat, Suárez became the highest-ranked Argentine women's player since Gabriela Sabatini achieved the number three ranking in 1989. Also in 2004, she won the bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens for women's doubles with Patricia Tarabini.
But it was in doubles where she had the best results, playing with Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in 32 of her 39 titles. They won several tournaments, including the French Open on four occasions, the US Open three times, the Australian Open in 2004, and many others. With Virginia, they were the No. 1 female couple for 3 consecutive years since 9 September 2002 (WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year 2002, 2003 and 2004). They also reached nine straight Grand Slam finals, two short of Navratilova–Shriver's 11 straight Slam finals. In 2005 she announced her retirement for 2006 for personal reasons, and that until then she will only play a few tournaments. In June 2005 she went on labrum hip clinical intervention, with a recovering time of 3 to 4 months.
She restarted playing in Sydney in January 2006 with Ruano Pascual, reaching the final, but suffered calf muscle injury short after. Later that same year, she also reached the final of Wimbledon with Ruano Pascual, marking her third appearance in a Wimbledon final. Suárez returned to the circuit with a victory over Dinara Safina, ranked 15, in the San Diego's singles tournament. On 1 September 2007, Suárez played her last professional tennis match. At the US Open, she retired from tennis after losing a mixed doubles second round match. She partnered Kevin Ullyett and lost to Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber, 7–5, 6–4. In her career, Suárez has earned $4,837,968 US$, with four single WTA titles, and 8 doubles grand slams. Suárez returned to the WTA doubles circuit in 2012 partnering with fellow Argentinian Gisela Dulko. The pair played at the London Summer Olympics Games. During 2013 Suárez did not play any international tournaments at all. Suárez retired from professional tennis in 2014.
Paola Suárez (n. el 23 de junio de 1976 en Pergamino, provincia de Buenos Aires) es una tenista profesional argentina. Se había retirado del tenis en 2007, pero en 2012 volvió al circuito profesional como pareja de Gisela Dulko en competiciones de dobles, con mira al torneo olímpico. Como jugadora de individuales, salto a la fama después de haber eliminado a Steffi Graf en la primera de vuelta de roland garros y wimbledon en el año 1997. llegó a ser la tercer tenista del país, alcanzando en 2004 su mejor posición en la clasificación de la WTA (9º puesto), tras jugar la semifinal del Torneo de Roland Garros, que perdió frente a la rusa Elena Dementieva. Como jugadora de dobles es la mejor jugadora argentina de todos los tiempos, alcanzando en 2002, junto a su compañera, la española Virginia Ruano, en el primer puesto de la clasificación. También en dobles mixto junto a Camilo Herrera Teuta, colombiano, luego retirado por sospechas que lo vinculaban con el narcotráfico de dicho país. Paola ha jugado para su país la Fed Cup, habiendo debutado en 1996 cuando Francia derrotó a Argentina por 3-2 en Amiens. También jugó representando a su país los Juegos Olímpicos de Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 y Atenas 2004 habiendo conseguido una medalla de bronce junto a Patricia Tarabini en su última participación, venciendo a Shinobu Asagoe y Ai Sugiyama de Japón por 6-3 6-3 en el partido por la medalla. Paola anunció su retirada para el final de la temporada 2007, asegurando que "se cumplió un ciclo". Y la lesión en la cadera ayudó aún más para pensar esta decisión, diciendo además que "me cuesta cada vez más estar fuera de Argentina".
En 2010 recibió el Premio Konex Diploma al Mérito como una de los 5 mejores tenistas de la década en Argentina. Durante toda su carrera fue dirigida técnicamente por el mismo entrenador, Daniel Pereyra. El 3 de febrero de 2012, Paola anunció su vuelta a la actividad, gracias a la insistencia de su compatriota Gisela Dulko planeando formar una fuerte pareja de dobles para darle chances a su país en la especialidad de cara a los Juegos Olimpicos de Londres 2012.1 Pese a esto, cayeron derrotadas en la primera ronda de la competición ante la pareja china Na Li y Shuai Zhang por 6-4 y 6-2.
