Nadia Natacha Podoroska (Spanish pronunciation:[ˌnaðjapoðoˈɾoska]; born 10 February 1997)[1][2] is an Argentine professional tennis player. On 12 July 2021, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 36, and on 18 October 2021, she peaked at No. 62 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Podoroska has won one doubles title on the WTA Tour and three singles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour along with 14 singles titles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
Podoroska was born on 10 February 1997, in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, and grew up in a middle-class family in Fisherton, a neighborhood founded in the late 1880s by railroad workers. She is one of three children born to father Marcelo and mother Irene; she is of Ukrainian descent as her grandparents were Ukrainian, but she does not speak the language at all.[4] Her father was a watchmaker by profession who over the years became a pharmacist, and her mother is also a pharmacist. Nadia was the first in her family to play tennis, a sport that she began practicing at the Fisherton Athletic Club at age five. As a child, she followed the performances of the Argentine male tennis players, especially Guillermo Cañas, although not so much of the national female representatives because they were broadcast infrequently on television. Among the female tennis players, she admired the Williams sisters.[5]
Her first years on the circuit were complicated due to financial difficulties competing internationally. In late 2017, she suffered several injuries that jeopardized her career. Upon her return, she decided to live in Alicante, Spain to settle in Europe and have greater chances of competing weekly. In addition, she began to be trained by Juan Pablo Guzmán and Emiliano Redondi. She added Pedro Merani to her team, with whom she performs mental training based on bompu zen and neuroscience, an aspect that she considered important to change her attitude towards tennis and its matches.
Professional career
2020: French Open singles semifinal, top 50 & Newcomer of the Year
In October, Podoroska became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of the French Open when she beat third seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros.[6] Podoroska was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year for her rankings achievement and her solid performance throughout the season.[7]
2021–22: Major doubles semifinal, top 40 & Olympics debuts, hiatus
She continued her good form when she reached the quarterfinals of the Yarra Valley Classic by defeating fourth-seeded Petra Kvitová.
In May, at the Italian Open, she defeated 23 times Grand Slam champion and eighth-seeded Serena Williams in the second round. This was her third top-ten win in the last eight months.[8] Williams was playing her 1000th match of her career.[9]
At the French Open, Podoroska lost in the first round to tenth seed Belinda Bencic but reached the semifinals in doubles, partnering with Irina-Camelia Begu for the first time. As a result, she reached the top 40 in singles and No. 69 in doubles for the first time in her career on 14 June 2021.
At the end of the year, following the US Open, Podoroska announced she was withdrawing from the 2022 Australian Open due to struggles with pain that hit her through the whole season, opting to rest and recover until March 2022.[10]
She returned to competition in June 2022 after ten months of inactivity to participate in the Wimbledon qualifying, and reached the second round.[11]
In August, she entered the US Open using protected ranking.
2023-2024: Back to top 100, Two WTA 1000 third rounds
She reached the second round in three of the four Grand Slams except for the 2023 US Open where she lost to Zheng Qinwen in the first round.
In September 2023, she reached her first WTA Tour semifinal since July in Budapest, in the first edition of the Ningbo Open.[12]
She qualified to represent Argentina at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won against Yulia Putintseva, who played for Kazakhstan, by retirement[15] to reach the second round, and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach the third round. Podoroska became the first Argentine woman to reach the round of 16 in Olympic tennis in the 21st century in singles. Only two Argentine female players reached it 25 years ago, Gabriella Sabatini and Inés Gorrochategui in 1996 at Atlanta.
In 2022, Podoroska came out as a lesbian, posting her pictures on Instagram with her girlfriend, fellow Argentine tennis player, Guillermina Naya. She confirmed their relationship in an interview with ClayTenis.com.[16][17]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
^ abEdition is split into the two years due to COVID-19.
^ abcThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status, while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.
^ abDuring the season, she did not play in the main draw of any tour-level tournaments. However, she played at the Billie Jean King Cup, which is not counted as a played tournament but matches counted.
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